Kou Yang (BA, Mero State) is a Saint Paul-based artist who focus on digital illustration creating fictional worlds and tells fantastical story through their art. He has exhibited in exhibitions such as the Student Salon, Gordon Parks Gallery at Metropolitan State University. His artistic works rely on grounding fantasy with real world experiences combining people, culture, folklore and nature. He has always loved drawing and adding fantasy in his creation. Many of his works are inspired by the various fantasy media that roam the digital art space. Anime, manga, cartoons and games being his greatest inspiration and where his love for story telling and world building came from. He achieved a BA degree in Studio Art from Metropolitan State University in 2025. Yang works out of his home studio in St. Paul, MN.

About Me

Kou Yang (BA, Mero State) is a Saint Paul-based artist who focus on digital illustration creating fictional worlds and tells fantastical story through their art. He has exhibited in exhibitions such as the Student Salon, Gordon Parks Gallery at Metropolitan State University. His artistic works rely on grounding fantasy with real world experiences combining people, culture, folklore and nature. He has always loved drawing and adding fantasy in his creation. Many of his works are inspired by the various fantasy media that roam the digital art space. Anime, manga, cartoons and games being his greatest inspiration and where his love for story telling and world building came from. He achieved a BA degree in Studio Art from Metropolitan State University in 2025. Yang works out of his home studio in St. Paul, MN.

Artist Statement

I love anything fantastical and my creations reflects this love through my characters and the stories that I spin for them. My medium is digital art and within that category of art I focus on digital illustration. The materials that I use for my works are digital drawing programs, digital pens, and drawing tablets.
I have always been fascinated with stories. Be it folk lore from my culture, to western cartoon, Japanese anime, and children’s books. This admiration for the various ways that artist had told their stories influenced my love for character design and storytelling. I want to create characters and tell stories that may inspired and entertain my audience to the same level that I had experience in my art journey.
An aspect that I try to focus when creating these stories is grounding them in some way to our real world. I used my own personal experiences from friends, family, and strangers as a base for my characters and their stories. From how the world looks or how it is designed is drawn from the media and culture that I regularly interact with in my psychical and digital life.
Fashion is another important factor in character design and storytelling that I love to fixate on. A well thought out wardrobe can give more insight into who the character is than any number of sentences from a character bio. Over my years I have found that many of my wardrobe designs are inspired from Asia, medieval Europe, and ancient Greece fashion. The fabrics and colors of the fashion from these cultures and time periods holds a sense of grace and majesty that is very well suited in my fantasy theme stories.
In my illustrations what I value and try to convey to my audience is the adventure and enjoyment that can be found in fantasy stories. These elements are the sparks of my creation and are the qualities that I wish to present. There are so many more stories and world to discover and by drawing more character and stories I can breathe life to my worlds and share them with people who loves to explore fantasy worlds and lore.

Gallery

Contact Information

Name: Kou Yang
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-363-5448