Not one to shy away from the meat of any matter, Los Angeles illustrator Sachin Teng shows the inner reality of each subject she draws. Cross sections reveal the symbols and dreams, blood and bones under each surface. She admits it can get a little weird. “But people like to participate in weirdness as long as they feel like they’re being included—I always make it a point to communicate to the viewer.” As a young artist, Teng dropped out of Pratt Institute because she decided her tuition money would be better spent on breaking into the industry. “Though I’m still far from ‘making it,’ I’d say it paid off.”

With work in The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly and WIRED, the native New Yorker is living out her dream of editorial illustration. Lately, however, she has been dipping into animation—another childhood love—by illustrating GIFS. “I’m slowly becoming an animation junkie. If I don’t do a GIF for a few weeks, I jones for it. I want to see how far I can take this.” With art directors tracking her down through Tumblr, Teng is sure to take her illustrations to the outer edges of the beautiful and weird.