Sasha Tsoy was born in Kazakhstan and is half-Ukrainian, quarter-Korean, and quarter-Kazakh. She told us how she started drawing comics:
"I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, but in some periods in my life I would draw more than others. I studied Media and Communications in university, so I wanted to find something to do that would encapsulate a lot of the things that I love in one. And thus, I started posting comics online in 2018."
Tsoy told us about her comics and drawing style: "They are just simple light-hearted comics about different funny things or thoughts that happen to me, my friends, and seemingly many other people day-to-day. My drawing style is still an ever-evolving thing! A lot of it is inspired by anime and cartoons, but I also try to keep it looking somewhat realistic. I’m trying to do more online drawing courses to improve my art as well."
The artist told us she is inspired by "womanhood, self-esteem and relationship issues, social media, and societal expectations."
"I try to put a funny spin on things that concern me and sometimes it makes me feel better," Tsoy says.
Here's what Tsoy wants to convey to her readers: "Probably to just not take yourself so seriously and that we all are more similar than we think! It makes me very happy when people from around the world comment that they relate to some of my comics, that makes me feel like I accomplished my goal."
We asked Tsoy what is the most challenging and the most rewarding part of drawing and sharing comics online.
"The most challenging is probably the nature of social media. Chasing likes, follows, and all that really messed up my mental health. Now, whenever I feel like I’m too overwhelmed and it’s negatively affecting my life, I try to take a step back from social media and have breaks. Another challenge is coming up with more ideas for comics. I very often doubt my ideas and in turn, try to go for something that is more likely to succeed, rather than following my heart. Some of the most rewarding moments for me are when people wanna commission me to do art for them, both big projects and small. I feel really happy that people trust me to do it, and I want to give it my best shot!"
Some S𝖺𝗌𝗁𝗈𝗍𝗌𝗈 A𝗋𝗍 comics might look familiar to you, because the artist often collaborates with other popular artists such as Bloomi_comics and Bella Sriwantana, Lulu, and Art by Juliet, whose work we have previously shared on Bored Panda. In fact, the artist admits that her Instagram artist friends inspire her.
"I really love building relationships with other comic artists! Not only do we get to work on a fun project together, we get close and become friends! I feel really happy that I have friends I can message that experience the same issues as me in terms of art and social media. I like the support and encouragement we give to each other."
We asked Tsoy about the proudest moment of her career as a comic artist: "It’s very hard to pinpoint one moment! But I guess being able to sometimes help my parents financially from my art earnings. I hope I will have more moments like that in the future. My biggest goal is to improve my art and storytelling skills even more and hopefully one day release a successful fictional digital comic series or even a printed graphic novel."
Sashotso Art currently has 80.1k followers on Instagram and this popularity comes with its challenges as netizens often seem to forget that there is a real human with real feelings and emotions behind each artwork out there.
"Mostly, I get positive feedback, especially on my own page. But sometimes, when my comics reach other different corners of the internet, I get a lot of hate and negativity too, from people telling me to kill myself to writing paragraphs about how much they hate my art. No one really prepares you to deal with it. And maybe it’s because people don’t expect me to read some of their negative comments. Unfortunately, I still get very affected by people’s opinions, be it positive or negative. But I’m still trying to work on it and, hopefully, it will improve!"
Despite the darker side of the business, Tsoy continues to create and encourages others to do the same: "Just do it! Be consistent and be true to yourself! But if you ever feel overwhelmed, don’t let that consume and negatively affect you! If I could do it, you can too!"
