Spotlight on a Delightful Danmei Fan Artist: Cindith
Welcome to a new edition of Danmei Dreams’s artist spotlight, featuring Cindith. 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 Cindith, a delightfully expressive artist.
Follow & Support Cindith
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/cindith
Why I Love Cindith’s Art
As often happens, I first encountered Cindith’s art through someone else’s Bluesky profile. They credited Cindith for a beautiful profile picture, and in a couple of clicks I was down the rabbit hole enjoying Cindith’s whimsical and evocative illustrations. After a lot of appreciative exploration, I reached out to invite Cindith to participate in an artist spotlight because I found her art so delightful.
Cindith’s art is simultaneously very pretty, whimsical, and full of pathos. Cindith uses saturated colors contrasted with dynamic poses to draw attention to her characters. These aren’t just exquisite lessons in composition, though. These characters are full of longing looks. The expressions feel real and riveting–you can sense their yearning, desire, or loneliness. The rich layers of textiles along with the supporting background elements are never overwhelming in Cindith’s work, supported by clean lines and a lovely palette of colors. All of this results in compositions that feel fresh, beautiful, and emotional.
Without further ado, let me introduce Cindith!
Meet Cindith
Can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your background as an artist?
Hey! My name is Cindy and I’m an illustrator from Australia studying a degree in animation! I’ve been drawing since before I was 7 years old but I only decided to pursue art seriously in 2023 when I discovered danmei! I’ve lived through a lot of art phases- from cartoon to anime to realism to bookish… but I’m deeply attached to my current style and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
What was your introduction to danmei?
A TGCF tiktok video! Spoilers- I think it was about Hua Cheng when he failed to protect Xie Lian during the hundred swords scene. I was really intrigued and ordered the first volume on Amazon that night. I read it on the train, during my lunch break, into the peak of dawn and later in my dreams. The fandom was so welcoming that despite posting such poor scribbles, I still received a lot of warm support which motivated me to get better and make slightly less poor scribbles.
Creative Process
What inspires you to create new works of art?
Every time I come across a quote, read an excerpt, watch an edit, listen to a song, see an artwork or think about a scene, I get inspired. But honestly, it feels more like an itch that I have to scratch- like, i’ll have a thought about drawing a character and it won’t leave my head until I physically sketch it out. And if i’m happy with the sketch I might turn it into a finished piece! Although, these days my pen might be driven more by other kinds of self-indulgence… ranwan pay gorn won’t make itself!!
How do you choose which danmei scenes or characters to illustrate? Are there specific moments, themes, or characters that inspire you the most?
Definitely depends on what is sitting on my mind in the moment! When I’m deeply moved by a scene, I feel an urge to scrawl it out on a canvas. Sort of like dumping out my emotions so they don’t clog up my heart. I don’t want to forget how much it affected me and I often feel like I’m only able to preserve those emotions in a drawing or short comic that I can look back on in the future. I have so much affection for Ranwan, and Taxian Jun awakens such poignant feelings in me that I usually draw those three characters the most. I also have a very soft spot for Gu Mang which means I end up drawing him a lot, too!
Fandom and Community
Have you received any particularly memorable feedback or reactions from fans of your art?
I’ve seen a few comments telling me I should do danmei cover illustrations. I think those always make me smile the hardest because I think it would really cool to illustrate a cover spread for a danmei. I’ve got to improve and grow until I can truly earn those compliments but every comment I’ve received motivates me to work harder so I really am so grateful to the fandom for being so kind all the time!
Future Plans and Advice
What’s next for you as an artist? Do you have any upcoming projects or themes you’re excited to explore?
This year, I’m participating in the 2ha Solar Terms Zine alongside numerous other talented artists and writers. I’m really excited for its launch; I think there has been so much love and dedication put into this project by the contributors and the mods team and I’m so happy to be a part of it! Generally speaking though, I think the next checkpoint of my life will be my thesis film but I’m not going to worry about it for now.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in danmei fan art or art in general?
I would highly recommend checking out the graph for an artist’s self-perceived skill as they improve over time! I think a lot of artists will go through lows and become demotivated but it’s so important to know that a lot of your ability to draw is attributed to your ability to observe! Don’t be disheartened by a bad sketch, all practice is good practice. It can be really hard to believe in yourself at times but I like to remember that my younger self would never have thought I could draw the things I draw today.
Fun Questions
What’s your favorite danmei scene and why?
Probably every Ranwan scene from volume 7 of 2ha onwards. There are just so many layers to Ranwan’s love story that get revealed. It makes me sad just talking about it now.
Outside of danmei, what other genres or fandoms do you enjoy creating art for?
Occasionally, I draw alien stage fan art! Outside of that… I don’t really leave the danmei fandom save for a few rare occurrences… I do want to draw more Magi fan art at some point as it has had a pretty significant influence on my art journey, as well as just being one of my favourite mangas and art styles of all time.
Appreciation
I love Cindith’s style, and I’m so grateful to have the chance to appreciate these delightful illustrations. It was a delight to interview her for this blog! If you enjoy Cindith’s work as much as I do, please take a moment to support her by following her on social media, commissioning her when she’s available, and supporting her through ko-fi.
Follow & Support Cindith
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/cindith
