{"id":25953433,"date":"2026-03-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/?p=25953433"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:08:10","slug":"artist-yi-chen-hock-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/artist-yi-chen-hock-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Yi Chen Hock on choosing an engineering degree over art school, how she developed her unique style, and the importance of humor in art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot of young creatives think that there's a standard artist career path: draw as much as you can as a young person, take art classes in high school, go to art school for college, and then either join a studio or attempt to make it on your own as a freelancer. But that's just one of countless ways to live a creative life and maybe even make a career out of art. Not many know that there are hundreds of other creative careers<\/a> out there that allow someone to combine a passion for art with their other interests: biology<\/a>, for example, or animals<\/a>, or criminal justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Yi Chen Hock<\/strong>, known online as chen_dll<\/a>, it was engineering and electronics \u2013 she never even considered going to art school! It's hard to believe given the technical expertise in her dynamic illustrations, with their muted holographic color palettes and depth of emotion, but Hock got a degree in engineering and now works as a \"technical artist\" at tech giant Meta \u2013 a career that doesn't really involve illustration at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke with Hock about her background and creative journey, what a \"technical artist\" even is, how she developed her unique aesthetic, why humor is so important to her work, and what she thinks about the new Wacom MovinkPad 11, which she took on a recent trip to Japan. Note: the interview below has been edited slightly for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Yi
Yi Chen\u2019s recent viral Instagram post<\/a> featuring two of her landscape illustration<\/em>s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a young person, did you think art would be your career? You ended up pursuing an engineering degree, rather than going to art school, for example \u2013 but now seem to have combined your interests in your current position as a technical artist. How did you arrive where you are now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From an early age, I discovered that I had an affinity for art, and a strong desire to improve my art skills independently. It was a pretty lonely journey, since I did not have many artist friends who shared a similar passion until I moved to New York for my current tech art job in March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve actually never considered a career as an artist, or even thought about going to art school. This is partially because I wasn\u2019t surrounded by any artist friends, and I was often told that pursuing art typically led to lesser career prospects. As I also developed an interest in electronics<\/a> and indie game development, I naturally gravitated towards pursuing an engineering degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping up with my art progress while studying engineering felt like I was constantly moving between two completely different worlds. But the key thing that I felt also related the two disciplines was that they both had strong roots in design, and I realised that I could also be creative in the engineering field. In my final year I was able to design my own Master\u2019s thesis project to be more art-oriented: I built a machine-learning-based gesture-controlled VR drawing system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t know that technical art was a career path until I discovered the job title one day during my Meta software engineering internship in 2022. It immediately piqued my interest, and I set up several meetings with technical artists in the company to learn more about what it was about. I was then noticed by a tech art manager, who later referred me for my current technical artist role at Meta. My VR thesis project, passion for art, and most importantly my proactiveness in reaching out helped me to land this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What exactly is a technical artist? What kind of person might want to pursue this kind of career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A common misconception that I often get with my job title as a \u201ctechnical artist\u201d is that people assume I draw for work, especially since I make a lot of illustrations. But all my drawings are actually personal work, and my day-to-day job is much closer to software engineering or game development!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A technical artist is a hybrid role between art and engineering, and often we bridge artists and technology by making tools for artists or building pipelines needed to get their work into production. The exact responsibilities of a technical artist can vary by project and may be specialized, for example in pipeline work \u2013 which is what I mainly do \u2013 rigging and animation, or shader development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to technical art because I wanted to be able to work in a field closer to art than just doing traditional software engineering, and I think someone who\u2019s both technically-minded and likes to work closely with artists would enjoy this role, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yi
Yi Chen's Art vs Artist collages, 2020 to 2024 (clockwise from upper left)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Your personal artwork has a unique color palette and aesthetic that\u2019s difficult to describe \u2013 your use of muted neons and metallic colors creates a dreamlike, almost holographic quality. How did you come to develop your particular style?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thank you! I\u2019m a huge fan of iridescent and holographic colors, so it makes me happy to hear that I am able to convey that quality through my artwork. Thinking about how I can push colors more in my artwork and exploring new color palettes is always at the top of my mind when I\u2019m drawing. I\u2019m super inspired by artists like rei_17<\/a>, namendart<\/a> and Slawek Fedorczuk<\/a>, who have very unique and \u201cunconventional\u201d color choices in their work, and I wanted to also develop my own distinct approach to color that\u2019s uniquely mine and instantly recognizable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey to get there has been a slow evolution over time of countless explorations, mainly driven by me identifying \u201cgaps\u201d in my artwork. When my art used to be higher contrast and used more orange, I pushed myself to use softer, more pastel colors. Then when I felt like I had lost touch with understanding how to use darker colors, I challenged myself to bring contrast back into my artwork while keeping that prismatic quality that I had discovered in my pastel artworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I completed a short art mentorship with Slawek in early 2024, I developed the darker, more neon colors I use in my most recent works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yi
\"Copium,\" a piece Hock drew when she finished university, reflecting her feelings post-graduation in a comical way<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another clear feature of your personal work, the art products you make, and your social media presence is an irreverent sense of humor, whether you\u2019re surreptitiously editing another artist\u2019s work to look like handsome Squidward<\/a>, designing t-shirts about how to throw a fish<\/a>, or pretending to keep your Wacom MovinkPad 11 in the fridge<\/a>. Why is humor important to your practice? How do you balance taking your art \u201cseriously\u201d and keeping things fun?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Beyond just making art, there\u2019s also art in its presentation, especially for social media. I believe combining humor and art makes my work more engaging, and it\u2019s also my way of injecting more personality into my work. It\u2019s super important for me to have fun while making art, and making things that other people enjoy and find funny makes me very happy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to keep art \u201cserious?\" I think this would depend on the artist\u2019s goals. A friend of mine who works in the industry as an artist treats her Instagram more like a portfolio, and said that she'd be hesitant to post the kind of content I enjoy making \u2013 like my Squidward art. I wouldn\u2019t know how much my more \u201cunserious\u201d work may be deemed unprofessional in that realm, but that also doesn\u2019t matter to me anyway, because I don\u2019t intend to use my art to pursue an industry art job anytime soon. I\u2019m more interested in paving a path as an independent artist so I can do it however I want, and also have fun with it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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