We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Seungmin Oh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Seungmin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My journey of creativity started very early. I started drawing since when I was very little. My mom would tell me when I was too young to draw with my baby fingers, I asked my parents to draw things for me instead and watch them doodle. And my parents had to draw such things as characters and animals even though they didn’t have any interest in drawing. It made me laugh when they told me those drawings looked awful but I loved it anyways. Then I went to school gradually falling in love with animation. I drew a lot of the characters that I liked and drew comics with my friends for years which wasn’t weird to say that it is what kept our friendship going over the years. Come to think of it now, based on my childhood so much in love with animation and illustration, it feels odd that by then I never thought I would be an artist. I think I just knew that my favorite thing is to draw and it has been a part of my life. Just the fact that I was able to draw made me happy, no more or less.

By the time I hit 20 years old, my interest in art field grew bigger, I started looking at illustrations by many other amazing artists like Shaun Tan and fell in love. I was influenced by them having to learn from their picture books which also affected my art style that I have now. I learned that there are so many online platforms where I can see other artists work. That’s when I began to look at many Visual Development artists/Illustrators like Carter Goodrich and Peter de Sève. Then I knew exactly what I want to be in this field of art and started pursuing my dreams. To do that, I moved all the way to United States to learn, improve, challenge myself which became the footing of my dreams. The artistic journey that I am on to live as an illustrator and a character designer is still ongoing.

Seungmin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello, my name is Seungmin Oh and I am an Illustrator and a Visual Development Artist! I communicate with the viewers/clients by visual storytelling. I love to create illustrations for animated films, games, and picture books. Even if it is a small object, every element contains a story. I love designing those elements such as characters, backgrounds, props and make them alive. Sometimes I write my own stories. Those stories that I create mostly come from my own experience. What I see, hear, feel, everything that is in my life becomes my biggest inspiration. And I hope those stories have something that people can relate to, making them feel a variety of emotions.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

As an independent artist, it is always an important topic what story I should build and show visually. There are so many films and books that changed my way of thinking in storytelling as an artist. Growing up, I watched a lot of animated films and series. Back then when I was younger, I loved it but I don’t think I was really able to understand and look into what the films are trying to say. And when I looked back at those films years later, I realized that those films talk a lot about life. Basically, the world around us. I think I spent my early-mid 20s focusing on myself. Mostly about how I feel, what I love, and about the things that had impact on my life. A few years ago, I got to watch old Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke again and I saw more than what I thought I knew about those films. Now, I try to turn my focus on many other things. Nature, people, our society and so on. Definitely myself and part of my life is always reflected through my artwork but to have interest on things that are around me is just as important. The famous animated films that we know like Pixar’s Soul for example present a character’s life that is similar to ours. They depict and reflect the aspect of our lives. Therefore, that is why people love them. It affected the way I see things and present my way of interpretation. I try to expand the range of vision inside me to look farther and develop a story with a bigger world not being caught too much inside myself.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As an artist, resilience is needed all the time and I know that many other artists would relate to this as well. To put yourself fully into creativity everyday is enjoyable but not easy. To blend life and art is fun and it makes you earn different perspectives but it also requires a lot of effort. And whether it is a small doodle or a bigger project, it doesn’t work out well all the time. Sometimes the process from beginning to the end flows very smoothly and sometimes it becomes very stressful. But that is just how it works and I think as a professional artist, to know how to spring back into a good shape is important. Over the years, I have encountered so many difficulties. Starting my career in a new environment, especially in a different country, was never easy. And to be creative in my daily life made it harder. However, it’s funny that that was also what got me through the hardship. When I work, I put a lot of thinking into the design process. And when it doesn’t flow the way I want it to be, it drains my energy physically and mentally. So, I go back, look at films or comics that I love and just doodle characters that I like, following where my hand leads to. There was once when I worked on a personal project named Nuri, I started buying concept art books of the films I like and I didn’t know when to stop that it just piled up filling up my bookshelf which got me broke (laugh). Or sometimes I even just stop drawing for a while to give my head a break when it’s needed. Often, artists work too hard because we love what we do and sometimes because of the amount of work with a lot of pressure, forgetting the importance of taking a break. But to have the energy restored to spring back, taking a rest is one of the most essential thing for artists.

x

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ohseungmin94.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seungmin_draws/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/seungmin-oh-18b74522a