Artist in residence: Concept artists Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang

Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang artist in residence set up.

"My girlfriend and I are both concept artists, and fortunate enough to work for companies that support remote work,” says Ryan. “Since we spend most of our time at home, a comfortable workspace is crucial for enhanced productivity.

As we don’t own a house, we opt to stay in one place for a maximum of two years before moving. One reason is that life can become repetitive if we stay in one place for too long. We begin to notice our moving pattern, and it becomes monotonous. One added bonus of frequent moves is the chance to decorate and design the layout of our new place. This process poses a challenge because there’s no perfect apartment, but we concept artists thrive on challenges.

A corner focused on this typewriter. We've always been interested in vintage machines but never considered owning one. Our friend found this one next to their car in an apartment garage, and since no one claimed it, they brought it home and gave it to us when they moved. (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)

Choosing to set up our workspace in the living room was deliberate, given its ample sunlight. Additionally, we sometimes engage in personal work or play games on our own devices, allowing us to maintain conversation instead of isolating ourselves in separate rooms.”

A beautiful corner to store all the remaining toys and plushies we couldn’t fit in our living room. Snowy organised them into groups and they look adorable. (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)

Snowy adds: “You may have noticed we have several live plants. They provide us a pleasant distraction when we’ve been staring at screens for too long. Acquiring these has gotten addictive, and keeping them alive is rewarding.

One added bonus of frequent home moves is the chance to decorate and design the layout of our new place 

Boyuan Ryan Shi

Most of the time, our cat, Taco, will share the space with us. Consequently, we’ve chosen the largest tabletop to give Taco more space should he opt to join us in our work, sip our water, or simply just bother us. Strangely, he loves to chew on all the greenery except for catnip, so safeguarding our plants from Taco has become an ongoing battle.

(Left) an entry-level vinyl player because music is vital to our lives and (right) one of Taco’s bedrooms, surrounded with some beautiful artworks, our fiddle-leaf fig tree and a rubber plant! He often likes to chew on our plants. (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)

We aren’t keen on displaying our own artworks on the wall, so we’ve chosen to exhibit pieces from other artists we admire, or items that hold personal meaning to us. See if you can recognise any of them!”

A close-up shot of some of our old cameras. We think anything vintage pairs well with greenery! (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi and Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)

Boyuan Ryan Shi is a concept artist working in the games industry for Crystal Dynamics, check out his Instagram to see his work. Also a concept artist, Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang works at Respawn Entertainment – for more of Snowy’s art visit her Instagram page.

Discover more of their stunning art

Ryan loves to build up stories and create multiple images based around them. (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi)

Snowy created this concept art, a skin design for Ballistic, for the hit battle royale game Apex Legends. She says it was a true team effort to bring the piece to life. (Image credit: Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang)

Ryan has created a personal project that follows themes inspired by the incredible worldbuilding in the Dishonored franchise from Arkane Studios. Magnetic Quarry is among the work he’s painted for it. (Image credit: Boyuan Ryan Shi )

Character concept art created by Snowy as part of her personal project, which has a theme built around sci-fi, fantasy, and Soviet iconography. (Image credit: Xiaoxue Snowy Zhang )

This content originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine, the world's leading digital art and fantasy art magazine. ImagineFX is on sale in the UK, Europe, United States, Canada, Australia and more. Limited numbers of ImagineFX print editions are available for delivery from our online store (the shipping costs are included in all prices).