Sunday, December 4, 2011

Pictoplasma Paris - Post Digital Monsters Exhibition ( O o O )

pictoplasma_headlines
paris
7 - 31 DECEMBER 2011
conférences, installations, spectacles,
projections, jeux vidéo
LA GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE
3 bis rue Papin

75003 Paris
Wonderful Motomichi's monster! I LOVE his work. 

Central to the Pictoplasma experience at La Gaîté is an exhibition presenting the work of contemporary character artists: en route for a post-digital era!

With the artists: Shoboshobo (FRA), AJ Fosik (USA), Allison Schulnik (USA), Ben & Julia (FRA - SUI), FriendsWithYou (USA), Hyein Lee (KOR), Jeremy Dower (USA), Jordan Metcalf (ZAF), Joshua Ben Longo (USA), Juan Pablo Cambariere (ARG), MyMO (GER), Nick Cave (USA), Nick Sheehy (AUS) , Nina Braun (GER), Overture (USA), Raymond Lemstra (NED), Rina Donnersmarck (GBR), Roman Klonek (POL), Sarah Illenberger (GER), Steve Alexander (GER)


I am invited to participate in Pictoplasma Paris! I have three pieces in the show. They are going to be exhibited in the prestigious LA GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE gallery.
OH MY GOD!!!!
I tried to act cool, but I just can't. I LIVE for Pictoplasma. I feel like I'm just passing days until I can go to the next Pictoplasma. Having a show at Pictoplasma is a dream come true. I almost fainted. I wish I can go to Paris for the show. I've never been to Paris. It sounds lame, but it's one city I don't want to go alone. I heard it's a romantic city. I am contemplating, but I am saving up for Berlin Pictoplasma next April. I still have two more days to decide... Should I just book the ticket to Paris? *biting nails*
Thank you Lars for this wonderful opportunity. I'm so honoured to be a part of it!

My favourite illustrator and an awesome person Aaron Leighton is also part of the show. All you lucky souls in Paris or near Paris, go check Pictoplasma out! Entire month of December. xo.

Me at Pictoplasma Berlin April 2011 with Motomichi card :D
Motomichi moving monsters in Paris Pictoplasma invitation

Friday, December 2, 2011

Blue + Yellow Phase

울지마, 씨바
Definitely going through blue + yellow phase. They are so awesome together. Baby blue and pink go well together too. Yeah, that's going to be my next drawing. :)

Everything had been blur since two weeks ago. I seriously thought today was last week. December is already here... Maybe I should start drinking coffee. Sorry for bombarding with so many posts past few days. One more to go, and will go back to the regular pace. 

The top sketch was done during pen club, drawing in a bar with bunch of friends. The translation of the title is, "Fuck, don't cry." Right side of the picture says, "Don't draw tears." I was attempting to not draw tears. So instead, I opted for bunch of small cubes. It is a bit strange to write about how I felt couple of months ago because things are quite awesome right now. After I finished my Master's in September, I dug a hole and lived in it for few weeks. I had to re-write my thesis like 28 times and when everything was over, things that I didn't have time to deal with all flooded back. All rolled up in bed sheets, I'd just sit and stared at computer screen, clicking random stuff all day for two weeks. Didn't talk to anyone. Hahaha... I will NEVER pursue another education again. This is it. Let the unlearning begin!

Whenever there is sad times, this song always picked me up, let me get back on my feet. Cradle of Filth's No Time to Cry. Because I truly have... no time to fucking cry.


Thesis paper prints

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

October 2012 Calendar for Kid Icarus

Cropped bottom

Cropped top
Seriously cool store in Kensington Market, Kid Icarus, invited illustrators to illustrate each month of 2012. I got OCTOBER! Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I was so excited about this. Here are some cropped images of the Calendar.
My stomach hurts a little looking at it because I really want to put wood texture at the background. I will try it once the calendars sell out. There is a limited edition of only 100, so order yours now! A lot of my talented friends are also participating. Here is more info about the 2012 calendar project:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Sunday December 4th 2011, our highly anticipated 2012 Handprinted Calendar will be available for sale at our storefront in Kensington Market. You can also pick up an early copy at Handmade Holiday, Saturday December 3rd, St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. The calendar is a limited edition of 125 copies, with only 100 available for sale at $80 each.

If you are unfamiliar with the project, the concept is to take 12 artists and produce a calendar with each artist choosing one month to illustrate and only two colours to pull it off. There are no guidelines on layout or how the information is presented, the artist has full control. The entire calendar is screen printed by hand from the cover, right through to the backing.
Calendars will be available for sale at Kid Icarus, and other locations (TBA).
Introducing the 2012 Calendar roster:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Jeannie Phan
Selena Wong
Melinda Josie
Claire Louise Milne
Mike Ellis
Reverend Aitor
Katherine Verhoeven
Halley Rigbey
Caitlin Taguibao
Hyein Lee
Nolan Pelletier
Anjo Chiang

RGD Ontario Award for Design Thinkers 2011


I won RGD Ontario scholarship for Design Thinkers 2011. Thank you RGD!

