Lions by Wonman Kim

Recently Wonman Kim, a 35-year-old freelance illustrator and graphic designer from Seoul, South Korea, got in touch with me and graciously agreed to answer a few questions I had for him, which I have summarized below.

Growing up in Seoul, Kim is a self-taught artist who majored in business and has had a passion for drawing and painting since his childhood.  After he graduated, he worked as a key and clean-up animator before going into the game industry as a character and background concept designer nine years ago.  He currently works in the book publishing, t-shirt, and toy industry.

Kim loves to describe his thoughts and imagination through his work, and appreciates the effect that art has on people.  During his career has an artist, his simple goal was to do what makes him happy.  While he has always both drawn and painted, he has recently focused more on drawing, a worthwhile pursuit unto itself. Influences on Kim include the old engravings of Gustav Dore, Australian artist Robert Ingpen, comic artist Moebius, Nicolas de Crécy, Enki Bilal, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Phil Hale, Jon Foster, Terrada Katsuya, and Grampa.

You can see Kim’s work on his website and keep up with him on his blog; he’s also got some great pictures on his Flickr account, and his toy company is MadWitch Toy.

"Chinese Juck Tale" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 5)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 9)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 18)" by Wonman Kim

Related posts:

1. Untitled (Hallucination) by Wesley Burt
2. Godmachine
3. “Little Black Book Faces” by Rocky Davies