There is something eerily still about Youngchae Lee’s illustrations. Cinematic in nature, her illustrations look like scenes cut out of a movie. “I make stories, set the scene and bring out characters that are either still-life or animal,” she told It’s Nice That.
In one scene, a father and son walk on the beach, sandals in hands; in another, people are seen chatting happily in a crowded coffee place. “I think my work reaches out to viewers whole-heartedly because it’s easy to empathize with the stories in the images that viewers may have also experienced,” says the South Korean illustrator. “I try to capture these moments in a still and active way at the same time,” she explains.
After studying graphic design, Lee came back to her original passion: illustration. “I made up my mind to become an illustrator when I designed a book of my own illustrations for my graduate show,” she recalls. “After my graduation, I spent more of my time drawing pictures and posting them on the internet and luckily, this led to several commissions a year later and since then, I’ve been working as an illustrator.”
Here are some highlights from her Instagram page:
