By Ayush Patel | Student Life Editor

A senior who is passionate about the  design and development of video games and animated media, Courtney Wong has been a talented artist, specializing in watercolor and ink for nearly 12 years now. She chooses to work with these materials because they are convenient, quick, simple to work with, and easy to clean up after. Wong is currently attending the Ichen Art Academy, has completed AP Studio Art in her junior year, and is enrolled in regular Studio Art this school year. In addition, Wong participates in multiple art contests –such as the PTSA Reflections and Scholastic Art Fair– annually.  

“I’ve been doing art ever since I was little but I didn’t really have a passion until one to two years ago,” Wong said.

Wong gets her ideas from the hard work concept artists put towards developing entertainment for the general populace. These artists specialize in conveying their ideas through films, video games, animated clips, or any other form of graphic entertainment.

“Hayao Miyazaki is one of my inspirations,” Wong said. “The designs of his characters are amazing and I love his weird-looking creatures. I also really enjoy video games  and animated movies like ‘Wall-E,’ ‘Up,’ ‘Spirited Away,’ and ‘Castle in the Sky.’ I thought it would be really fun if I could design my own movie or game.”

Wong’s dream school is the Art Center in Pasadena, CA, where she wants to major in Entertainment Design.

“It’s a pretty hard major to get into as Entertainment Design is an extremely competitive program,” Wong said, “Not to mention Art Center is a pretty popular school.”

In the future, Wong wants to work at the video game company, Blizzard Entertainment.

“I really liked Blizzard’s video games especially ‘Hearthstone’ and ‘Overwatch,’” Wong said. “I love Blizzard’s character style  because it sort of screams at my style the most, and the company’s animated short films are gorgeous.”