Quarterly Wildlife Artist Feature-Helen Ding

We are back with yet another exciting Wildlife Artist feature this quarter, we are thrilled that Helen Ding agreed to take our questions and share her thoughts on wildlife art!

Name of the Artist: Helen Ding
Location:  New Zealand 
Date: 07/04/2018
Form of Art: Painting
Contact details: dinghaodd@gmail.com

Helen is one of the young members of Chinese nature artist community. She is upcoming and promising nature artist who has been working on birds with watercolors for quiet sometime. Five of her artworks were on display at the 'Ultimate Hand-Drawing Exhibition on Arts of Nature & Science" show held in Beijing, China (16/09/2017).

So let's move on to know more about her journey towards nature art, shall we?

May I know when and how your journey toward art started ? What inspired to take up art?

May be since I was a kid my journey towards art started. As a child I always had a kind of crazy passion to draw things on any blank spaces, such as the walls of my home, surface of tables, or the blank part of my grandparents’books and drafts. My dad even took a photo of me drawing with the crayons beside the wall full of my doodles. During my secondary school and high school years, about 7 years, I drew a lot posters and paintings as decorations for my school. 

The zoo in my hometown was only 5 minutes away from my home. Some of my very first memories were visiting the zoo in the arms of my parents and grandparents. I frequently visited it during vacations and weekends. The animals and plants there never failed to stimulate my curiosity and appreciate their beauty. The enthusiasm of drawing wildlife came quite naturally.

I think painting is always the method for me to express myself and to relax. Also I am enthusiastic about biology, I find the illustrations in natural history books to not only shows the beautiful details of creatures but also have great scientific values in morphology. The combination of my love for animals and the arts are the inspirations of my artistic creations.

What kind of medium do you like to work with the most and why?

Before 2015, I was mostly using color pencils on paper boards because it was easy for me to keep my working space neat and tidy. 

Since I got a contract with Chinese National Geographic magazine in 2015, for a series of  handbooks on species of Chinese birds. According to the contract, I needed to use watercolor or gouache. So now I mostly use watercolor on 300gsm Hot Press cotton watercolor papers.

How did you learn this artform? Do you have a Mentor?

I learned basic skills from a young art tutor, who was a fourth year art student in college. I was 11, just graduated from primary school and had nothing to do during that summer vacation. In the next few years I attended some art tutorial classes off and on during weekends, just for fun. Mainly because one of my friends wanted to take art as her future major at university and she wanted me as company. The tutors never considered me as a formal student, neither did I, so I didn’t have the pressures other students in the class had. I have to say though I did far worse than any of them back then.

I stopped attending those art classes when I got into high school, and never had any since then. Thus I’ve never had formal training. Instead in the years since then I’ve been practicing and improving my skills on my own initiative over thousands of hours of painting and drawing. 

In 2015 I got the chance to work in a Chinese birds illustration team, I have learned a lot from my teammates and received lots of valuable advice from them, and got many helps in birds drawing from my friends in social networks. In a manner of speaking they are my mentors , I really appreciate that. Also I watched many YouTube tutorial videos about watercolor painting skills and read some self-taught art books.

Who is/are your favorite artist/artists?

A lot, I have to say. Really hard to list them all. My taste is kind of old fashioned, the very first artists I loved and still love are Botticelli, Georges de La Tour, Ingres, & Albrecht Durer. 

Since I arrived in New Zealand and working on scientific illustrations I got to know two great local  artists. One is Niels Meyer-Westfeld, whose book Land of Birds is a magnificent masterpiece. Another one is Raymond Ching, he is a great master of bird illustrations, a great talent, so inspirational.

Could you please share the challenges you faced in your native country with regards to art?

First, there are many biases against artists in Chinese society. As a student, if one chooses art as a major, you would be regarded as an academic failure. Because in China, art students do not need high scores in College Entrance Examinations. Also in the public’s perception, artists usually are thought as mentally unstable, weird and have a bad reputation. In that case, as a teenager who came from a conventional family, and did well at school, to be taking art as my major at university never occurred to me due to the biases against artists in China. 

Also if one chooses art as a profession, the unstable income is always the biggest challenge and fear. And constant self-doubt, struggling to improve your skill, facing the imperfections and disappointments with your own works all the time. But maybe that is because I’m sort of a perfectionist. 

Lastly, probably the most serious issue Chinese artists have to face is copyright theft. For example, if an artist published his or her art work on social networks, or traditional media like books or magazines, then this art work is highly likely would be stolen by others for commercial purposes without paying the artist. If the artist wanted to build a lawsuit, the time of processing and the costs is normally far from affordable and the justice hardly is ever served anyway. 

Your views on need for a society for nature artists and what can be achieved through such community for artists ?

From my observations and experiences in China, most Chinese people lack a basic knowledge of the natural environment around them. There are tones of questions on social networks about animals, & plants species identification, yet most of the species are rather common. Also there are many misunderstandings about the natural world. For example, traditionally Chinese people tend to define a species by whether it could have a benefit for humans, not by its role in its ecosystem nor the beauty of itself. Since they have such ideas and little knowledge of the wildlife, there are many difficulties to face in carrying on conservation works in China.

So as a member of Chinese nature artists community, I hope I can use my art to let people become more familiar with the nature around them by visualizing the beauty of these creatures. Using aesthetic appreciation inspires protectiveness towards nature.

Also the community of Chinese nature artists is a very young and small group, I hope my works could encourage more people to join us.

Your top five tips to becoming a good wildlife artist?

1. First, love all the wildlife without judging, trying to find the beauty within each of them. It’s actually really easy, once you get there, you would find expressing their beauty by your hand is such a privilege.

2. Second, keeping observing all the time. It’s really the fun part, it would bring many unexpected surprises and experiences. And also will bring the vivid details and enlighten your works.

3. Thirdly, don’t hesitate, just grab a pen, pencil, brush, or even you hand to dip with paint, then begin to draw with the passion like a caveman. I never fail to find the stunning and magnificent vitality inside cavemen’s wildlife art works.

4. Fourthly, learn from the greats,view as many art works as possible. The master pieces can teach you a lot, even you don’t have the chance to have conversations with the artists. And the joys brought by a good piece of art works are always a great spiritual enjoyment.

5. Last, maybe the most important one. Have fun, if you can’t get fun from it , anything is meaningless.

We would like to kindly thank Dear Helen Ding for taking time out to patiently answer to all our queries. Wishing her a successful and prosperous year ahead! You may follow her artworks on her Facebook fanpage: Helen Ding - The Art of Nature

Instagram : helendd186

We'll be back again with another interview next quarter! Until then, watchout for artworks and discussions on our Facebook group! Artists for Wildlife and Nature .