About me

Welcome to my page! I’m Caroline Zhang (also known as wigggle or egg online), currently a first year student of the IDEA program at Capilano University. I graduated from high school earlier this year in Richmond, B.C. where I was born and raised since my parents immigrated from China. Despite the pressure from my family and peers to pursue academic excellence, I spent most of my time consuming media and producing art rather than studying (while maintaining honour roll to please my parents). After considering other arts programs, IDEA at Capilano University spoke to me because of the industry focused opportunities and courses not offered in other art programs. Although I also have some interest in design, I aspire to become a professional illustrator and create my own business making clothing and cute things someday.

I never had the pleasure of living outside of Richmond, but had the opportunity to visit extended family in China a few times before entering high school, and I hope to return again in the future. Travel was always an extremely rare treat for me that opened my mind to all the different art cultures around the world. Luckily, I was also able to go on a school trip in grade 9 where I got to attend Japanese school and live with a homestay. I am hoping to go again with the IDEA Japan exchange program in year 3 as Japanese media has always been a big inspiration for my art.

Ever since I was a kid I would trace drawings from Pokémon and Disney movies. Many of my core memories are centered around art, like asking my sister for help with the other eye, and being scolded for drawing all over the walls. Since then, some of my biggest inspirations have been League of Legends, OMOCAT, anime, and music. My favourite visual styles are those in Ghibli movies and manga like Beastars by Paru Itagaki. I try to implement them in the things I most like to draw, which are people, animals, and joke pieces for my friends. I love to play and help develop video games in my free time, and am currently a part of Snatch Games, an upcoming small game development team. We participate in online game jams, where we create a game entirely in one month, and are currently working on several full length visual novel games.

I hope to improve my skillset overall during my time in the program and learn how to work in the illustration industry. In the past I have attended several art classes both in and outside of school where I worked with different mediums and developed my technical skills. I work best with black and white and water colours. I’ve also tried making some 2 dimensional models and animations before in the past for my high school capstone project. My skills are strongest in traditional art, but I have been experimenting with digital art in recent years.

And to my instructors and peers – let’s learn more about art together!

Here are some of my recent works!