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Illustrations

• about
• Illustrations
• character design
• ECU Grad Project

Flowing, Returning

Self-directed grad project at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, created Jan-April 2025.Written and illustrated by Cindy Fang
Edited by Cynthia Gan, Alpha Yu, Clay Jang, Joanna Liang----------In my final year at Emily Carr, I discovered that I have a passion for creating illustrations for children’s picture books, especially around themes of growth, introspection, and reflection. I began to create work that doesn’t shy away from emotional vulnerability while bringing comfort and warmth to the viewer.Flowing, Returning was inspired by my love for whimsical illustrations and a recently rekindled fondness for practicing creative writing, as well as the feeling of being simultaneously lost and stuck in place. With this project, I wanted to set a creative challenge for myself through a picture book that comes directly from the heart.

A common anxiety many of us share is the fear of not moving forward in life, or not seeing any changes in our lives. When we fall into the trap of comparing our own lives to others’ lives, our view of our own futures become obstructed, making it difficult to make personal progress meaningfully.It is a heavy emotional weight for a young person. From my own experience, it eventually seeped into my creative process, making what we call “art-blocks” a rather frequent occurrence due to an overly perfectionistic mindset. In Flowing, Returning, this anxiety is present and acknowledged — but we let it go and move forward with our young, curious wanderer into worlds of colour and life.

• about
• Illustrations
• character design
• ECU Grad Project

CHARACTER DESIGN

Acorn Postal Service

Grandpa

An unusually old cave dweller with a mysterious past that has been long forgotten.
He suffers from severe memory loss, but has a knack for storytelling.

• grandpa's full introduction

Grandpa's introduction, continued

Long, long ago, an unexpected cave collapse brought death and fatal injuries upon a great number of those who lived in the caves. Among them was a young cave dweller who, if he had only taken a different path that unfortunate day, would've never been caught in the chaos that left him trapped and unconscious beneath the rocky debris. No one had ever noticed he went missing, thus his disappearance was never recorded.Half a century before the present day, a group of scouts was surveying the paths in the caves when one of them saw a frail, old man laying against the cave wall. Quickly, they brought him back to the villages and within months, he regained his strength. Although he was able to communicate, he had severe gaps in his memory and nothing he remembered was helpful in identifying who he was and how he managed to live to his unusually old age. He became accustomed to modern cave life, brewing teas and tinkering with crafts and musical instruments during a typical day in the caves. He became known as "Grandpa," as the children like to call him. And surprisingly, though he suffers from memory loss, he is an exceptional storyteller, recalling tales he had heard during his youth. From whom these tales came, he could not remember, but he has a feeling that it was his own grandfather who had shared them with him.Due to his old age, Grandpa has mushrooms growing on his body, with a bigger colony on his head and smaller colonies on his ankles and feet. Where his eyebrows would be, there are two bodies of mycelium that have grown so long that they sweep the ground. He wears a linen shirt and cotton pants, a shorter inner cloak, and an outer cloak made of a strong inner layer of netted fungi and a thick outer layer of moss that mushrooms often grow on. To help him walk, he uses a wooden branch as a walking stick.

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FAN ART

Traditional media

Oh, crystalline heart (2023)