We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sophie Yun Lee. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sophie below.
Sophie , appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
During my senior year of high school, I finally felt like I had more purpose in life as that was when I decided to focus on art. I took an Advertising, Art & Design class at a technical high school that I went to in the afternoon. In the morning, I had an orchestra elective where I played violin and had a visual arts class where I did more “fine art” centered work. In my AAD class, my knowledge was opened up to the commercial world of graphic design and applied art. I couldn’t have been with a better teacher, friend, mentor, and cheerleader at the time who is now retired. He assisted me in receiving an internship at a local advertising agency where I had a taste of what it was like to work as a designer. Towards the last weeks of the internship, I began a sort of “dark age” in my life because I needed to stay home from the pandemic lockdown. However, the memories that I made during that last year, especially in that inspiration-filled classroom made me realize that I want to do this for a living. It especially made me want to teach art in the future and support other creatives on their journey.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born in San Jose, California but raised in Anchorage, Alaska. My parents took their cars and I in a U-Haul truck through the Yukon from California after I was born. I started drawing because I saw my family members doing it for fun, often portraits of themselves and I. Up until high school, because of pressure to pursue a career that would be more “stable” I considered art as just a hobby. However, that changed once I knew about the commercial side of art. As a kid, I thought that as an artist you could only paint with “real” paint, and that really didn’t appeal to me at the time. Ironically enough I grew to love traditional media as equally as I love digital art. After fully allowing myself to enjoy the craft, it was hard for me to stick to one discipline. My interests include graphic and layout design inspired by the “Art of” books I grew up looking at, but also the concept art in them that contribute to the games and movies I love. One side of my work aims to blend these elements together and I really hope to work on a best-selling artbook someday, whether it’s with my own art or for someone else!
I graduated high school in 2020 and had a tough time during the Covid-19 pandemic as I felt like I was just starting to get serious about my artistic journey. I value in person interactions greatly and I didn’t want to start a program partially online. So, in the meantime I was able to take online art classes that laid some of the foundation for my illustrative work while working part-time to save up for art school. I really wanted to go to ArtCenter in California to pursue my dream at that time to work in the video games and entertainment industry, however the price tag was way too steep. I eventually moved to Washington state and attended a school called Northwest College of Art & Design to pursue a double major in Illustration and Graphic Design in 2022.
This year I’ve found a lot of success and I feel like the work I’ve been putting in is paying off. I recently graduated from NCAD and feel like I became more disciplined. I still consider myself an illustrator and designer first, but I never thought to think of myself as a painter until now.
Something unexpected was a painting hobby turning into a way to make a living. I started gouache painting outside as a way to get out and away from school life and screens and because of encouragement by multiple instructors. I enjoy the challenge of quick decision making and the experiences that plein air brings with being on-location. Most of my paintings were started and completed outdoors within 2 hours. However, I never expected it to grow as more than a hobby, as I was able to do work for a local magazine in Tacoma called Grit City Magazine. I contacted them for an internship and initially showed them my graphic design and digital illustrations. But they liked my paintings and gave me a chance to do illustrative work in gouache. I was also able to design the layout for that story which has been published in one of their magazines.
At the same time, I was preparing for a guest artist show at Badger Burrow Studios in Georgetown Seattle. Determined to get work or make connections, I brought my portfolio to show to artists at Emerald City Comic Con in March. I was a booth buddy for James Doppelhammer, a good friend of mine who paints comic art in watercolor. He suggested I go to the Badger Burrow Studios booth as the owner, Brittany, was giving other artists opportunities to show art in her space. She happened to like my work (and I was amazed at hers) and had a space open later in the year in September-October! My paintings are up until the end of October 2025 and feature some of the gouache paintings that I started making a year ago. After it ends, I plan on establishing an online shop to sell prints and continuing to work as a freelance illustrator and designer. At the moment, I am honing my skills and preparing my portfolio to work as a visual development artist in the animation industry!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I feel like if I wasn’t a full time artist, I would never have met or known about so many amazing people. Learning about artists that were famous in history like the Hudson River School artists or Frank Frazetta feels almost like learning about the past avatars before you. But meeting other artists & creatives whether they’re local or on the other side of the globe is something truly special. Despite being active and busy replying to messages on online platforms, there’s nothing quite like seeing people you care about who also care about you all crammed into one studio. Prepping for the guest artist show made me realize that it’s okay to ask for help, and that something can only happen because there are so many people besides you involved. Some individuals I wanted to highlight are my painting partner who I started painting regularly with, James who led me to Badger Burrow Studios, a colleague who helped with framing the pieces, and so many others who showed support and were an inspiration like Chelsea Belle Arts who had her own gallery showing around the same time.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
There are tons of resources online to learn art but the challenge is finding the resources that would fit the kind of art you want to do. I really wish that I found out about and took an in-depth perspective and sketching classes a lot earlier because the work I wanted to do required a lot of technical skill. I took an online perspective drawing class where every week the teacher would meet up with the students through Zoom. They’re offered by working professionals at online schools like Concept Design Academy and Brainstorm School. I also highly recommend the Nathan Fowkes classes on Schoolism and videos on Youtube for learning applied color theory. For painting, one of my favorite painters is Tiffanie Mang and she posts a lot of valuable and helpful tips on her socials. I also wish that I read through James Gurney’s books on color theory and sketching sooner. I would also advise to take advantage of any art-related meetups in your area or to travel to events if you can afford them. They’re great places to meet other creatives if you go with the intent of making friends and to network (but also to have fun and treat yourself to buy art you like!). Things like comic & anime conventions, larger animation and video game conventions, but also smaller weekly meetups like drink and draws and cafe sketch meetups. However this also depends on where you live, as there’s a lot more to do up in Seattle than there ever was back in my hometown of Anchorage. If you can’t find any then start your own physical meetup or join an online community!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sophieyunlee.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophieyunlee/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophieyunlee/
- Other: https://www.behance.net/sophielee25
Image Credits
@scriptablecat on Instagram, Brittany at Badger Burrow Studios, Faro Morris