ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Fei Meng: Classical Portraiture Meets Modern Editorial and Advertising Illustration

artist · 2026-08-30

Fei Meng, an illustrator who hails from China, spent 15 years in the UK before moving to New York in 2024. For the past six years, she’s been creating illustrations that focus on characters, often drawing from the charm of 1970s storybooks. With her roots in classical portrait painting, her colored-pencil pieces were featured in the Rising Stars exhibition by the Royal Society of British Artists. She then transitioned to editorial work for The Epoch Times, turning articles into engaging visuals. Later, she branched out into advertising, designing silk scarves and winning an A' Design Award for her 'Four Seasons' collection, showcasing how traditional art can thrive in contemporary contexts.

Key facts

  • Fei Meng is originally from China, lived in the UK for 15 years, and relocated to New York in 2024.
  • She has spent the last six years creating character-driven illustrations for media publications and private commissions.
  • Meng trained as a classical portraitist, studying anatomy, form, color, and light.
  • Her colored-pencil portraits were selected for the Royal Society of British Artists' Rising Stars exhibition in London.
  • She created editorial illustrations for The Epoch Times, including pieces accompanying pandemic-related columns.
  • She later applied her character-driven approach to advertising illustration, giving products a character and a world.
  • Her silk scarf illustration 'Four Seasons' won an A' Design Award.
  • Meng's work is noted for its maturity and authority, rooted in classical training.
  • She did not follow the usual illustration-school pipeline.
  • Her work evokes the storybooks of the 1970s, reimagined for the digital age.

Entities

Artists

  • Fei Meng

Institutions

  • Royal Society of British Artists
  • The Epoch Times
  • A' Design Award

Locations

  • China
  • United Kingdom
  • New York
  • United States
  • London

Sources