‘A Brief History of Korean Martial Arts’ is a book written by professor Bok Kyu Choi. It’s seasoned with popular myths and folk stories about fictional and non-fictional warrior characters from the history of Korea. I was asked to make illustrations for the book in ink: i made these illustrations with black ink and water – depending on the amount of colours i needed, i painted more or less layers.

Illustration for a story in the book ‘A Brief History of Korean Martial Arts’ by Prof. B. K. Choi, in which the monk Won-Hyo learns that the bigger part of martial arts happens in the mind, not in the physics.

Nongae was, according to Korean folklore, a gisaeng (an enslaved courtesan) who loved Korea so much, she thought of a trick to contribute her share to Korean victory during the Japanese war. She seduced Japanese High Commander Keyamura Rokusuke, held him tight and jumped from a hig cliff into the Nam river.

Meyongwol was a remarkable swordswoman in ancient Korea.

According to the folk story, Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin understood the forces of nature so well that he could use his knowledge during battle with the Japanese, resulting in victory and a statue.

Prince Hwanung and Ungnyeo the woman who used to be a bear before she became his wife. Korean Folklore about the country’s beginning.

‘History is the propaganda of the victors’ said George Orwell. The book A Brief History of ‘Korean Martial Arts’ by prof B. K. Choi is seasoned with folk stories from Korean history. They reflect the country’s spirit and system of virtues. Here is Ito Hirobumi, who was shot by Ahn Jung Geun in 1907. In Korean he is a freedom fighter, an Japan, he is an assassin.

The book A Brief History of ‘Korean Martial Arts’ by prof B. K. Choi is seasoned with folk stories from Korean history. They reflect the country’s spirit and system of virtues. Often, warriors who chose death over captivity or just loosing a battle, are depicted as heroes. Here’s Gwanchang, who went back to battle he was loosing three times until he was honourably killed.

illustration for Housekrant Magazine

For the videoclip for ‘Sugar Skulls’ i made a lot of drawings of people visiting the wedding party of one ‘Black Eyed Suze’ and one ‘Marigold’. The lyric is about our tendency to be prejudiced towards ‘other groups’ and to make life worse than needed for minorities.

So i thought it would be great if the guests at the party all were types other people ‘have an opinion about’. Of course, the song is related to Halloween and the Day Of The Dead, hence the Mardi Grass rhythm and the types we see. But in the end, the song is about how death makes us all equal and that no one is or knows really better than another.

portrait of Tagore for ‘Religie & Mystiek’ Magazine

Illustration for ‘Exit of Evil’. The illustration is about that it is not easy to force the morals of one part of the world upon other parts.

illustration for the magazine ‘Religie & Mystiek’.

This may be as hard to understand for you as it was for us then. President Bush Jr of the VS talked of an ‘Axis of Evil’ consisting of Iraq, Iran and ehm, North Korea. Nobody knew what the link between the three was and how this ‘evil empire’ worked. And if there was such a thing – what would you do? How many people, in percentage, need to be ‘evil’ to start a war against such a country?

‘Miss Korea’ was one of the pinups i drew for ‘Exit of Evil’. This was an event about the Gulf war, and hosted many thinkers – asking if ‘the Axis of Evil’ was something real or fiction, and what to do now bombing was going on. The idea was ‘you don’t bomb cute girls’ an ironic note on the fact that the VS were bombing real people with power politic reasons rather than anything else.

Later they added Cuba, Syria and Libya. However sad this view on the world might be, i’d love to draw Miss Cuba, Miss Syria and Miss Libya – I hope one day I will find time or a client who needs this 😉

‘Miss Iran’ was one of the pinups i drew for ‘Exit of Evil’. This was an event about the Gulf war, and hosted many thinkers – asking if ‘the Axis of Evil’ was something real or fiction, and what to do now bombing was going on. The idea was ‘you don’t bomb cute girls’ an ironic note on the fact that the VS were bombing real people with power politic reasons rather than anything else.

This may be as hard to understand for you as it was for us then. President Bush Jr of the VS talked of an ‘Axis of Evil’ consisting of Iraq, Iran and ehm, North Korea. Nobody knew what the link between the three was and how this ‘evil empire’ worked. And if there was such a thing – what would you do? How many people, in percentage, need to be ‘evil’ to start a war against such a country?

‘Miss Iran’ was one of the pinups i drew for ‘Exit of Evil’. This was an event about the Gulf war, and hosted many thinkers – asking if ‘the Axis of Evil’ was something real or fiction, and what to do now bombing was going on. The idea was ‘you don’t bomb cute girls’ an ironic note on the fact that the VS were bombing real people with power politic reasons rather than anything else.

Later they added Cuba, Syria and Libya. However sad this view on the world might be, i’d love to draw Miss Cuba, Miss Syria and Miss Libya – I hope one day I will find time or a client who needs this 😉

‘Graffiti style’ illustrations for Housekrant Magazine.

Portrait of Beyoncé for Housekrant magazine.