Meet Sang Miao

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sang Miao a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sang, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

For me, the process of creating illustrations is one where joy and pain coexist. The joy comes from the bursts of inspiration and the gradual exploration during the creative process, while the pain comes from gathering and integrating reference materials and trying to fully realize the inspiration. However, it is precisely this contradiction in feelings and experiences that can lead to the creation of soulful works.

As for how to maintain creative vitality, I believe that the most important thing is to maintain a curiosity and desire to explore everything in the world. Sometimes, I find myself staring at a strangely shaped ancient tree, looking up at its dense canopy through the sunlight. At that moment, I imagine that perhaps this tree is the headquarters of a tiny tribe, and maybe the squirrels on the tree are their steeds. When the sun sets, they might come down from the tree to forage in the human city. I have many such imaginations and curiosities, and they can all serve as sources of inspiration for my creations. However, merely having curiosity is not enough to sustain long-term creative vitality; careful observation, exploration, contemplation, and experimentation are also essential.

Additionally, reading can provide me with more inspiration and perspectives, preventing me from being trapped in my own mundane imagination.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am a freelance illustrator currently living and working in China. I graduated with a master’s degree in Illustration and Sequential Design from the University of Brighton in the UK. I primarily create publications and have collaborated with Nobrow Press, Milky Way Picture Books, and The Quarto Group to publish picture books. Besides publications, I also design packaging illustrations for some home and fragrance brands.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

As a freelance illustrator, I believe that the most important personal quality is definitely self-discipline, although I’ve been working for so long and still haven’t mastered it. The more disciplined you are, the freer you become. Only by adhering to your planned schedule and completing each stage of the creative process can you systematically and effectively finish your artwork.
For illustration creation, I think the most important skill is learning to capture life at any time and place, which means sketching. Creation comes from reality, and illustrations supported by real-life details are more soulful and powerful. Additionally, I believe that reading books from various fields and watching documentaries are crucial for illustration creation. After all, books contain the experiences and thoughts of others, and documentaries can take us around the world, providing a wealth of inspiration for creation.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

Whether it’s in my area of expertise or a new field, I need to invest energy to complete them. Although human energy is limited, relying too much on one’s comfort zone can lead to laziness, making one’s creations stagnant. By trying to challenge new areas, one may acquire more skills and creative inspiration. Even though the process might make me self-doubt and feel lost, the end result will make me feel that the previous efforts were worth it.

Just two years ago, I was only involved in publication collaborations. When suddenly approached by a packaging illustration collaboration, I decided to give it a try, even though I had never done commercial illustrations before. At the beginning of the collaboration, I felt very frustrated and in pain; the feedback on my sketches was always unsatisfactory, and I even wanted to give up on the collaboration at one point. However, when I started experimenting with completely different creative media, learned some basic graphic design knowledge, and sought a lot of graphic illustration references, I finally managed to create packaging illustrations that satisfied the client. Thanks to this bold attempt in a new field, I have since collaborated on numerous commercial packaging illustrations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sangmiao.space/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sangmiao0307?igsh=MW9nYTZvOTlqeXN3bg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr