In her travels, Liverpool-based illustrator Yufei Yang brings a sketchbook with her to capture interesting characters or facets of her surroundings. Then, she reinterprets those sketches into joyful tableaus of expressive shapes and vivid palettes, seamlessly encapsulating both the physical and emotional experiences of visiting a Nordic sauna or a Japanese convenience store. “With my work, I always aim to capture the beauty in everyday life and ordinary scenes and objects,” she explains. “My style has developed over time by recording my experiences and the places I visit in sketchbooks.” Having grown up in Shanghai, Yang discovered her love of illustration when seeing all its versatile applications in the world around her; she then went on to obtain a BA in illustration and an MA in children’s book illustration from Anglia Ruskin University in East Anglia, United Kingdom. While she counts fauvists like Matisse among her influences, a huge influence on her work is illustrator Eric Ravilious. “[Ravilious]’s series of prints of high-street shop fronts taught me a lot about how to compose illustrations and use negative space and line work,” she explains, “and [Matisse’s] totally free use of color and shape feel so intuitive and loose—but highly accurate to convey joy when recording ordinary things.” Ultimately, it’s her interest in recording and portraying the world that not only shapes her subject matter but her style. “I appreciate human craft, and I always want to show that through my work, even when it’s made digitally,” Yang says. “I believe perfect is boring, and imperfections are everywhere in everyday life.”