Artist with a bird's eye view

Born in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province, Liu discovered her interest in painting during her childhood. "Painting has accompanied me for my entire childhood, and I learned from various painting books," she recalls.

In 2012, even though she liked drawing, she followed her parents' suggestion, and studied traditional Chinese medicine at Chengdu Sport University in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Five years later, she continued to study for her master's degree at the same university, yet she never forgot her dream of painting and devoted all her spare time to it.

The summer vacation before she became a postgraduate changed her life, as she found a part-time job working as an assistant for an illustrator in Chengdu.

"That's the period when I made the most progress. Besides improving my drawing skills, I also learned how to use Photoshop software, how to communicate with people who give me drawing tasks and how to take business orders," Liu recalls.

Liu says she likes classical things and she's a fan of the "retro" aesthetic. During that time, she found her interest in ancient Chinese culture, especially the epic literary work, Shanhaijing, or The Classic of Mountains and Seas.

"The imaginary space for the book is huge, as the wording is beautiful and the stories are fantastic," Liu says, adding that she plans to publish an illustration book of Shanhaijing next year.

"I noticed that on the market, most of the illustrations of Shanhaijing are drawn by men, so I wanted to bring a feminine expression to the stories of the book," she says. "Some are romantic, and I'll select the beautiful mythical creatures to draw."