Today at the clubhouse we have Victo Ngai, an award-winning, New York-based illustrator. Originally from Hong Kong, Victo came to America to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. I’ve got to say that her work is beautifully detailed, while embodying a raw form of grace. I still can’t seem to wrap my brain around how she balances such duality. Equally impressive is her client list which includes The New Yorker, The New York Times, Tor Books, WIRED, and ComputerWorld (among others). Thankfully, Ngai agreed to take some time to discuss with us her artwork, zombies, Star Wars, Daft Punk, button-mashing, and poops. Welcome Victo!
I love your recent Tomb Raider silkscreened poster with the metallic gold ink (one is hanging in my living room)! You and several other artists were hired to design limited edition prints for the recent games launch, right?
[Yes], that was a very fortunate project. It fell onto my lap as my friend Marc Scheff, a fellow illustrator, was hired to be the Art Director of this gig.
Your Star Wars print featuring Darth Vader as a samurai might have been one of the first pieces of yours I ever saw. I did a double take when I realized Luke IS actually Darth Vader’s hand. That’s some deep stuff. Was it done for a particular show/client or was it a personal piece?
It was a personal piece. I wanted to capture the climax of the Empire Strikes Back – when Luke realized Vader was his father. Luke being a physical extension of Vader is to symbolize their blood-relationship. Luke slicing off Vader’s arm is to symbolize his rejection of the relationship and his determination to stay away from the dark side. Also, it was a play on how Vader chopped off Luke’s arm.
That is some badass use of symbolism! Moving on to another piece, what’s the story behind the book cover you did for “Foundation” by Ann Aguirre? We love zombies here at SKC!
We all love zombies – their clumpy little walks and messy eating… that piece was my first real dark assignment. I felt like my usual pen-and-ink line work was too soft and delicate for the story, so I experimented a bit and went with a more gritty and rugged approach, using charcoal and graphite, on the zombies.
I believe that function should always come before form, ideas before style. Style is merely a vehicle for effectively communicating the ideas, therefore needs to be changed and tailored for different subject matters.
Do you ever get to play video games or watch movies in your free time? If so, what are your favorites?
Frankly, sorry to disappoint you guys, I don’t play much video games. My reaction is too slow for shooting games and my attention span is too short for RPG. Well, I guess I am pretty good at Super Smash Brothers, as I just need to hit all the buttons as fast and as violent as possible.
What is your dream job and/or client?
I would LOVE to one day animate a Daft Punk music video. Also I hope to bring back some of the edge and dark humor (e.g. Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak) or the grace and elegance (e.g. golden age illustration) to today’s sugar-coated jolly cutesy children’s book.
Your work has deep roots in traditional Asian art techniques such as Sume-I painting, Japanese woodblock printing, and Chinese silk painting, but what Western or contemporary artists would you say influence you? I definitely see some of Klimt and Egon Schiele in your work.
Yes, Klimt and Egon Schiele are definitely some of my favorites. I also love Mary Blair, Virginia Sterrett, N.C. Wyeth, Al Hirschfeld, Norman Rockway, John Singer Sergent, William Turners and many more. The influences may not be as apparent, but I have definitely stolen maybe composition ideas and color relations from these guys.
What do you do when you are in a bind creatively to get the juices flowing? I enjoy taking a break to drink some coffee and doodle snarky cats in top hats.
I think relaxing always help, such as taking a walk or a bath. Often I find better ideas after I send in the initial sketches. I find my ideas a bit contrived when there’s the performance-pressure. The best concepts always come to me when least expected. It usually goes like this – digest the assignment, rack my brain, a brief give up moment, moved on doing totally random stuff, the bulb lights up.
Other than illustration do you have any other creative outlets you enjoy?
I really like crafts, sewing and building things with my hands. Recently I have been doing a bunch of DIY home decor projects.
At SKC it is traditional to ask what the weirdest thing you did as a kid was, but for artists we ask: What is the weirdest thing you’ve been asked to illustrate?
I was once hired by a nurse magazine to illustrate an article about the difficulty/embarrassing incidents happen in hospital. So of course there was a story of a feces-obsessed patient, he liked to steal his own poop and hide it when the nurses weren’t looking.
One time the nurse thought the brown matter she found under the patient’s pillow was a left-over brownie, it wasn’t. Unfortunately the magazine wanted a more tasteful approach which wouldn’t gross out the audiences, so I didn’t get to draw too many poops.
