Joanne is an illustrator who is a Bay Area native currently attending UC Irvine pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She is currently an In-House Art intern and Publishing intern at Aspen Comics ("Fathom," "Soulfire," "LOLA XOXO") founded by at legendary comic artist Michael Turner. She has a desire to publish her own comic book one day and to become a storyboard artist or character concept artist. Joanne is also serving as an Assistant Content Creator for non-profit organization, Paper Oranges, that seeks to share cultural experiences that have had an impact on people in STEM. With Paper Oranges, she is currently helping to produce a podcast focusing on third culture kid experiences called "3ck" (Third Culture Kid).
Art has always been an outward expression of some of Joanne's inner thoughts: the way she perceive myself, the person she strives to be, the situations and experiences she have gone through or want to go through, etc. Joanne aspire to create art that makes people feel the emotions that she has felt and to empathize with the characters that she have created. Joanne finds it inspiring to see how others may interpret her art differently than what she had originally intended it to convey.
Some of Joanne's favorite mangas and comics are Naruto (Masashi Kishimoto), Bleach (Tite Kubo), Basara (Yumi Tamura), and Fullmetal Alchemist (Hiromu Arakawa), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi). Joanne's favorite artists are Siya Oum (whom she got to shadow at San Diego Comic Con in 2019), Stanley Lau (ArtGerm), Tula Lotay, Marcio Takara, kelogsloops (On instagram), and Jim Lee.
When Joanne is not drawing, she is playing video games (like Persona 5, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Final Fantasy), going to conventions with Aspen Comics, watching anime or looking for good coffee shops (current favorite is MoonGoat located in Costa Mesa, CA).
If you would like to know more, please contact her at joannecheng516@gmail.com. Her work can be found on Instagram: @artofj0_anime