Interview with JuriTheDreamer aka Juri H Chinchilla
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GBK: Hello Juri, first of all can you introduce yourself a bit please and tell our readers about your career in the visual art industry? / Since when do you draw? What do you do for a living?
I came to the United States from Japan in 2004 to attend the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I got BFA in Illustration there and currently works as a Fantasy/anime artist in WA, USA. I’ve been doing freelance since my Junior year of the collage, mainly doing American comic coloring and illustrations for Japanese mobile game companies. I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl, so art is with me entire my life!
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Freya Crescent from FFIX |
GBK: I stumbled upon a fan art of Freya Crescent from Final Fantasy IX from you a while ago which raised my interest with the result that i saw a quite impressive Gallery of very varied drawn art, which show your talent with both digital and traditional tools while i saw that the most artists today seem to use only digital tools anymore, what is your stance about that? I started as a traditional artist, so I feel more confident and in control with traditional media. However, as you mentioned, digital is more convenient and required to reproduce in the art field these days, so I am trying to figure out the comfortable valance between digital and traditional mixture for me.
GBK:You are from Japan, but i saw no drawings from you in the popular Manga style, where are your inspirations and your own style coming from? I grew up in Japan and self taught art seeing Anime/Manga, so it’s deep in my blood. can’t get it out even I try to, yet I studied proper art in USA, so now I got this wired mixture of Japanese Anime and western style art in my style. |
GBK:Since you are a professional artist, can you give young artists who think about working in the visual art business 1-3 tips about what is important to be successful there?
Only one thing I can tell about this: Networking is important.
i’m not much of sociable person, so it took me a bit of effort to do “networking” but I know it’s essential at the very beginning of career. Going to conventions worked great for me. Even building a good relationship with teachers in school helped me to get some first jobs too.
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Kefka and Terra from FFVI |
I-No from Guilty Gear XX |
Juri and Video Games
GBK: You have an interesting mix of video game related fan art in your portfolio, commissions aside, your draw a lot of the “oldschool” RPG characters like Kefka and Terra from Final Fantasy VI as example but also Sol Badguy, Morrigan &Lilith, or Cammy fighting Chun Li from Street Fighter.Are RPG’s and Fighting games your favourite game genre’s, and what games do you play today? (if any)
I love old RPGs because I grew up with it. Also I love fighting games, but I am really bad at playing it 
I don’t play video games much anymore today but I glance at what my husband is playing while I work. (usually it’s Zelda or fighting game)
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GBK:What are your 3 favourite video games and also video game consoles of all time? Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana III, and PoPoLoCrois (I don’t know if the last two titles made to US…)*
*Indeed SoM III and PPLC were only released in Japan, but both got translated versions by fans! |
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Juri about deviantART
GBK: You are on dA now since six years, do you think this website and community was helpful for your career (in what ways/forms) ?
I made couple of friends through dA, which I really appreciate of.
And i also got some gigs that lead me to a bigger job later so it was helpful!
Most of all, it makes me so happy when somebody seen my work at dA and find me at con and get to talk to them!!
GBK: Name your three favourite things about dA and the three least liked/most hated things as well!
Favorite things: easy to communicate with others, able to see the reaction to my work right away, great place to get inspired.
Dislike: the print profit is not much even I get some sales there
