Meet Mi Do

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mi Do. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mi below.

Mi, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

At first, I was not confident about my art, and I was never satisfied with it. I felt different from other artists around me. I am not good at rendering art, the skills that most artists are practicing on. I do not like to render my art because I rather keeping the shadow and highlight sharp and clean.
School did not give me any confidence in my art, but instead, I gained my confidence and self-esteem at work. I was lucky enough to work at an art school, where amazing artists surrounded me. They give me honest feedback about my art, and on top of that, they help me a lot with how to improve my art. Being in the environment where I need to do art almost every day, it helps me a lot with line control, light and shadow, and of course, color theory. From my experience, I would say observing and learning how to break down complicated objects/subjects into simple shapes like circles, ovals, rectangles, triangles, etc, will help the artist improve their drawing skills. I mean a big improvement.
Instead of fully rendering my art, I focus on using bright and saturated colors to make my art look more appealing. I learned how to love my style, and that being different from other artists does not mean that I’m not good at art. I love how I do my art, and slowly, I become confident and able to tell everyone that “Hey, this is my art and I love my art.”

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I focus on designing characters based on different themes. I usually come up with a theme like zodiac, class character in-game, and generally a character based on mythical stories.
Besides designing characters, I also love making sunflower art. I go crazy for sunflowers, and I love everything about them. I try to use every medium to make sunflower art, ranging from color pencils to acrylic painting. Of course, I also make other small art to explore new techniques, but I tend to focus on making art based on the sunflower theme.
I haven’t opened any business yet, but hopefully one day, I can open a t-shirt design business. I love making simple yet cute designs on a t-shirt. I made multiple myself and wear them often. People around me find the design to be very cool and appealing, so I hope that one day, I will get more people wearing my designs. That is my biggest happiness.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

First, it is important to learn about color theory. Color plays an important role in your art. Color can change the mood of your art easily. You can manipulate the feeling that your art brings just by using color. Colors also tell the viewers if you like to go bold with your art, or if you like your art to look peaceful and calm. As someone who focuses a lot on lineart, learn how to control your lineart, how thick and thin an area needs to be. By mastering the lineart skill, your art would look a hundred percent cleaner and more professional. Lastly, human anatomy and gesture. I am focusing on character design, so having a good understanding of human anatomy is very important. Without a good knowledge of human anatomy, my art will look wonky.
The advice that I have for people who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop these skills is to constantly learn how to draw something. We never stop learning and practicing. Do not stress yourself out that you have to be perfect at this and that right away. Art takes time, believe in yourself, and go at your own pace. Do not be afraid to show your art and take critique.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I feel overwhelmed, I will take a nap. A person had asked me this: Why would you be stressed out about something that you couldn’t control? Why can’t you take a break and relax when you’re overwhelmed?
I realized that if I’m feeling overwhelmed, it should be a sign for me to take a break. Taking a nap is a solution for my brain to relax. If I can’t solve anything because I’m overwhelmed, then I should not stress myself out and cause more problems for myself. I can always come back to the problem and solve it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://22mdo5.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: munchkin.n.art