Dominique Duong is an illustrator and comic artist working in London, UK. Since her career began, her work has been published by SelfMadeHero, Discord Comics and The Covent Gardener, among others. She’s one of Broken Frontier’s Six Small Press Creators to Watch of 2020 and her comic, The Dog & The Cat, was nominated for an Ignatz Award. She’s worked on editorial and book illustration, theatre set designs, concept art, story-boarding and comics.
She’s fascinated by the macabre, surreal and magical, with mythology, fairy tales, nature and folklore all being huge influences. She seeks to create diverse, queer fantasy and horror stories, and has a love for surreal, conceptual imagery.
1. What inspires your work?
Books, art, comics, but nature, folklore, history and mythology as well, particularly from my own cultures, as well. In my art, I enjoy incorporating natural, organic textures and forms, and with my characters, many are rooted in some part of myself or personal experiences, whether it’s my insecurities, traumas, desires or anger. Anime and manga were big inspirations growing up; as a kid I’d copy hundreds of characters from manga like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
2. Please tell us about your creative process.
When it comes to my art, a good 2/3 of my process is traditional. I enjoy working with my hands, and I just find it easier to adjust and control my line-work by penciling and inking traditionally, particularly with being able to take a (sometimes literal!) step back and see the whole picture. Any colouring I do is usually digitally done in Photoshop, though. I’m not a confident colourist, so with digital it’s just easier to adjust my colours until I find a result I’m satisfied with.
Although my preference is genre fiction (namely fantasy and horror), with my stories, it’s always the characters and their dynamics that interest me the most, rather than something very plot-heavy. The misunderstandings, the reconciliations, the tragedies, the slow-burn of romance or friendships, I love exploring the push and pull of different relationships and how they can come together or fall apart. Nothing invests me more than mapping out the fraught and tangled history between two screwed up people and how it ties them together.
3. What are the major themes and experiences you explore in your art and storytelling?
A lot of my work is informed by my own cultural experiences, and my desire to see more queer Asian representation. Again, I think my work mainly comes down to relationships, because the people we meet all affect us in some way, inform who we are as people and can have such a lasting impact on you even decades into the future. The ones we love, hate or couldn’t care less about, many will come and go and some will even stay. If I had to pick a running theme of my work… probably that we’re all damaged in some way, but maybe there’s some solace to be found in the people around you.
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