Interview and review by Ginnie Liang
Local freelance illustration artist and visual narrator Yang Sio Maan has launched her first picture book “Mr Matos Went to Buy Tomatoes”, published by Fizzy Ink Publishing, available now in local bookstores.
Yang talked with The Macau Post Daily about her art journey in an interview last week in her studio in Nam Van.
Mr Matos, the protagonist of the story, is a painter who is at home most of the time and goes to the market to buy tomatoes for inspiration. However, en route to the market, he was targeted by a mischievous cat and his bag was chewed to pieces without him noticing. As the tomatoes and the keys to his home fall out of the bag, the tomatoes come back to life as if by magic and grow into a giant plant to show the way for the cat, following Mr Matos all the way to return the keys, and as the story unfolds, his life and state of mind also change.
Yang said the book was initiated in 2020, and it took her three years to finish it, as her drawing techniques have been constantly modified, so the painting style in the book has been changing, “in order to pursue the most perfect state in my mind,” Yang said. Looking back, Yang said, she felt that her mastery of colour and composition techniques have made progress.
“When I painted this book, I was planting tomatoes, and they had grown into three small yellow tomatoes,” Yang recalled, adding that she likes to put things around her life into her paintings – the street market she frequents, her cat, the veterinarian she takes her cat to, the books in her bookcase, the places where she eats, the home of her friends, among others. “I hope that my book would not be difficult for a foreigner to understand, and for local people, I hope they can read another layer of meaning from the story,” Yang said.
Becoming an illustrator
Having obtained a master’s degree in Illustration from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in the UK, Yang’s work has gained worldwide recognition, notably at the World Illustration Awards, the 3X3 International Illustration Show in 2022 and the Hiii Illustration awards in 2019.
However, Yang only started with a four-panel comic and as a way of recording life. Yang studied English literature at the University of Macau, not even realising her passion for illustration, “I didn’t even know what illustration was, nor did I know that there was such a profession as an illustrator.”
Yang had not received any professional training in drawing, but she has been interested in drawing since childhood, which motivated her when she finally received professional training in illustration in the UK. Yang admitted that she once felt worried about the future. “However, I never had doubt about my dream to become an illustration artist.”
As her work gained more and more attention, Yang’s illustration engagements increased. At that time, she still had a full-time job, so she could only create her artwork during evenings and weekends.
She was employed full time as an art administrator and worked part time as an illustrator until mid-2019, when she began to have steady clients and gained confidence in her work, so then she decided to fulfil her dream and began to spend most of her time working as a freelance illustrator.
Currently, Yang is a part-time lecturer at the Macau Polytechnic University and also accepts commissions to work with clients locally and internationally in areas including the visual arts, book design, and alternative publishing.
Heart-warming illustration
Yang finds colour in the everyday stuff of life, capturing the emotions that reside within. She is comfortable working with soft tones and metaphors that involve quiet characters wandering in faraway landscapes and dreams.
“I like to look at very delicate drawings with lots of details,” Yang said, adding that she likes European picture books, which are more flat and collage style. “Many people still think of picture books as children’s books, but in fact, in Europe, picture books are the favourite reading of many adults, which pay more attention to creating a special atmosphere and focusing on people’s inner world and emotions,” Yang said.
Yang showed The Macau Post Daily a book of the artist she has been heavily influenced by, Joanna Concejo, who creates bizarre collage picture books in a style called Naive Illustration. It has the childlike innocence of a child, flat but with a three-dimensional feel, and the colours are laid out in a rhythmic manner without being scattered.
However, Yang pointed out that she doesn’t intentionally follow any particular style as she likes to tell stories in her own way, and over time, she has developed a “heart-warming” style in the eyes of her readers, a style her fans told her they regarded to be “healing”.
Asked how this style has come into being, Yang said she is a bit blunt and not good at reading people, but she can notice a lot of strange details. “My friends would describe me as a very imaginative and out-of-the-box person, saying that I always have a lot of new metaphors to describe things, which are unexpected.”
Yang’s work has a signature of low saturation main colour scheme with a small range of bright colour blocks. In the gentle hand-painted line strokes, her work conveys a mixture of loneliness and bittersweetness, and each painting can trigger readers’ imaginations.
Anyone interested can inbox Yang’s Instagram (@yangillustration) to order the book “Mr Matos Went to Buy Tomatoes”. The English-language book costs 230 patacas.
This photo taken in Yang Sio Maan’s studio in Nam Van last week shows her working on an illustration. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
This undated profile picture provided by Yang Sio Maan shows her posing with one of her illustrations.
These undated handout photos provided by Yang Sio Maan shows illustrations from her first book “Mr Matos Went to Buy Tomatoes”.
