Hualian in Ghost City

Spotlight on a Bold Danmei Fan Artist: Asimina

Welcome to a new edition of Danmei Dreams’s artist spotlight, featuring Asimina!  These spotlights highlight some of the incredible, creative, and cool artists making danmei fan art. The artists will share some of their favorite work, talk about their process and approach, and you can find out how to follow and support them.  You can read previous editions of artist spotlights here.  Today we’ll be focusing on Asimina, who uses rich, gorgeous colors in spectacular ways.

Follow Asimina

Why I Love Asimina’s Art

Four Calamities and Four Famous Tales
Four Calamities and Four Famous Tales by Asimina

Ages before I started writing this blog, the image above floated through my social feeds. I still remember thinking, “damn, that’s so striking.” There’s almost a printmaking quality to this image, with the background effects for each panel creating contrasting texture across the canvas.  Asimina’s use of black paper, strong linearity and bold colors highlights the characters, while the compositional element of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian touching across panels adds an emotional resonance.  I fell in love with Asimina’s art pretty much on the spot.

At the time I wasn’t tracking art across different social media feeds, and didn’t know where to find more art goodness from Asimina.  Luckily Asimina recently shared an image from a lesser-known danmei novel in one of my favorite Facebook danmei discussion groups.  This time I was struck in a couple of ways: first, Asimina is clearly a dedicated danmei reader who loves to illustrate a wide range of couples.  Don’t get me wrong–I’ll never tire of Hualian art in all forms, but it is also refreshing to see other couples get their moment to shine too.  Second, Asimina’s use of color and form just knocks my socks off across the range of her art.

Married Thrice to Salted Fish
Art of Married Thrice to Salted Fish by Asimina

Without further ado, let me introduce Asimina!

Meet Asimina

Can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your background as an artist?

Hello! I’m Asimina from Greece and I draw traditionally, using watercolours, gouache and occasionally watercolor markers and gold/metallic colours. I haven’t officially studied art at university, but I’ve been drawing since I can remember and the only way I’ve improved a bit is through trial and error and a lot of practice. Oh, and of course, through my love for anime and danmei which are the main sources of my inspiration.

Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire
Art of Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire by Asimina

What was your introduction to danmei?

I first watched Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua and I loved it, but I officially started reading danmei after watching the first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing and my curiosity for what happens next in the story and the strong attraction I had to the characters, plot and setting, won me over and I had to read it asap.

Hualian on Black Paper
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng by Asimina

How long have you been creating danmei fan art?

After reading Heaven Official’s Blessing and reading STARember’s manhua I couldn’t help being inspired and wanting to draw hualian as well. Countless times. Thankfully many of the subsequent danmei I read also inspired me to draw.

Hualian in the snow
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng in the snow by Asimina

What inspires you to create new works of art?

Usually how much I like the characters of the danmei I read or anime I watch and it helps if they harbor strong feelings for each other (not necessarily romantic). Intense emotional scenes in the stories also inspire me a lot. Sometimes by drawing, I feel that the characters are more alive and that I can come even closer to understanding them. Other times, especially when there’s no official art from the specific danmei, I’m itching to put on paper how I imagined the characters while reading the book.

An Empire as a Betrothal Gift
Art of An Empire as a Betrothal Gift by Asimina

Have you received any particularly memorable feedback or reactions from fans of your art?

Well, people usually tell me they like the splashing details I put in the majority of my works as it’s some kind of distinguishing factor of them, and it’s interesting how most people tell me that my art reminds them of older shoujo manga although I haven’t had much inspiration from them (apart from CLAMP) as I’ve had from mangaka like Yana Toboso, Katsura Hoshino and artists like STARember who are my favourite.

Appreciation

Asimina’s art is amazing, and we’ve only just touched the surface of what she creates here in this post.  Please check out her social media to see oodles more stunning works of danmei fan art, follow her to see her new work, and take a moment to share your appreciation.

Follow Asimina

Hualian in Ghost City
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng in Ghost City by Asimina

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