Spotlight on a Versatile Danmei Fan Artist: Viri

Welcome to a new edition of Danmei Dreams’s artist spotlight, featuring Viri!  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 Viri, a fun and delightful danmei fan artist.

Why I Love Viri’s Art

Viri is the artist behind Danmei Dreams’s first enamel pin project, and I can’t say enough good things about working with Viri on that design.  She was creative, thoughtful, and helpful throughout.  I selected Viri for this work because I was impressed with her range–from cute to elegant to evocative across different media.  She demonstrates thoughtful design and a great sense of humor, perfect for capturing Pei Ming’s voyeuristic appreciation.

Of course, that range means that Viri shows up with creativity for a number of different works and projects.  Without further ado, let me introduce Viri!

Meet Viri

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

I am Viri! I’ve been drawing digitally since I was 12 and have been very interested in character design and fanart since then! I am currently studying graphic design but am most interested in digital illustration. At the moment, my art consists mostly of xianxia style ocs and danmei fanart!

What was your introduction to danmei?

I watched the donghua for Heaven Official’s Blessing/天官赐福 in 2020 to practice my Chinese and found that it was based on a novel! I read all of that novel (though it took me a very long time, haha) and became interested in other MXTX works and more danmei series. I also introduced my sister to it, so she helped motivate me to continue reading. Even though I have been enjoying danmei since then, I only recently became active in the fandom, mostly through Scum Villains/人渣反派 content~!

How long have you been creating danmei fan art?

I did make fanart for Heaven Official’s Blessing when I first watched/read it, but I think my fanart only got more recognized when I became involved in the SVSSS fandom. I started making enamel pin designs for danmei in January of this year!

Creative Process & Style

What is your preferred medium and tools for creating your art, and why?

My preferred medium is Procreate using my i-Pad and Apple Pencil. For pin designs, I am able to separate layers by color/lineart/screen printing to make the designs more easily transferred into vectors. For my personal work, I enjoy all of the helpful brushes I can download! I also worship clipping masks, so I would struggle without a program that could use it, haha.

How would you describe your art style? Has it evolved since you started creating danmei fan art?

I think the biggest change in my art style since starting danmei is that I actually draw chibis now. I had never drawn chibis well prior to me designing pins, but now that I am involved in the collecting community, I doodle them all the time! But overall, I think I can describe my normal style as a little sketchy and with blotchy coloring since I don’t smudge that much. I have to admit it’s a bit messy and I am still developing it!

How do you choose which danmei scenes or characters to illustrate? Are there specific moments, themes, or characters that inspire you the most?

I honestly don’t illustrate many full scenes, I’m still practicing my backgrounds anyways, but I usually choose to draw characters that I enjoy their designs a lot! From someone who loves character design, it is what I gravitate towards the most. Some of my favorite designs are Zhuzhi-Lang from SVSSS and Taxian-Jun from Erha. Of course, I also draw Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu frequently since SVSSS is my favorite novel!

Are there any particular artists or art movements that influence your work?

There are too many! I am very inspired by Djuney, as well as Sunstung in the danmei community. I also am always motivated by my good friend ejkxyz! In the pin community, I really am inspired by junkofzeart’s style! There really are too many to name that I could pick them all out though~

Do you try to stay true to the canon representations of the characters, or do you incorporate your own interpretations and styles into your art?

I think my representations are a mix of canon and fan designs! I think I draw Mobei-Jun the farthest from canon design. I do believe there are some characters that I stick very close to their canon ideas, such as Shen Qingqiu—some are just too iconic to change! I’d like to develop my own designs more though! 

Fandom & Community

How has the danmei fandom influenced your art? Do you feel a strong connection with the community?

I feel like I definitely could be more involved with the community. I honestly feel too shy to interact with a lot of my mutual artist friends, but I still do feel very influenced by them. Sometimes I’ll be scrolling through my feed and see someone in the community who makes something so inspiring I have to start drawing!! I think I have drawn from a lot of styles in the community as well, and drawing things for the community has definitely helped me improve.

What is your favorite part about creating art for danmei fans?

The clothes and the hair are soooo fun to draw. My sister researches hanfu, so it’s always fun to be able to collaborate with her to try to figure out outfit styles. Both things just help to make the art flowy and more detailed, so it’s definitely my favorite!

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

When my pins finally started to become a real product, my friend really wanted to collect them all, so that really warmed my heart and made my artwork feel desired! It’s also always so sweet when any of my mutuals dm me about my art. I was surprised one time when I opened a request box for 500 followers and got more requests than I could draw! That also made me feel like people wanted to see my art and touched me, and it was fun to get individual reactions from the people who asked for a doodle!

Future Plans & Advice

What’s next for you as an artist? Do you have any upcoming projects or themes you’re excited to explore?

Right now, my biggest project is aiding in illustrations for my sister’s xianxia style webnovel. I have designed most of the characters by now, but I would like to try to incorporate works similar to interior illustrations for her! The novel is called Show Me Some Decency/给我点体面. The author’s name is authorsprite. Of course, I am also working on plenty of pin designs too!

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in danmei fan art or art in general?

Make friends in the community! I wish I had done it earlier—it has definitely made me more excited about danmei as a whole and made my experience more enjoyable. Having friends that are artists is a great motivator and challenger. It’s a lot easier than I expected, join servers! Post on socials! Repost works! If you support others, you will be supported in return!

Fun Questions

Do you have a favorite danmei couple that you enjoy drawing the most? Why?

I really enjoy drawing Qijiu (Yue Qingyuan/Shen Jiu) from SVSSS! I think their story is so tragic and full of yearning. They need their happy ending and I’m happy to draw them together if it means they can get it in my mind.

What’s your favorite danmei scene and why?

The scene in Erha where Taxian-Jun is trying to go back to being Mo Ran and he can’t get his clothes to fit is heartbreaking and perfect. I love writing that makes me cry! Angstyness and tragedy is my absolute favorite no matter how much it hurts my heart, especially with symbolism.

Appreciation

Viri was so much fun to work with and super helpful as I was figuring some things out around pin manufacturing.  Viri was also quick, responsive, and thoughtful about every aspect of the project and our collaboration.  I would highly recommend her for a commission, but I also recommend checking out her art and following her on social media to see all the cool things she does next.