Nata Joh
Nata Joh

Self-Initiated

A Giant Visitor

Self-Initiated New Talent

College: Kingston University.

Nata Joh is a Freelance Illustrator and Designer. She graduated Seoultech with a major in Visual Communication Design. She is now taking an MA Communication Design: Illustration course in Kingston University.

Nata believes that making characters and stories is like creating your own world, and is currently trying to focus more on narrative illustration.

About Entry
I can’t forget the moment when I first saw the last year exhibition in Somerset House. The building was so beautiful and the artworks in there were so breathtaking. It is so amazing that I have such a big honor and it boosts my confidence a lot. 

Website/Online Portfolio
natajoh.com

Brief
This is the first illustration for my self-study project. I had started this work before I came to London. I was excited and scared at the same time. The artwork is about that feeling when people go to unfamiliar places. The giant represents experiences that people will face in different places; the first giant you meet being, the first step of a journey. There are so many things you need to prepare and you can't even be sure what is going to happen. However, at the same time, you can feel your heart is beating faster with excitement. However, in the initial stages of the research, to show a relationship with the people and the giant, I researched how houses and buildings could be set in a swamp and when onto design several of them. 

Materials
Pencil drawings, scanned and painted in Photoshop.

Research
When I make characters, I like making stories behind the characters based on research. At the time, I was really into designing characters and creatures affected by the environments that surround them. The giant lives in a swamp so I researched regions that have huge swamps, lakes and forests. I researched not only the environment, but also the plants from swamps such as bracken and mushrooms.

Process
After the initial research, I got some concepts down on paper. I then scanned in one of my sketches, and picked colour schemes from my old works. This enables me to maintain consistency throughout my projects. I overlapped some of my old pieces on the image and blended them with brushes.

Resistances
It is always difficult to make a good composition with variety of elements. I couldn’t help but show everything in a picture. It was really hard to resist my temptation to put more components. For instance, I wanted put small tents and huts of the tribes. 

Insight
I drew this painting in my house where is surrounded by mountains. A thick forests and a numbers of birds and small friends who have 6 legs sometimes 8 gave me a lot of inspirations and a positive effect. 

Distractions
It was hard to decide when should I finish.

Numbers
7 flowers, not sure the giant vended over 7times or all at once to pick them. 

Afterwords
There is always a lot of struggling and countless moments of frustration, but still the feeling when I create something and people started to like it is always worth to do it again. 







Share