Children's Art - Illustrations that Express Emotions

Illustrations that express and/or create emotions - I'd love to hear your thoughts about this concept. How does it work? 

To continue the editorials on children's illustration, here's a fun interview with Jeehyun Hoke, our featured artist this week, who tells us how she feels about it!

Artist Jeehyun Hoke

The Moon from My Attic: please introduce yourself – My name is Jeehyun Hoke, an illustrator focusing on children's books and book covers. I was born and grew up in Korea;  I studied some boring subjects like economics and politics. When I realize that art is the forever exciting thing for me, I came to US to study and went to University of Kansas. I graduated in 2010 and now I am learning the business side of illustration. So, I feel very honored to be interviewed here as a fresh one in the industry. 

TMFMA: Where do you enjoy doing your creative work? I am very lazy about going out or moving around, so my home office is where I mostly work. Luckly, my family respect my work space – my 18 months old baby is blocked to come in, and I can be as messy as possible with some toxic materials.

© Jeehyun Hoke

TMFMA: How did you get started? I was a student studying economics and politics in Korea. Having only one semester ahead to graduation in summer 2005, I was pretty lost about what I wanted to do. I did not want to do those boring jobs that I would not have much passion for. In fact, I never understood those graphs in economics books and hardly watched news or read papers, though grades were okay. One day, I went to a book store and wandered around the children's book section, and then I was hit by a realization. The illustrations in the books looked really fascinating, I thought I would be happy by doing them, unlike other jobs. It was the moment. After that, I started looking for schools that had illustration program, made my portfolio to apply, graduated the school and moved to the US in 2006. 

© Jeehyun Hoke

TMFMA: What is exciting about your creative work? There are several exciting things. First, I get really excited when I see the emotions that I wanted to deliver expressed in my illustrations. That does not happen all the time, but when I got the result, it is like solving a difficult math problem. The second would be experiment. Experiment is part of my work process, and I take this working time as playing time. The most rewarding and exciting about my creative work is when kids are enjoying my works. I specifically wanted to work for kids friendly image from the beginning of the illustration journey, so, when that happens, I get truly excited and happy.

© Jeehyun Hoke

TMFMA: What's your favorite medium or tool you create with? I love watercolor for practical reasons. The watercolor works are very easy to store and carry around. The watercolor tools are also very handy to carry around for trip and draw and paint outdoors. The drying time is fairly short, so the process goes pretty fast. However, I experiment with other materials, besides watercolor. 

TMFMA: Do you work by yourself or do you also do collaborative work? I work by myself, though I wish I could have more chance to do collaborative works. 

TMFMA: Tell us of a fun and creative project or a collaboration, and what you learned from it. I have illustrated a children's book called "Eli's Magic Blanket Ride" working with author Bill McCleave. I took this when I had no idea of business, but I got the total freedom of making images. It was really fun story and fun project to work with. I could use a lot of my imagination for many buildings made from ice cream cones, cookies, pound cakes and so on. Finding out how to support the story better and looking for the right character were all fun processes. Through the process, I could understand the children's book illustrator's role better. Also, I learned a lot of business side. At the beginning I did not know anything about business. By doing this, I needed to study contracts, terms, rights and money in this industry. Over all, this project opened my eyes to the actual illustration business. By the way, this book is in the process of being published. Sometime this year, you will see it.

© Jeehyun Hoke

TMFMA: Where do you like to look for inspiration? Bookstores and libraries. They have tons of images by categories of books. I can see the trend and study book designs and recent covers at one sight. Also, when I get to read books and some articles from magazines, those stories inspires me to a new idea.

TMFMA: Is there a person or thing that has influenced you in your artistic efforts? I am inspired many Korean artist like Makitoy, Heena Pack, Sudong Lee. Also, I love Nara Yoshimoto's works.

© Jeehyun Hoke

TMFMA: What are the reasons for you to do what you do? It is all about my happiness. I think my happiness comes from two sources: one is family, and the other is dream. So doing illustration and being an illustrator fills the dream part, which is 50% of my happiness.

TMFMA: What are your future aspirations and goals? For now, my goal is having a settled business with my illustration. For the future, I want to write and illustrate children's books related to travel and information about different countries.

  

Jeehyun's website, blog and portfolio website.

Featured as cover artist for Pen & Palette 2011 Spring Issue.

© Jeehyun Hoke