Illustrator reinterprets Western fairytales in Eastern way

Illustrator Wooh Na-young, known by her pen name "Obsidian," has caught the eyes of people in Korea and around the world with her unique style of reinterpreting Western characters in an Eastern way. Korea Times photo by Lee Min-young, Kim Kang-min

By Lee Gyu-lee

Illustrator Wooh, right, poses with Danish Ambassador to Seoul Einar H. Jensen in front of a moving version of her artwork "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" at the Expanded Animation exhibition in central Seoul, Nov 13. Courtesy of Wooh Na-young

When people think of "Alice in Wonderland," they naturally envisage a girl in a puffed sleeve sky-blue dress as Alice.

Illustrator Wooh Na-young, also known by her pen name "Obsidian," changes the popular image of the protagonist of Lewis Caroll's novel. Woo presents something unique in Alice falling down the rabbit hole ― the girl is in "hanbok" or traditional Korean costume.

Wearing a white hanbok top and sky blue skirt, her hair is in black pigtails with traditional hair accessories. Alongside her, the rabbit is also wearing hanbok and traditional hat "Gat."

This picture is part of Wooh's signature series "Western Fairy Tales in Korea" that helped her gain fame at home and abroad. The drawing was made into an animated film and exhibited at Denmark's largest animation festival in September and at the KF Gallery in central Seoul in November.

Her unique style ― Western animation and film characters in hanbok and oriental drawing ― started going viral online, which led to her numerous collaborative projects with Netflix, Marvel, and Disney, including the recent cover for "Maleficent 2."

The illustrator says that getting to the place she is now has been a journey of finding herself.

"My paintings are myself, the history of me," she says. Her drawings are the result of her experience in the digital-forefront gaming industry for more than 10 years, her Oriental drawing background and her long interest in animation since childhood.

Majoring in Oriental painting in college, the artist, 40, got her first job at a gaming company as a dots graphic designer. So when she decided to start drawing again after six years, she had no idea how to start after she left her career in an attempt to become a freelance artist.

Coming up with the subject for drawing was the hardest part. "I realized how I have never taken time for self-reflection and explored things I liked or disliked, which usually comes as a subject for artists," she says.

So she went back to work and started preparing herself by exploring interests and striving to find own style.

When hanbok caught her eye one day, she took it to the fullest and developed her own interpretation, which is now the foundation and main element of her drawings.

From left, drawings for Marvel's "Thor: Ragnarok," Disney's "Maleficent 2" and "Andersen ― I dream of the far east," painting of the Danish writer with characters from his fairytale stories Courtesy of Wooh Na-young

Of course, reinterpreting the traditional Oriental style of drawing and to do it digitally did not come easy at first. "It was more of making the lines rather than drawing them," she says.

Spending days of trial and error to figure out just the right brush stroke and detail that she wanted, she created the first piece "Alice in Wonderland." It took about six months to complete.

But she says every moment was worth the time, because this is how she channels her identity through paintings and regains positive energy from doing so.

From bottle design collaboration with whiskey brand Johnnie Walker to book publishing, she continues to broaden her horizons. She published a coloring book in 2017 and a hanbok guide, earlier this year.

"As I was drawing hanbok, I started to get curious about various types and detailed components that make up hanbok," she says.

Finding scholarly sources on hanbok difficult to digest, she decided to produce an easier way and more picture-friendly ways of learning about the costume.

"I figured there are other people who would feel just as confused as I was," she says. "So I gathered the notes I took while studying them and put them into a book to share."

The most grateful comment for the artist is when people tell her that they had no interest in or did not know about hanbok, but grew to like it through her paintings. And that's how she wants to be remembered ― as someone who shows the beauty of the costume and presents art that make people happy.

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