At age two, she scribbled on walls with crayons. At age five, she played with Lego and received her first paint and easel set. At age seven, she discovered van Gogh, Gauguin and Picasso in the Junior Britannica encyclopaedia series and learnt about art movements thanks to an Encarta CD-ROM. The rest is history.

Having a penchance for the arts since childhood, Austvina Phan undertook studies in design at the College of Fine Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Design. She likes to work with traditional mediums such as ink, charcoal, conte and watercolours; as well as dabbling in other areas such as mixed media, sewing and photography.

Austvina is fascinated by the depths of the imagination and also has somewhat of a strange curiosity and obsession with British, French and Japanese culture. She also loves getting her hands dirty, perusing art supply stores and bookshops at leisure, browsing through books and the Internet for inspiration and losing herself in her work while listening to some good music and sipping a nice cup of tea.

Austvina manages to juggle illustrating in her spare time, freelancing, and working as a graphic designer at C Three Agency at Bondi Junction in Sydney.