91吃瓜

Visual Artist Steps Up Her Game

It was by a stroke of luck, that an opportunity nothing short of amazing landed right in her lap, seemingly destined. Rachel Ho Fui Shin could hardly believe it when she was scouted and commissioned to illustrate promotional poster artwork for the world’s top animation studio Walt Disney, for its 2021 animated film “Raya and the Last Dragon”. She was among those approached as they were looking for Southeast Asian artists for the promotional art. Growing up watching Disney movies, it was a dream come true to be able to contribute her work in one.

Rachel grew up in a small town in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The illustration graduate of The One Academy currently resides in Selangor and works as a game artist in an award-winning local indie game company – Kurechii, founded by fellow The One Academy alumnus, P’ng Yi Wei.

She reminisced that in her early childhood, she would always be in her own little world as an introvert. She liked scribbling on walls, until her mother gave her recycled exercise books to doodle on. At the age of 8, she would draw the characters from the cartoons that she watched on television, such as the Powerpuff Girls. That was when she acknowledged her love for drawing.

Growing up, she took to drawing as just a hobby and have never considered studying art because there was no such education offered in her hometown. That was until one day, she happened to pass by the assembly hall in her high school where The One Academy was having their education roadshow. The artworks that she saw there left a deep impression inside her, and made her think that she wanted to be as good as those people one day. That was when she made up her mind about pursuing to study art.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing after that. She first had to convince her parents who were quite skeptical about her questionable choice. Not only was it costly to study art, no one in her family lineage has ever gone through this path. On top of the fact that they considered art as more of a hobby than a career, they were more worried if she would be able to survive and earn a living in the future.

“The funny part was, I remembered begging them for almost every day, telling them to have a little bit of faith in me and that art was the only thing I could imagine myself doing. They granted my wish months after and I’m still very thankful for it,” she recalled fondly.

“This journey wasn’t easy and there were times that I wanted to give up because of the overwhelming pressure and expectations I have to meet. I’m very lucky to have my family and friends to support me throughout. Also, I have to constantly remind myself why I chose this path at the first place,” she added.

After graduating, she started to work as an illustrator at one of her lecturer’s studio, working on mostly card games and western comic illustrations. When she realised that she liked to do cartoony works, she joined a 2D animation studio as a background and concept artist. A few years of gaining experience later, she left and started her freelance journey in 2018. Speaking about her passion, Rachel says that she enjoys the ‘magical’ process of seeing an idea form into a sketch, then progressing into a final artwork or product.

After almost three years of freelancing, she began to miss physically working with a team, as working and living on her own meant that she had little to no human interaction. It alarmed her into thinking that she needed a change in her life and seek for improvement. It was during this time that her current boss came into the picture and offered her a job at Kurechii as a game artist.

“Expect to encounter a lot of challenges and failures. Stay humble and don’t forget why you chose art in the first place. Rejection doesn’t mean you’re not good enough, it’s probably just that they’re looking for a more fitting art style,” Rachel said in advice to aspiring young artists.

The One Academy is committed to providing the best art education programmes and continues to nurture its students passionately through its “Masters Train Masters” coaching philosophy, which has been practised for the past three decades, by providing diploma and degree courses namely Advertising & Graphic Design, Digital Animation, Digital Media Design, Film Visual Effects, Interior Architecture & Design, Illustration, Fine Arts and Paris Fashion Design & Pattern Making. For more information on The One Academy, visit or call +603-7875 5510 or e-mail your enquiries to [email protected].

视觉美术家开展了她的美术游戏

当这令人惊叹的机会降落在Rachel 何惠欣的身上，似乎是命中注定一般的幸运，她简直不敢相信自己被世界顶级的动画工作室——迪士尼所委托，为2021年动画电影《Raya and the Last Dragon》绘制宣传海报。当迪士尼正在寻找东南亚美术家创作宣传美术时，她就是被选中的其中_x005f之一。她说，从小观看迪斯尼电影，能够贡献自己的作品真是梦想成真。

何惠欣在沙巴哥打京那巴鲁的一个小镇长大，也是The One Academy 的插画专业毕业生，目前居住在雪兰莪州，并在当地屡获殊荣的独立游戏公司 Kurechii 担任游戏美术家，该公司由 The One Academy 校友 P’ng Yi Wei 创立。

她回忆说，在她童年的早期，她总是以一个内向人的身份待在自己的小世界里。她总喜欢在墙上涂鸦，直到妈妈让她涂鸦在回收的练习本上。8岁时，她会画从电视上看过的卡通人物，比如飞天小女警，从那时已奠定了她对绘画的热爱。

长大后，她把绘画当作一种爱好，从未考虑过学习美术，因为在家乡并没有这样的教育。直到高中的某天经过学校礼堂时，正好The One Academy正在举办教育巡回展。当时在那里看到了许多美术作品让她留下了深刻的印象，想像有朝一日自己也能达到像那些人一样的水准，也在那时下定决心要学习美术。

此后并非一帆风顺。她首先必须说服父母，他们对自己的选择持有怀疑的态度。不仅学习美术的成本很高，家族中也没有人走过这条路，以至家人们认为美术更像是一种爱好而不是职业，也担心她将来是否能够生存和谋生。

“有趣的是，我记得我几乎每天都在请求他们，要让他们对我有一点信心，因为美术是我唯一能想象自己能做的事情。几个月后他们答应了我的愿望，至今我仍然非常感谢他们。”她回忆道。

“这段旅程并不容易，有时我想放弃，因为巨大的压力及必须满足种种的期望，但我很幸运有我的家人和朋友一直支持着我。此外，我必须不断提醒自己当初为什么选择这条路。”她补充道。

毕业后，她开始在她讲师的工作室担任插画师，主要创作纸牌游戏和西方漫画插图。当她意识到自己喜欢做卡通作品时，她加入了一家平面动画工作室，担任背景和概念美术师。几年后积累了经验，她于 2018 年离开并开始了她的自由职业生涯。谈到她的热情，何惠欣说她享受于看见自己的一个想法形成草图，再发展成最终美术品的神奇过程。

经过近三年的自由职业，她开始怀念与团队一起工作，因为独自工作和生活意味着她几乎没有人际互动。这让她开始醒觉，需要改变自己的生活并寻求改善。正是在这段时间，她的现任老板出现了，并为她提供了一份在 Kurechii 担任游戏美术师的工作。

“预料未来可能会遇到很多挑战和失败。保持谦虚，不要忘记选择美术的初衷。被拒绝并不意味着不好，可能只是对方在寻找更合适的美术风格。” 何惠欣被问到对于有抱负的年轻美术家的建议中说道。

The One Academy在过去长达30年来，持续秉持其“专才培育专才”的教学理念，致力于为学生们提供最好的美术课程，其中的文凭与学士学位课程包括广告与平面设计、室内建筑与设计、数码动画与游戏设计、数码媒体设计、广告插画与电影美术、电影视觉特效、纯美术、ESMOD巴黎时装设计等。欲了解更多详情，请拨电03-7875 5510、电邮至[email protected]或游览飞飞飞.迟辞补.别诲耻.尘测以获取更多信息。