Hi, my name is Caitlin Duff and I’m currently a student at San Jose State University, working to get my Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. I am a Filipino-American artist, born and raised in the Bay Area. I work with multiple mediums, but my main focus is on digital art. My dream is to become an animator or artist creating my own animated shows and video games.

Playing video games and watching cartoons was a huge part of my childhood and had the greatest impact on why I became an artist. It wasn’t until about 2014, when I started high school that I was greatly inspired by the cartoon Steven Universe, and had a new goal to add more meaning to my work. From that show, I learned a lot about celebrating people’s differences and really adored the idea of inclusivity and diversity with characters. Additionally, this is a fictional kids’s show, so I believe that even the simplest of art can have a huge impact on people’s lives and outlooks. Another hobby that fuels my inspiration and imagination is the table-top role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. I started playing in 2019, which was around the same time that I started drawing digitally a lot more. Since she was my first original character, I wanted to draw and design her and so I taught myself how to use Procreate thus, my first character was officially complete. Since then, I’ve been creating even more characters, and have expanded my imagination to create a whole other fantasy world where they live. I take similar inspiration from games like Genshin Impact as well as Skyrim.

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember; Whenever we did art projects in school, I was always ecstatic, and I couldn’t wait to get to work. I was always so fascinated with the idea of creating surrealistic creatures or environments and seeing them projected somewhere. As I got older, I began to have more of an appreciation for people who created these worlds and characters and was motivated to create something similar to this. Drawing has been my favorite hobby since I was a kid and even today, I find that it’s a great way to express my thoughts or make my imagination come to life. To expand on my abilities, I decided to enroll in the Digital Media Art (DMA) program at San Jose State. There, I learned how to code in multiple languages, and use Adobe tools such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and Audition. With this skill set, I hope to become an animator and create my own shows and games.