Colored Pencil Illustrations Highlight the Grace of the Human Form

For WanJin Gim, illustrating the human form feels instinctual. Throughout many years, the Korean artist has established himself as a virtuoso of anatomy, displaying an outstanding mastery over conventionally challenging subjects such as hands and feet. Even more remarkable is Gim’s inclination towards colored pencil, a medium that offers greater transparency and permanence compared to paint. All these elements contribute to a captivating and highly expressive portfolio, wherein the human body morphs into vibrant, poetic imprints of itself.

Gim’s Sunset Hands, for example, illustrates two hands cradling one another, their fingers gently interlaced. With its warm and soft color scheme, the drawing highlights the veins, knuckles, nails, and anatomy of both hands with exquisite detail, reaching an astonishing level of realism. Aesthetically, Sunset Hands also distinguishes itself with its etched appearance, as Gim meticulously layers and crosses pencil strokes to enhance depth, shadow, and light.

As indicated by its title, Hands & Feet is likewise an illustration of hands, but in this instance, they engage with a pair of feet. In this work, a person softly clutches their ankles, their feet spread out on the ground below. Gim demonstrates just as much skill in depicting feet as he does hands, artfully showcasing their arches, contours, and elevations with such intimacy that it’s hard to look away.

“Feet are not the most attractive parts of a body,” one viewer remarked on the artwork, “yet you have bestowed upon them grace and elegance.”

A recent series brings acrylic into the fold alongside Gim’s signature colored pencils. Appropriately titled Potter’s Hands, these two pieces are primarily explorations of texture, where the artist skillfully replicates the slick surface of pottery. This success can likely be credited to Gim’s application of paint, which more authentically emulates how hands glide over wet, thick clay.

While Gim may be recognized for his accurate portrayals of hands and feet, his fascination with the human form as a whole is equally profound. Etude in the sun captures a woman leaping across the canvas, her body dramatically twisted into a pose reminiscent of dance, while Study of a female figure doing yoga presents a figure with her arms and legs curled around her back. Conversely, A Study of a Woman’s Back exhibits Gim’s deep comprehension of the human spine, which he painstakingly contours and shapes using colored pencils. The resulting figure is both delicate and assertive, her body held in a graceful, arched motion.

It comes as no shock that Gim has attracted over 350,000 followers on Instagram. After all, his art provides us with one of our most treasured and timeless assets: our own bodies.

WanJin Gim has demonstrated his mastery of anatomy, utilizing colored pencils to depict bodies with remarkable detail and elegance.

Gim excels particularly in rendering feet and hands, two body parts that have traditionally posed challenges for accurate representation.

Despite specializing in colored pencil, Gim sometimes incorporates acrylic paint to create intriguing textures like that of wet clay.

WanJin Gim: Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by WanJin Gim.

Related Articles:

This Artist Creates Larger-Than-Life Flower Drawings With Colored Pencils

Beautiful Flora Comes Alive in Spectacular Hyperrealistic Colored Pencil Drawings

Stunning Ink and Colored Pencil Architecture Drawings Inspired by Old-World Europe