Brian Wonjun Lee: Art Portfolio

Collection of works throughout past years. Includes compositions made using pencil, pen, acrylic paint, wood, digital graphics, and other various mediums. 

Playground

Seoul Street 2

Dispersion

Somnium

A Comsition that brings together Non-Adjacent Spaces

Odds and Ends

Windex P

A View from Window

Seoul Street

Ceiling Light

Pick Up

Shades

Eclipse

Escritoire

Pen and Marker Drawings

Decrepitude

Solitude

Chromatic Spectrum

Yeondu

Amplifier

A sequence that shows a Shift in Behavior



Contact: leebwj@sas.upenn.edu

Playground

Recreation of a childhood memory, bringing life to a character with distinctive animations through user interactive actions with the 3D models. Using keyboard or a mouse, press the keys to make interactive animations come to life as “Boo” comes to life. Press ‘Q’ to reset the scene. Made using Maya, Spline, Three.js. 

Link to website for fullscreen and more interactive plays:


https://my.spline.design/untitled-QVRKLSCWxKCmX5aAVZUXDukV/

Seoul Street 2

Recreation of the acrylic painting “Seoul Street”. Going beyond 2D, the 3D environment unveils the hidden corners of the narrow streets and its gloomy ambience. Made using Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop, and Illustrator. 

Dispersion

Ordinary Nikon camera, with an unsual glass dispersion texture. Creation of a well-known object into a texture that we have never seen in reality gives the feeling of both distance and wonder. The turntable allows the object to reflect light in different angles, allowing us to find out how the texture interacts with the given lighting environment. Made using Maya, Substance Painter, and After Effect. 

Somnium

Olympus, Atlantis, Avalon, El Dorado… Whenever I came across such places as a child while reading a fiction book such as Percy Jackson, I would imagine myself at a place where I would never see or get to go in my entire lifetime. Simply fantasizing myself as a hero or a traveler from a different world kept me entertained throughout the day. Growing up, I realized that I have stopped exploring my own imaginations, and solely began to chase after realism. At one point, I was no longer innocent, naive, or pure like how I used to during childhood. Using a foamular, gesso mixture, grass powder, acrylic, and green screen, I was able to create a “sky island”, a place I used to fly around in my own imaginations years ago. 

A Composition that brings together Non-Adjacent Spaces

Many different legends attempt to speculate how human beings had advent in this world. Even though there are numerous theories yet have been proven, one thing is clear: we all began from a united entity. While the cycle of life and death continued over millenniums, the world has been civilized in different places with different people. Like how Europeans established a distinct country in a new-found land, culture, language, and society began to segregate from one another. Through this work, I tried to convey the message of how people developed various appearances, personalities, and beliefs over time. And inspired by The Red Thread of Fate from Chinese mythology, I tried to show how our distinct individualities are all related to each other, as we all originated from a united group, tribe, matter, or being. In the end, the threads bring the society, culture, and territories together into one identity. 9.44” x 9.44” x 15.74”

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Odds and Ends

As a self-directed project, I aimed to practice my observation skills by drawing my grandparent’s study room. From this picture I found from my computer drive, I used a pen to outline the complex details I discovered, and express the perplexing feelings I found from this room. However, the feeling of peacefulness is something I also find in my grandfather’s room, which is why I decided to add a cat to the table to create a calm mood. 

17” X 13.7”

Windex P

The work was done using pencils. In this work I practiced doing an observation drawing by placing random objects and sketching them. I practiced observing small details in the objects as I was sketching the book, detergent, and the charging cable.

22.8” X 14.9”

A View from Window

Self-directed Project: Depending on the intensity of the light, we encounter different moods and feelings. From the bright light, we feel energy, glamor, and excitement. From the dark light, we feel bitter, dismal, and cold. While there are various types of lights, such as traffic lights, car lights, and street lamps, when we look outside the car window, I find a contrast between two different moods from those artificial lights. On the back mirror, a bright background full of colorful jellyfishes represents the bright mood of the light. Outside the back mirror, a dim background full of glowing lanterns represents the darker mood of the light. While two different atmospheres co-exist in this piece of work, I want to express the feelings I feel that change as I watch outside the window sitting in a car.

20” X 15”

Seoul Street

The work was done using acrylic paint and pencils. At night, narrow streets in Seoul light up, and people gather together to reward their day of hard work. As I painted this work, I tried to make strong contrast between the signs and the surrounding objects to emphasize the significance of light at night. On top of that, I painted the overall background in blue to depict the cold mood inherent in the city of Seoul at night, especially when its raining. 

20” x 15”

Ceiling Light

Note: Swipe image to view slideshow.

During my VASE trip to Indonesia, I found no light during the night. To provide a solution, I have decided to design a ceiling light that maximizes the spread of the light in the most effective way. 16 tunnels surrounding the lightbulb in the middle of the product helps the light to spread out in 16 different directions. By using a single lightbulb, I have attempted to explore ways in which light can be used in the most efficient way possible. In the near future, I hope that such designs would eventually brighten up the island of Indonesia the next time I get to visit. 

Throughout the development of the product, I came up with different sketches and models of the final product, in order to explore ways in which light can be used efficiently. Through sketch, I came up with ideas and inspirations while organizing the making process of the product. By 3D modeling the final product, I was able to preview how the physical product would look like in real life. 

18.5’’ X 18.5’’ X 9.0’’