Artist Profile: Olivia Tung
Hailing from the Hawken Middle School is freshman Olivia Tung, a creative spirit who has been passionate about the visual arts since childhood. While this is just her first year at the Upper School, Olivia has already made a mark on the community with her fun and creative art that she has shared on social media and at school.
Olivia was motivated to start drawing in 2nd grade when she watched a YouTube animation with cats as its central characters. That video inspired her to begin drawing cats and other animals. Eventually, she moved onto drawing people and experimenting with different art styles. When asked what art styles she enjoys, Olivia said, “I like traditional and digital art, anime, realism, painting, sketching, and comics.”
Now, her artwork centers on her own original characters, fan art, animals, people, and drawings of famous paintings. Olivia’s art is often out-of-the-box, such as her drawings of various vegetables as anime characters or her recreations of popular memes. Olivia also explained that she wants to start learning how to animate her art, and she is always trying out new styles and studying references of poses, facial profiles, and clothing to learn how to most realistically replicate human anatomy in her art. When asked about her goals for the future, she said, “I want to learn more about shading and make my drawings feel more real.”
Throughout her personal journey as an artist, Olivia’s most critical piece of advice for how to improve is to not be afraid of making mistakes. She said, “We all start off as beginners. Don’t give up. Just keep practicing!”
Olivia’s art is fun, colorful, and original, exemplifying a wide variety of pieces that highlight her skill and hard work. She undoubtedly has potential to grow as an outstanding illustrator at Hawken. If you want to see more of her art, you can follow her Instagram art account at @itsyuling or look out for her drawings to be put up in the AC lobby.