Jen Du | Creating Powerful Imagery Through Lines and Shapes

About Jen Du

Jen Du is an illustrator, graphic designer, and multi-disciplinary artist. She is a signed artist for the Oscar Awards official “The Academy.”

Her modern geometric abstract illustration artwork performs advertising campaigns, packaging, art prints, posters, music and book covers, clothing, and products for clients worldwide.

Before becoming an artist

Jen Du worked in the architecture design industry for over a decade, a discipline that profoundly still impacts her aesthetics.

While working, she also studied fashion design at BIFT (Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology) for a year and got basic training in sketching and drawing, color series, etc. She also applied to Parsons, the New School for Design for Fashion Studies, and although she successfully enrolled, she did not go to New York due to several unfinished projects in Beijing.

Becoming an artist

Jen Du started to paint in 2017 as a self-taught. She started testing all kinds of materials, like watercolor, ink, acrylic, oil, etc., while watching many Youtube videos and painting a lot. Meanwhile, Jen Du also discovered art history through documentaries and books, frequently visiting museums and galleries. By doing this, she got to know all the painters, their paintings, and the stories behind them.

Finding her art style

She believes finding your voice might be the most challenging part for all artists. It needs a lot of time to curate through hard work. 

She has always been obsessed with architectural forms and spaces. Especially the way architects always use simple lines and shapes to create unlimited attractive spaces. Thus, the concept of “Using limitation to create infinite things” became her starting point in finding her style.

After years of exploring her art style, she now finds geometric shapes the best way to express herself. It is the simplest but most complex form; everything relates to it, from a portion of the human body to the universe’s composition. Every line or shape has its voice and meaning, especially when they come together; there’s always a golden position and ratio for each. They could say a thousand words, like notes in music.

Working in Progress

Since 2020, Jen Du has worked manually and digitally, creating actual paintings and using an iPad or computer to do digital designs or drawings. But sketching shapes and lines is the first step.

Fashion studies might affect how she conceives colors, while movies and interior designs inspire her to create mysterious atmospheres or imaginable places, figures, or objects.

Inspiration

“I’m sensitive to shapes, like wood texture, concrete texture, and ceramic tile patterns. I could always capture something into an image or figure while other people ignore it.”

The best source of inspiration, though, comes from keeping working and practicing a lot. It might be the best advice I’ve heard from many successful people; You’ll get something valuable through practicing on purpose day by day.

If you are interested in shop Jen Du’s prints by collection, go here > 

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