Meet the Artist: Yolie

This month we’re going behind the scenes with Yolie, who helps bring the characters of Advent to life in the visual novel segments through her amazing pixel art!

What is your background in art?

I learned a majority of my skills from online resources and tutorials, but was in art school for a short period of time! I attended Laguna College of Art + Design and made a lot of great friends, but since I was paying for college by myself, I decided that taking on so much debt wasn’t in my best interest.

Since I was in elementary school I would pause anime like Naruto on the TV, and try to redraw it on paper! I would follow a lot of tutorials on DeviantArt and then thankfully more and more resources became available online. Honestly, I think with Youtube alone there is so much you can learn for free!

What does your process look like?

Before I begin any type of art piece, I make a reference board! It has references for accuracy purposes but also sometimes I just include art that motivates me a lot.

Usually my rough drafts are really rough, but I find it’s better to show a very early progress update when working with others. That way everyone is on the same page for what’s being created and can give input. After making any revisions needed, then I just focus on polishing everything!

For pixel art I almost always use Aseprite on my PC! It shows I currently have 4.5k hours on it so it’s safe to say that’s my main program for game dev haha. Though for all other art I typically work on my iPad Pro in Procreate or Clip Studio Paint.

I work at my desk at home using an old PC and a small Wacom Intous drawing tablet for pixel art. I have a large monitor that I use for all my references + Aseprite and then a stand on the side for my iPad Pro 11inch.

What’s your favorite type of project to work on?

My favorite type of project is one that I feel passionate about the entire project as a whole. I feel like you can really tell when a team feels a lot of love for what they’re creating and Advent’s team definitely shows that. When I’m working on this type of project, it feels like my art has a certain kind of purpose and is contributing to something greater.

Who or what would you consider to be your influences or inspiration for your style?

Though my art style has fluctuated a lot over time, manga/anime and video games have always been huge inspirations for my style! I’d say for pixel art that multiple Japanese RPGS are probably the biggest influence for my portraits. However, I think the inspirations for my illustration style affect it a lot too. Some artists I really admire are: Ryoko Kui (creator of Delicious in Dungeon), Kamome Shirahama (creator of Witch Hat Atelier) and Kinu Nishimura (who is often known for her work at Capcom).

I guess looking at my biggest inspirations, I am often drawn to women’s work in illustration. There is so much I love about their work and honestly they’re just masters of their craft.

Do you have any favorite games?

A couple of my favorite games ever are Final Fantasy IX and Hades! I admire the character designs in FF9 and I’ve looked up to the lead artist of Hades, Jen Zee, for many years now. I definitely gravitate towards games with great character art. I also enjoy the Monster Hunter series a lot and love cool creature designs.

*Darius, Advent of the Reaper, by Yolie*

Do you have any advice for someone who would like to work on game art? Any resources you could point to?

I think a big help for me personally has been posting my art on every platform that I can, and making friends with fellow artists! Though I also say that with a huge caution to not value one’s work by numbers on social media. It’s just a great way to get discovered and befriend other people with similar interests & goals!

As for resources, since pixel art is my main focus for game art, I learned SO much from the eBook called Pixel Logic. It was created by Michael Azzi and many artists collaborated on it. It’s an amazing affordable resource. For game art in general, I watch a ton of random videos from tons of different game devs on Youtube. There is so much to learn and even if they don’t specialize in pixel art I like listening to their experiences in the industry, how they got in, and how they learned as well.

Who is your favorite Advent character?

Honestly I like Elira a lot for multiple reasons, but also I just love drawing her expressions! I’ve had fun working on everyone’s portraits but I love how cute her different expressions turned out, haha. I think Elira so far has been the most outwardly expressive so maybe that’s another reason why I’m more drawn to her.