Today we’d like to introduce you to Heejung Lim.
Heejung, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born and raised in South Korea and always loved to draw as long as I could remember. For my father worked at a computer company, we had an abundance of computer papers, the one that you can unfold into a large, long continuous piece, and that was my playground as a child.
However, my parents did not want to nurture my passion for art, since the journey to become an artist in Korea and to earn a living with it was full of peril. In my elementary school years, they wanted me to become a professional cello player, and after that they wanted me to become a lawyer or doctor and so on, but NEVER artist. Regardless of what they wanted, I still couldn’t let go of art and drew whenever I had time behind their back. At least that was what I thought I was doing, doing art when they were not looking, but apparently, my desire had shown too well. It was when I got into a prestigious foreign language high school when they suggested that I study art abroad, in the United States.
And that was my first step toward becoming and working as an artist. With their support, I graduated from the California Institute of the Art with Character Animation BFA degree. I’ve taken various illustrations, and character concept works for the gaming industry in early years of my career, but my passion for visual storytelling through storyboards has slowly grown in me and eventually it led me to story internship at Disney Pixar.
All the learning and meeting people at Pixar were a huge bundle of inspiration. It also provided opportunities to continue my journey as a story artist. I have worked at Dreamworks TV, Nickelodeon and Bureau of Magic, the Amazon company as a storyboard artist, and I’m currently working at Warner Bros. Animation on a show called DC Super Hero Girls, developed by Lauren Faust.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am a storyboard artist who works mainly in TV animation. I interpret script or idea in my own way and visualize them in panels of drawings. While expressing characters emotion and hitting all the story points, layout composition and camera direction for each shot should also be taken into consideration when the artist draws these panels.
In a way, it is like solving an intricate puzzle. In a production pipeline, storyboards become animatic with dialogues and sound effects, and it works as sort of a blueprint for post-production. And with all the collaborative efforts, Ta da! The animation is born.
I always feel that storyboard is like a symbiotic creature that rarely shows itself but is crucial life support inside the veins of animation, changing and adapting. It fascinates me that how these relatively rough panels of sketches can actually, clearly convey the whole film ideas. I love the problem-solving aspect of storyboarding, and the sense of achievement it brings after a particularly difficult assignment.
As I said above, professional storyboards are rarely shown for public eyes, and I hope, over time, companies allow the artists to post their storyboards animatics more. I am sure people will appreciate the raw beauty of storyboard animatics.
Besides from work-related art, I enjoy creating light, little illustrations or vignettes related to what I’m currently into or what I want to cherish and remember. I am hoping to create more painterly illustrations using digital or traditional medium once I get more free time like I used to.
How can artists connect with other artists?
I actually think about this a lot since I can easily spend weeks not interacting with other artists and just work, work, work.
Here are a few things I try to do these days. Firstly, and probably the easiest way to make new connections or to maintain them would be utilizing SNS such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to the fullest. I realized, besides just uploading your art on them for self-promotion, staying active and talking to other artists about art, or even small things like favorite shows, food or your latest passion actually does strengthen personal bonds with other artists.
Secondly, I think nurturing the relationship with people who are already around you but you rarely interact with is another way to stay connected. For me, this applies to artists in other departments at work, or old friends who I lost touch with personally but are still connected through SNS.
Good way to begin this would be the third part, going to events like gallery shows and artist mixers. It’s a great way to meet new people, too!
The most important part of all is to be proactive. I know this is the hardest part as myself is an introvert. The awkwardness that arises when you face new people is scary, but after the first step forward, it will get better.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can see my spare time art and past illustrations on my Instagram! My storyboard works can be seen on my webpage.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heejunglim.myportfolio.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heejungnim/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/heejungoff/
Image Credit:
Heejung Lim 2019
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