This year's Design Thinkers was amazing. RGD arranged me to meet Eric Ryan and Jessica Hische, both of whom I was dying to meet! Yeah and of course I was very scared. I acted very strangely, but let's not talk about that. Their talks were amazingly inspirational.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hand Lettered Canzine Posters ++ Pink Monster

Wonderful people at Canzine - Thank you Lindsay and Tara! - got me to work on this year's Canzine advertising campaign. Working with them was so much fun. Thank you for letting me do whatever I want to do! These furry fishes were 11X17" posters that were posted all around Toronto. I actually am rarely happy with my work, but I must say, I love the furry fish. I was very proud to see the posters reproduced. The letters "Canzine 2011" were embossed and everything was offset printed on beautiful papers. 

I hand-lettered all the type in the poster and I think that worked much better than computer fonts. This year's theme was "Piracy." I thought of plagiarism. These fish are copying each other in circles. They are mostly unhappy because they are being copied by the other. I got the furry fish idea from this movie/tv show I saw long time ago. It was set in a Victorian era. There still were unknown parts in the world still. Explorers would travel and bring back exotic stuffed animals. I remember the scene where the explorer/traveler brought a stuffed furry fish. It was of course fake, he probably was swindled or made it himself. Maybe he never went overseas. The woman in the scene was so surprised by the furry fish, she dropped the wine glass. That moment is so vivid, but I have no idea what movie that was. Let me know if any of you remember what it was. And are furry fish common thing? Meaning, are they in our collective conscious?

How they are reproduced.
Rough for the poster.
I had a table at this year's Canzine (last month). It was fun as always! Thank you everyone for kindly visiting my table. I took a photo in front of a wall covered with my Canzine posters. So happy!

Advertisement I illustrated and designed for "The Grid" magazine. All hand-lettered.

Lastly, here is another pink monster painting I did! The background is Toronto cityscape. This was commissioned for a wonderful patron. Quite big, 18X24". It was so much fun to work on. I'm so honoured to have my art work hung on his living room. Thank you, you know who you are. xo

Monday, November 28, 2011

Ammo Magazine + Art Elemento Features // if humans can love a machine

Ammo is UK based illustration magazine. I'm a huge fan of this beautiful publication, so I'm honoured to be included in the Issue #8. Thank you, Dave!
Awesome cover by talented Toronto illustrator Jess!
Ammo magazine is only £5. It's full colour with beautiful images. Go check it out!

Art Elemento, an English art magazine from Kwangju, Korea had been kind enough to feature my work in their wonderful website. The cover shows my noodle cup promo. Joe, the awesome editor showcased my work in four-page spread. I am very grateful.
I wrote the article for my section. I feel so insecure about my writing. I hope I didn't babble too much. You can read the whole thing for free here:


Because I've been too busy to upload on my blog, there still are so many catching up to do. I hope I remember everything. Sorry for being so scattered.

There was a big change in my life a month ago. I finally decided to join the human civilization and buy a cellphone. I know, I know. If you ever talked to me before, you know that I made some dumb iPhone apps. I made apps and don't have a cellphone?! I was probably the only Korean in the world without a cellphone. I felt like floating and smug. But deep inside, I knew that as soon as I get a smart phone, I'd be horribly addicted to it. And I was right; I'm hopelessly addicted. I feel a little uneasy without it. For the first time in a month, I took a walk without my cellphone tonight, and it felt liberating.
No, I don't really need a smart phone. I'm home all day anyways, why do I need a tiny computer with me all the time? The only thing that push me over the edge was... twitter. I envied my friends twitting photos via mobile. I had to take photos with a digital camera, import the photo to my computer, turn on the internet, and then tweet. Now, I can be like a normal person, just take the photo with a goddamn phone and tweet right away. God, certain material possession can definitely make a person happier. I love you, smart phone. Yes, I bought a smart phone for purely superficial and useless reasons. Gut me.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Canadian Family



This is such a late post! My apologies for abandoning my blog for an entire month!
Things had been crazy. I finally got my Master's degree and have been working on all kinds of projects ever since. I haven't slept much for a long time, so everything is a blur. Oh my god, time flies by so fast. A lot of projects are finally completed and the next week will be a bit relaxed. I have so much updating to do. There will be some frequent posting in the next few days.

