New Year Illustration by Jui-Ping Lee is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award i Jern in Digital Kunst Competition Category.

JernDigital Kunst· 2024

New Year Illustration

by Jui-Ping Lee

A' Design Award i Jern Winner in Digital Kunst Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #158137

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Colors

The Design

About New Year Illustration

I en fredelig gård, midt i vinterens blide snefog og de levende efterårsfarver, sidder en yndefuld skikkelse iført en udsøgt kimono. Scenen fremkalder essensen af Wabisabi og legemliggør skønheden i ensomhed og ro. Delikate mønstre pryder stoffet, hovedsageligt fyrretræer der symboliserer højtidelighed, og det rytmiske Seigaiha der repræsenterer havets ro. Ved at zoome ind afsløres flere indviklede detaljer: en stenplade med kunstnerens pseudonym hviler til venstre, og på kimonoen ses mønstre af mus der repræsenterer det nye år 2020, musenes år.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award i Jern

New Year Illustration er vinder af A' Design Award i Jern, en prestigefyldt anerkendelse, der tildeles gode designs, som opfylder de professionelle og industrielle krav, man forventer af veldesignede skabelser. Jernvinderne viser stor dygtighed, høj specialisering, ekspertforståelse og kreativ kapacitet hos deres skabere. New Year Illustration forventes at være en højt estimeret, beundret og kær skabelse, der er praktisk og innovativ. Dette design, der har vundet A' Design Award i Jern, integrerer branchens bedste praksis og har kompetente tekniske egenskaber knyttet til knowhow og talent. New Year Illustration respekteres for sin grundighed og er designet til at levere forbedringer af livskvaliteten, der er med til at gøre verden til et bedre sted.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: An elegant figure with splendid Kimono, serenely sitting in a yard on a cold winter's day at new year, with colourful leaves and slowly showering snow around her that represents the traditional artistic term, Wabisabi (beauty of solitude and tranquility).

If we zoom in, it can be seen that the Patterns are mainly Pines, which is used in the most formal kimono, to be worn only on ceremonious occasions; and also "Seigaiha (sea waves)", which represents tranquility.

Aside from that, the stone plate on the left reads the pen-name of the artist; and on the kimono, there are patterns depicting mice, to celebrate 2020, the year of mouse.
Dimensions & Packaging: Original dimensions at 5600*3150 px, with 935 canvas layers
Tags: Illustration, Kimono, Furisode, Kouyou, Karesansui
Production Technology: Drawn using a Wacom Cintiq Pro 32, with software Easy Paint Tool SAI 2.0
Design Challenge: The key challenge is to make a painting while keep the authenticity of the elements - the kimono, the karesansui ("dry yard") and the red leaves. While many other illustrators prefer drawing kimono-like outfits, this work must be authentic on the kimono design so it can fit the theme properly; under such condition, the creating process became much more difficult due to the fact that it can not be a free-form creation, but a restricted one that the combination of all the elements in the painting must be meticulously designed and crafted.
Research: Research especially on the meaning of the kimono patterns was conducted, to better represent kimono while avoid improper designs. Books and documents are examined, and different combinations of patterns are tried in the painting, and the one with best both cultural and visual effect was determined, resulting in a design which is both having superb color representation and cultural meaning that befit the theme of the work (new year).
Inspiration: When I was sitting alone in my home watching a video about how Kimono's (traditional Japanese dress) are made, I suddenly imagined a figure in Karesansui (Japanese stone yards), surrounded by maples and wearing the most fine, magnificent Kimono; and I, a "photographer", would quietly approach, crouching on the ground and capture the evanescent moment with a single-lens-reflex camera (which is my canvas and pen)
Project Duration: The vague inspiration of it formed since 2017-2018, and the actual drawing started in December 2019, finished & published in January 2020.
Operation Flow: At first sight, you will immediately focus on the figure in the middle, in spite of the fact that the saturation level of the background is much higher. This is called the "blurring perspectives" technic that by burring out items whilst no obvious perspective cues, it creates a huge sense of space, and can lead the beholder to focus their sight at once at the non-blurred items, namely the figure in this painting, sitting in the middle, creating a "photo-like" effect.