Meet Anna Chen | Student & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Chen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
Always plan ahead of time about what to do. Being prepared seem to help me the most in all parts of my life. I’m the type to hold in my head about the things I need to do like a mental to-do list because I have a pretty good memory. But often times, I noticed I can forget one or two things after taking a long time to complete one. So I now I keep a stack of sticky notes next to my workspace so I can list out the things I know I need to get done today and just go down the list like that. Not only does it make me feel more productive at the end of the day but it also keep me from procrastination and further consequences. I know having a planner and writing everthing down seems like such a hassle, even to me; this is why I rather just have sticky notes that I can trash away later. Of course, changes can happen and interfere with the schedule but there’s are way to go around it. Going with the flow is worse in my opinion because you’re not grasping control on your life and rather it brings anxiety and panic when something too big to handle come floating to your boat. Overall, knowing the future can help me better balance and adjust my time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I do digital art online because of how far technology had come. People who do art traditionally might not actually see the differences between one artstyle to another online. But there are differences such as styles that seem more paintery vs more clean. Mine is more anime-inspired due to the heavy videos I watched growing up. I started drawing since young but I got into media during the pandemic. It gave me so much time to really dive into my hobby, in which I started to fall in love with each stroke and brush I could create with a swipe of my finger. Starting out was definitely not easy as the likes and numbers on social media impacted me a lot; from the following count to the amount of views. I valued my art on those scales and it was definitely not healthy. I even considered stopping art completely in late March of 2021 due to the static count of my followers. But I met some really good friends around the time and they keep me at my feet saying that my art can’t be compared to the control of the algorithim and doing so will become a wall I can’t cross back later. So I continued on. And now I draw and post whenever I want because I realize doing art isn’t for others but it’s for myself. Of course the numbers still haunts me, but I learn to not rely so heavily on it. After all, I did started doing art for the sake of my own happiness. I think I came a long way because now I do commissions for other people and earn allowance money for myself. It shows to me that no matter what, there will always be someone who likes your art and never giving up will show its own improvement.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them to hang out in downtown Raliegh. I use to go there often during my volunteering at the museum nearby. We would walk down the streets filled with shops; one full of plants and the scent of fresh grass and medicine. We would stop by the bar next and listen to “Golden Hour” by Jvke as a band member sings his heart out. There we would keep going down the road to a bubble tea store to drink milk tea and eat macroons. Then head to the bookstore next to it and find some interesting reads while spending the afternnoon away. Lastly, I would take them to my favorite sushi spots and take some home for the evening since they always had discounts.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out to my online digital art community. I started drawing back in 2020 and were posting my art online for the first time. I was super nervous about it but I slowly started gaining a small amount of people who would like it despite how bad it looked. They stayed with me all the way up til now and I really appreciate the constant comments of love and support on each post. Not only did it give me a motivation to keep going but also it helped me really intergrate into art as a whole. I made several friends on there that we would do art collabs or fun conversations with. It really made me feel included and if I didn’t have that inital push, I doubt I would have continue to do art at all. Now my fanbase had spread to more social media like instagram and tiktok. I hope one day I can look back and feel like I accomplished something amazing. A simple “I love your art” can really reach far so I wish for everyone to encourage others when you can!

Twitter: https://x.com/_Ashlie_Chan_

Other: https://ashliecomm.carrd.co/#

Image Credits
@chebbychebs