Explore Practitioners 2: Digital Illustrator – Jo-Ann Ng Yixian

I visited a friend, Caroline, who is a freelance digital illustrator – she mainly earns income from working with companies on projects like collateral designs but she also produces prints and merchandise to sell online. She graduated from NAFA 5 years ago and has been doing this ever since.

Sketch of the necessary tools Caroline says she needs to do her job.
(yes snacks are very important)

Tools:
As illustrated in the sketch above:
Seagate 4TB Harddisk, to store all her digital files (She has 5 of these)
Sippycup Waterbottle, to keep hydrated but to prevent any spillage accidents
Pantone Color Booklet, to color check with clients, printers, etc.
– Wrist guard, because of her drawing injuries, tendinitis, so it helps her to work for longer hours without excessively straining it but it is still important for her to take breaks!
WACOM Intuos 4 Tablet + Pen, about 6 years old and still working good

Interestingly, she pastes a piece of thick tracing paper on top of the drawing field of the tablet to protect the surface and prevent it from being too scratched up – which will reduce the sensitivity in the long run.
Many new models of tablets have been released since the Intuos 4 but Caroline has never really bothered to ‘upgrade’ because she feels like she is very comfortable with this and it does the job. 

Worksite: 
She mainly works in the comfort of her own room (which she was not very comfortable with me taking pictures of since it was messy and a private space for her).

Portability: 
On occasion she brings out her iPad (and Apple pencil) for meetings with companies to do quick sketches on the spot, but she works with this Intuos 4 at-home set up 95% of the time and is most comfortable with.
It would be possible to migrate to spaces like cafes or coworking spaces of course, but electricity plugs will be needed due to long working hours and it is important for her to be comfortable in the work environment if not she gets art blocked.

Ng Yixian Jo-Ann (A0142014B) – Practitioner 2/3

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