Munchies Collab: Interview With Ruby

RUBY - A talented girl who lives by the motto "Every artist start off emo" - has had 5 years of pursuing art and developing her own personal art style. Let's interview Ruby with Munchies. We hope that her story will be a source of inspiration for young artists all over Vietnam.

🎨 Art Style

I started drawing in 9th grade but I wasn't that serious about it yet cause I had other things in my life. I would define my art style as unique, different, and definitely not minimalistic. When I first started out, my art was mostly in black and white, much different from the colorful pieces I do now.

My art style is also very colorful, the colors must stand out, the lines are bold and strong and the eyes of the characters I draw are always big and prominent.

🌈 Inspiration

I think my biggest inspiration is music, specifically Trap, EDM, and Rock. A lot of my original characters are inspired by these genres. I usually listen to songs and let their lyrics paint a picture in my head.

I feel that every song has a story and the interpretation of that story depends on the listener. That's why I use my art to retell the story from my own understanding.

Lately I've been more into Korean RnB and Indie Pop. You can clearly tell that my current style is also affected by these new genres. The music I listen to always help shape my art style.

Another thing that inspires me is webtoon and comics. I'm currently reading:

- Webtoon: God of Highschool

- Manga: Doro he Doro

💫 Your dream?

I want to create a work of art so controversial that people cannot help but scream WTF

🧑‍🎨Artists that have inspired you the most?

- (IG- caubetho) is a Vietnamese artist that has had a huge inspiration on me

- Foreign artists:

o Yue Min Jun: I love how their unique art style and how each work of art has a message.

o Magrette Keane – her story is extremely impressive and inspiring. Also, her art style is so unique and dope. The way she draws eyes for her character has a lot of influence on mine too.

These two artists have the most influence on my style because they have found their own unique voices through art. Their art is controversial too, which I love.

💡 What are you most proud of right now?

I think that would be the fact that I've finally found my personal art style. I didn't really have an understanding on my style before.

💜 Why do you like this job?

I love drawing, I love storytelling, and I love when people listen to the stories I tell. Because when you do that, you can express and share your own interpretations of events in life and I think that's the perfect job for an illustrator.

⏳ When you're designing, what's the first thing you do?

After receiving the brief from the clients, I don't really jump straight into the project. In fact, I would push the entire brief out of my head for one day. In that day, I would go on with my daily business and only thinking about work briefly.

I do this to create a healthy and balanced headspace and to avoid getting art block. After that, I'm right back to work with a clear vision of what I want to do. The way I approach a brief is to relate what my clients want to my personal life. For example, if my client wants a illustration depicting happiness, my mind would go straight to laughter, and then to the teeth peeking through the laughter, and then I play with that idea haha.

📝 Past Project

- Me Me Bistro, a Thai restaurant in Hanoi

- Lemon Love Wedding, a platform to search and book wedding caterers and other services.

- Munchies!

- Maztermind – a handcrafted boardgame

🧡 Favorite snack

Vietnamese crab crackers (Snack cua), love that shit to death!