Illustrator Jiatong Liu fuses handcrafted and digital art to explore the colour blue

Jiatong Liu is a Chinese illustrator living in London. Last year he graduated from Kingston University in Illustration and has been working as a freelance illustrator and teacher ever since.

He's already won several prestigious awards from the likes of Communication Arts, Young Ones ADC and 3X3. And now, his final year university project Blue Things has been shortlisted for this year's V＆A Museum Illustration Awards.

The project involved creating a non-fiction picture book about the colour blue. "Blue has a tortuous history," says Jiatong. "The ancient Romans thought that it was a low colour. However, it was valued by people in the Middle Ages and even became people's favourite colour."

Blue Things is the perfect showcase for Jiatong's distinctive style, which combines hand drawing and digital art, and reflects the visuals of his wildest dreams.

His process typically involves making handcrafted textures and applying them to drawings. Dynamic colour and sophisticated details are other common traits of his work.

"I'm passionate about storytelling and love to use Illustration as a diary to visualise my emotions and memories," Jiatong adds. "The daily basis, literature, music and movie can always inspire me to create many unique pieces."