Il Sung Na Inspirations

animal shapes with some delicate black line details

Savannah, sponge painting her sky background

Savannah's composition, techniques and ideas were entirely her own.

She did a wonderful job pulling elements from Na's work.

From Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit

My school year classes have ended, but I am gearing up for some wonderful themed art classes this summer. One of these themes is Children's Book Art. We will be creating artwork based on children's book illustrations, as well as creating are own inspirations for poems, cartoons or short stories.

One of the illustrators we will be looking at is Il Sung Na, of Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit, A Book of Sleep, and The Thingamabob. His work is both ethereal and whimsical... and just plain beautiful! I wanted to highlight his animals, which are simple in shape, but have gorgeous details and textures.

To create our artwork we will use a combination of acrylics, thin Sharpie, white gel marker, colored pencil and scrapbook paper. Simple animal shapes are cut out of decorative scrapbook paper. My daughter and I created our backgrounds with acrylics and sponges or cotton balls to create a textured base. Details (Na's work is full of gorgeous little details and surprises) can be added with thin Sharpie and gel makers. Additional color can be added with colored pencils on top of the acrylic paint. I will post my classes' Il Sung Na inspired artwork later in the summer.