Inspired by her childhood, Isu Kim’s illustrations are a lovable and joyful treat for the eye

Joyful and loveable, I don’t think it can get much better than the illustrative work of Isu Kim. Based in Frankfurt, the visual artist has been working on a new collection of free drawings, creating simple block-coloured characters that have the power to bring a smile to anyone. “I’m fond of drawings in the same way I like cats,” she tells It’s Nice That. “With a heart full of love and gratitude, I’m making this drawing book and I hope to dedicate it to everyone who loves drawing just as much as I do.”

Having majored in visual communication design in college, Isu went on to work as an animator, motion graphic designer and illustrator in Seoul. “It was a very intense and frustrating period to me,” she tells us. “Although I sometimes ran away from the design work and had a short break to concentrate on personal work, it wasn’t enough for me.” Feeling as if her creative flair had been halted through her current role, Isu was under lots of pressure from clients and other designers. So, she decided to leave Korea in 2017 in the hope of finding something new – landing on Frankfurt as her destination where she started her newfound occupation as a visual artist.

“From the moment that I decided to work for myself, I was always under pressure to make something serious and philosophical as an artist,” she continues, explaining how she used to have a belief that this angle was her reason for creating art. “However, one day I realised that I’m not the sort of person who wants to talk about a specific story through art. Instead, I’m a person who just wants to enjoy visual things and focus on drawings for the sake of drawing.” As a result, her work began to evolve with a theme of youth, alongside an experimentation with materials and process.

This theme is fully rooted with her adoration with playfulness. “I believe in the sheer artistry that comes especially from youth,” she says, noting how she views it as the purest form of drawing. Much of recent works embrace this concept, presenting an array of objects and characters that are inspired from her childhood – “I call them ‘joys’,” she says. Here, bright blocks of colour and sharp lines are the key players into an imaginative world.

To achieve this distinct aesthetic, Isu works across a diverse range of mediums, like drawing, painting, animation and “various forms of visual expression”. She tells us how she’s recently “fallen in love” with the free drawing tool on the iPad, for it enables her to draw easily everyday. This means she can sketch, experiment or create to her heart’s desire, and later, she can select her chosen illustrations to transform into paintings. “Normally, I don’t consider materials and mediums when I prepare a new project,” she says. “I just start with some drawings and then choose the tools that best suits the medium.” That being said, her work is entirely eclectic, and can be anything from a canvas painting to a drawing or GIF.

As of last year, Isu has been completing her book of free drawings, and so far, there’s around 60 in total; though she’d originally planned to only make 30. The publication was originally scheduled to be released in March this year, but like near enough all projects, it’s currently been put on hold due to the current crisis. One thing’s for sure is that these drawings encompass her ethos as an artist entirely, for they have been created with utmost care. “I’ve thought about the relationship between myself and my drawings, and I’ve realised that I want to focus on the feeling, which is a very similar feeling to when I love something,” she says. “This means that there’s no special reason for when I draw, I just enjoy it.”