I once again worked with the awesome art director, Colleen, on these illustrations. They were for the October issue of Canadian Family's "Ages and Stages" section.

Here it is in print!


Friday, September 16, 2011

Queen West Art Crawl - This Weekend!

Bunch-o-snails!
Monster. He's delicate.

I have a tent at this weekend's Queen West Art Crawl. Do come and say hello if you are checking out QWAC; my tent is E41. Here is the info:
790 Queen West Toronto
Sat & Sun (September 17th and 18th)
11am to 6pm

Here is the map to my tent:


I spent past three days in Brampton, participating at Brampton Indie Arts Festival. I didn't talk to a real person for the most of past three days. Good god, being alone in the great suburbia took my head to the darkest places.

Brampton Indie Arts Festival was very cool. The city and the local musician, Rich, did a lot of work to give a bit of magical spark on a desolate fall night. Brampton's brand new Rose theatre was decorated with strange paper stripes and pinatas (??). Weird song-making machines were cranking carnivalesque tunes in an empty concrete court yard. There were many musicians, mainly folk and jazz. I didn't check out any of it. Being alone for three days made me go coocoo, I think. Everybody came in groups, and I didn't want to be by myself watching bands. I do enjoy being alone, but man, it was too much.

Anyways, here is a photo of strawberry pinata. I think strawberry candies would come out of it, if you beat it.

Oh, almost forgot.
All the Applied Arts readers can see how messy my place is:
Sheridan College Special Feature. Sheridan Rocks!
Thank you Sheridan College for using my photo for the recruitment special feature. :D

Friday, September 2, 2011

★★ Twinkling Stars Above: Videogame Demo + Thesis Exhibition ★★

I am having my Master's thesis exhibition / videogame prototype demo next week. I was not going to have an opening party because I was afraid of nobody showing up to the opening party. However, there will be a coffee & cookies closing reception. If you are around town during the gallery hours, please drop by and say hello. I'll be sitting the gallery throughout the show. If you bring me vegan drinks (London Fog with soymilk or smoooothies!?), I'd love you.

Oh and I'm in fear of everything going wrong. And currently, everything IS GOING WRONG. So if the exhibition fails, please don't hate me. I'm a crying owl.

Here is the information:

Twinkling Stars Above
Hyein Lee
Thesis Exhibition
September 7th to 9th, 2011
205 Richmond Street Ground Floor
Toronto Ontario
Gallery Hours 1 to 6PM


Coffee & Cookies Closing Reception on Friday, September 9th 1PM at the gallery.

Monday, August 29, 2011

❤ Thank you ❤

Thank you very much for visiting me at Fan Expo 2011. It was exhausting four days, but fun days at that. These are drawings I did while sitting at the table. It was quite busy, people to see, hair barrettes to make, smiles to smile. So I didn't get to draw as much. My German grammar book also went untouched. Yes, I'm learning German by myself, preparing for the Pictoplasma 2012. I'm determine to speak at least, 'Entschuldigung (Excuse me),' although I heard I don't really need it.
I like these dudes! They will be Snakes in the Forest attempt two


They are sheep... I can hear my teacher from college days yelling at me. "What is that? Pig? Cow? It's a Pigcow! Go learn how to draw properly!" Well, if you get a ridiculously useless over education like me, you can draw sheep like me. I'm kidding.  They are terrible.

These ghosts are saying 'Hello' in Korean


I LOVE triangles lately 
I got drawings from my fans! Thanks girls 
Some photos with girls who gave me drawing gifts:
With Roma

With Sarah

Awesome & beautiful things I got. From top left corner, Kailey, Miko, Anne Koyama, Charlene Chua
 and Taryn.
Now back to work on my Master's. My apartment looks like a serial killer's room right now. It is disturbingly messy. I will clean after I finish school. I can't wait to make it presentable enough to have friends over.
Anyways, thank you again, and see you again at Fan Expo 2012❤ 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

More Stuff for FanExpo 2011 ~✿

Oh the night's rapidly passing and I am injecting caffeine (I wish!) to stay up, making things for FanExpo. I still have a lot to do. Look at the pins and barrettes I'm making. These little dudes are going to be lions  Oㅅ O  More update photos soon as I complete them. Skull, strawberry and monster barrettes are coming also.

Drying future lions 
Making skull, yeti & animal barrettes and pins

Yeti with manly chest hair

Rings! It was the first time I made rings

Special Macaron for my friend <3

If you've met me, you saw me wearing these. Mine are over 5 years old but I'm strangely attached to them. 
There are mini plaques for my work. 
Mouspads! They come in two designs. I made a very few of these (4 or 5 I think), so come and get them while they last.

Oh I wish I were sleeping. One day, I'm going to sleep all day. Yes.