Award-winning illustrator Kejun Zhao sees the world in colorful and playful hues. With a fresh perspective, she seeks to call her viewers' attention to what they may have missed earlier. Kejun works both for commercial projects and her illustration series. The commercial projects include concept sketches and storyboards. For concept sketches, she illustrates some key art illustrations for movies, TV series and conceptual photo shooting, which may end up as physical posters, billboards, bus wraps, bus shelters etc. With her unique artistic style, she has created some of the most iconic characters for different clients and won multiple awards for her work.

‍Kejun's recent achievements include being the concept sketch artist of key art for popular TV shows and films. She also worked as the storyboard artist of Cowboy Bebop Netflix Teaser, Lost Session 2021. Her past achievements include being a CQ36 (Creative Quarterly) runner-up, CQ41, 44 and 45's Illustration Professional winner, and being selected in Spectrum 23 in the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art category.

As an artist and illustrator, Kejun believes the most exciting part of art is using painting or drawing skills to tell stories. She believes wholeheartedly that a picture is worth a thousand words, as the sages said, and lives by that truth daily. "As an illustrator, I have developed skillfulness at visualizing and conveying a feeling, a complicated idea or a dramatic scene," she shares. "The crux of my job is to follow the general direction of the creative department and adopt a creative style to visualize the concept as per clients' request."

Most of Kejun's illustrations are print media compatible with the production industry and advertising campaigns, among other use cases. However, she maintains that no matter the type of illustration, the keyword is always story-telling, which is narrative, whether she's illustrating an abstract figure or a conceptual one. "It's always a great pleasure to see clients' ideas come true,'' Kejun discloses.

She speaks about how she developed an interest in art through consistent learning and gradually settling into her style. Although Kejun can't pinpoint the first moment she fell in love with art, she recalls her early moment, when she eagerly anticipated the day she would show off her work to the world. Her first step toward realizing that dream was majoring in graphic design in college and learning digital painting skills, computer programs, and how to communicate effectively with clients.

In her junior year, Kejun did some illustrations for her book and package design and unearthed a new world of interest. She realized that she had a keen interest in this art aspect, as she enjoyed working on that project. So, Kejun started doing her own illustrations and enrolled at Syracuse University to pursue Illustration MFA. After graduating in 2015, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a full-time freelance illustrator and worked on her book illustrations, The Moth. Her dream is to keep working in the entertainment industry, be a better storyboard and concept artist, and keep innovating on future illustration projects.