Final Golden Eagle Illustration

Here is the Golden Eagle illustration, all finished and happy.

The Photographer

A belated birthday sketch for a good friend.

Poor Impractical Elephant

I made a quick poem to go along with this sketch:

Poor impractical elephant;
Full of impractical thoughts. 
Could've gotten a car better suited for him,
but then he thought, 'better not.'
So he went and bought this sports car
Thinking it suited him fine
Although it's difficult to drive in,
and gives him back pain all the time

He thought his life was too lacking
and wanted to fill the hole
but the answer to his problem caused more problems;
He drove right into a pole.

Elephant gained consciousness after the crash
and was afraid that he had died,
But walking out of the crumpled car without a scratch,
He never felt more satisfied.

So people, I'd advise you to listen up
to what Impractical elephant learned.
A life not appreciated for what there is
Is a life that is truly spurned.

Noah's Ark Wall Mural

Golden Eagle Mother

I love birds, and only recently found it a bit odd that I didn't have very many illustrations of them. So I've decided to create a series of them, starting with the ruthless Golden Eagle. I liked the idea of how the stronger child would push the weaker one out of the nest in order to ensure their own survival, and thought it would be nice to apply it in the illustration. I liked the outstretched wing in the first sketch, but then it seemed as if the mother was saying "ta-daa natural selection at work!" so I thought it best to make her "hands" full.

 A quick, reverted tracing paper sketches before I transferred it to the watercolor paper.

Tomato Automotive Advertisment 2013

 Every year I design a 2-page spread advertising my dad's business in the Korean Yellow Pages. It's not the best thing in the world, but it definitely gives me the opportunity to see my level of improvement from year to year, and I'm definitely come to learn that becoming a mature, professional artist doesn't only mean having freakishly great technique, but knowing how and when to simplify the composition to the essentials without sacrificing the richness of the idea. Now, I obviously haven't fully realized all of that yet, but comparing the old ads I did in the past two years to this one, I can tell I'm getting better at not overcomplicating my ideas, which is pretty pleasing.

Even Kings Gaze up at the Stars

This was an illustration I originally made for a competition based on a story titled "Seven Kings of the Seven Worlds." I'm pretty sure my illustration wasn't chosen, but I had a lot of fun making this. There are some very clear visual mistakes in this illustration...like those arms. And those hands. Hate those hands... but I'm generally happy with the way it turned out and learned some very important lessons.