Heehyun is an illustrator and surface designer based in New York, NY and Atlanta, GA. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, she pursued her MFA in illustration at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, GA. She loves to stroll and observe daily scenes, feeling people's liveliness (also animals) and greens on the street. She sticks to collage work and enjoys exploring new textures and color palettes using traditional media such as acrylic paint and color pencils. When working on the projects, she carefully chooses the right color palette and textures to fit them. She mainly works on Procreate when creating illustrations and uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create surface design works.
Interested in seeing fun updates? Follow her on Instagram. See her line-based illustration on @heehyun.line
shape-based illustration on @heehyun.ai  and surface pattern design work on @heehyun.design

︎ Please email me for any questions, inquiries and commissions. Just press the icon on the left.


Artist Statement
I love observing daily scenes and objects around me to discover a new narrative fueled by my imaginations. For example, sometimes, I may imagine myself becoming a random object in the room, and I’ll consider what experiences I may have from such a perspective. Even the weird or ridiculous ideas that I conjure during this process can make sense once illustrated within the paper's four corners. This is one of the reasons I love to create illustrations. I also enjoy putting light-hearted humor in my illustrations, and you may find a funny scene or witty relationships between my characters, especially in my picture book illustrations.

The emotions that I feel in daily life are another source of inspiration for my works. Due to their abstract nature, all emotions are shapeless. To describe the abstract idea in a visual form, I brainstorm to find metaphors or symbols and take notes on my phone. Dissecting and expressing common human emotions delicately is a process of self-reflection for me and a journey that I can share with other viewers of my works. My work may elicit empathy or invoke pangs of happiness or satisfaction.

All in all, it is a very productive process. As viewers of my work share their observations and thoughts when viewing my work, I have been able to grow artistically and personally. As an artist, my goal is to consistently discover, imagine, and empathize with others through my illustrations.


Exhibitions ＋ Recognitions
Creative Quarterly 61 | Runner-up : 2020

69th GAKUM Illustration Group Exhibition, Seoul, South Korea ;  Feb. to Mar. 2017 The Colorful Blossom and Sympathy

99do Culture and Art Community, www.instagram.com/99do_korea ;  Feb. 2017
Featured as “Artist of the Week”