Wobby #30 – Overgown: a botanical revolution in illustration
By Simone Vos
“I want my artwork for the cover of Wobby #30 to be empowering. It shows people growing flowers; they take action in their desolate courtyard and the result of their combined actions is a super-flower that cracks the floor”, says Chloé Bertron (FR). Her work and that by Patrick Kyle (CA), Jooyoung Kim (KR/DE) and many other artists, are part of Wobby #30 – Overgrown.
Chloé Bertron
For illustrator Chloé Bertron, who made the cover piece and a comic spread, inspiration for drawing often comes out of the books that she reads or her day-to-day feelings. Chloé studied illustration at the HEAR Art school in Strasbourg. “The theme ‘overgrown’ fits my drawings very well. There are a lot of plants and flowers in my work. Sometimes they serve as ornament, sometimes they carry a meaning or a feeling”, she explains. “I do a lot of personal stuff, like drawings and books, but I also work on commission. For me, the best part about making my own work is that I can go all the way and it’s very open.”
Centrefold by Patrick Kyle for Wobby #30
Patrick Kyle
Patrick Kyle (CA) - illustrator, comic artist, and teacher who also makes his own risographs - made the centrefold of Wobby #30. He studied illustration at the OCAD U, university for art, design and media in Toronto, and has taught there since 2016. “The theme ‘Overgrown’ reminded me of a book I made: ‘Roaming Foliage’ (2018). It’s located in a dense forest, with little characters. It’s about their journey in the forest. For Wobby I drew loosely in a stream of consciousness manner and afterwards, I assembled everything in a collage. I rearranged the composition and the result is a clean illustration with organic elements.”
Patrick has been making his own risoprints, comics, zines and graphic novels since 2011. “I have a little studio in Toronto, with a drawing desk and risograph printer and it’s like a self-contained ecosystem. I wanted to draw my whole life,” he says. “My own comics and illustrations are often dream-inspired and a little abstract. As for my commercial assignments I have to be more specific and clearer in the way I draw. But my style is the same: comic based. As an illustrator, it’s like dancing back and forth between your own style and commercial assignments.”
Jooyoung Kim for Wobby #30
Jooyoung Kim
Jooyoung Kim (KR/DE) is an illustrator, designer and artist and made a spread for this Wobby. “In the double page in this Wobby, I wanted to illustrate rather than tell a whole story. Because it’s growing season, I thought of drawing plants, but it was too easy of a solution for this theme. So, I decided to translate the theme more literally. Opting to play with the layout I was given, I drew a very long dog across the page.”
Jooyoung studied illustration at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, Germany. “I wanted to work in the creative field and always enjoyed drawing things. I make picture and comic books and sometimes 3D-objects.The main thing I do is publishing books. Sometimes I work with publishers and sometimes I do it on my own. I also work with my friends and we publish anthologies together.”
Wobby #30 – Overgrown and the signed & limited edition art print are now available in our webshop.