Interviews with Jui-Ping Lee
Designer profileDesigner of the Day Interview
23 October 2024
I started around 10 years ago...and simply paint. nothing fancy nor dramatic. You just draw works one after another trying to make better and better works.
It was at my highschool days that I see other's works and thnk them so beautiful and can't get enough of them...then it suddenly occurs to be that why can't I draw those myself? So I don't need to wait them to make new works, and that becomes the start of my artists road.
The holy grail is beautiful. any technique or style that can make the work beautiful is equally instrumental and important.
Usually pain...artists know this. You only feel pain during creation just like you only feel pain when laboring.
Nothing particular I'kk say...it also means that everyone and anyone can be a designer. There's no prerequirement or "background" you need to become one.
Try and make better works...that's the one and only growth path and future plans.
Don't create for the sake of creation. Create because you feel the urge to present or to persue beauty.
Please stop creating junks and call them arts and force people to praise them.
Nothing fancy...I wake up in the morning, have breakfast, watch some news and browse the internet, start to work and eat meals at lunch and diner, and have showers and go to bed at bed time.
There's no trend ever matter to an artists, unless they are profit makers instead. Why should trend ever matter if your core value is to create beautiful works?
I know a good work if I see beauty. That's also the only and simpliest way of defining a good work.
If i find nothing I can do more to improve it...it could be that I see points of improvements after 1 or 2 months because I become more polished, but as long as at the time I create the work I can't improve it anymore, that's the cutting point.
It changes from time to time because artists changes from time to time...so it's not quite a easy question to answer to.
Quite boring, just like a mundane, next door person.
I make beautiful arts and bring beauty to this world full of hideousness. That's the key.
Design Interview
23 October 2024 · New Year Illustration
The holy grail it to make the work beautiful.
Make beautiful works. Make works that when people see it, they can easily feel the breeze in the painting, the sunshine from it, the scent that flows around, and want to go into the world of the painting to sit in there, to interact with objects in there
40 hours, I recall.
Because I think if I draw this it will be beautiful, so I draw!
Sure if people wish to buy the usage right of my work...why not?
The goddess of Muse is capricious.
Yes, some...but I can't remember which ones.
Everyone.
I don't know, nor do I care...I on;y want to make beautiful works. If it is distinguished amongst similar works, the beholders know why.
Because it's simply at new year period?
Easy Paint Tool SAI 2.0
I...actually don't know what's unique about my works as I never seek uniqueness, but beauty. The work realised may be unique to the eyes of the beholder, but I wouldn't know that.
No, I create it solely on my own.
It's drawn on a computer so you can say that without a computer, the whole thing won't even incarnate...
Coloring, how to make the best combination of colors.
Because the competition emailed me an invitation to participate?
That's a hard one...I usually feel stagnated during creation because it's like when you are taking an exam, you just answer questions out of your knowledge you possess on the spot. You learn and grow outside the situation of creating/taking exams.
Design Legend Interview
2 July 2024
So I'm actually not coming from a design/art background - I have both my Bachelor and Master degree in Economics, and focusing on Game Theory/Contract Theory (the field where we study how to set up a set of rules so that people under those rules will act exactly what we want them to act).
I also didn't join any schools, studios or ateliers to have any trainings. I studied my own, and follow my instinct about how to make artworks so they are both beautiful to behold and meaningful to ponder.
I also didn't join any schools, studios or ateliers to have any trainings. I studied my own, and follow my instinct about how to make artworks so they are both beautiful to behold and meaningful to ponder.
I'll say that "designing" is intrinsic. When you start and think that certain combination looks most interesting/mesmerising and try to explore it, you are a designer and are designing. It's not like "I want to 'design'" and then you do design. if it is the case, then it is not designing but barely a mimicry in my humble view.
Similar to the question above, a "designer" is not what you want to become, but a description by others when you just do whatever you think you want to do to bring the most beautiful, ingenious work to this world, and suddenly people call you a designer because there's no other word that can describe you more accurately.
So I barely recognise myself doing "designing" consiously. I just explore the combination of elements in my artwork to find the perfect harmonic point where each elements are in concord with each other, both visually and culturally so the beholder will have the instant impression of a beautiful artwork at first sight, and then appreciate the cultural/intellectual meaning when furthur diving in.
Follow your instinct. Make things that mesmerise yourself first, because you are the first ever beholder of every single work that you make. If you can't even feel the beauty of your design/work yourself, how can you ever expect people to appreciate it?
I'll say the term "good" or "great" is not a permenant thing, nor a ubiquitous standard. People used to think works of van Gogh garbage. maybe in the future people will think again his work garbage. There's no need to distinguish a "good" or "great" designer - if we must, I'll say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder - if it fits your taste, then for you it is a great designer. For other people, if they think highest of certain designers, then to them those are their "great" designers.
Similar to above, there's no such thing as an ubiquitously "great" design. To myself, when I'm composing mywork, the one that I think makes the most harmonic combination is the good one. Other people may think otherwise though, but it is their right to like them or not.
Now we are talking about "everyone" - it becomes interesting as it comes into the realm of Economics. Or even a bit evolutionistic that the one that fits the environment the most survives, and thus is crowned as a "good" design (in terms of survivability because all other designs that didn't survive are dead and no one remembers them so no one will be able to call them good). Like human beings - why human beings are the most excellent design of an intellegent creature? Because human survived.
I'll say I always design for myself. Like the previous question, my clients come and go, but I am always the first beholder of any works/designs I make so I must satisfy myself first.
Kimono...I always want to draw the perfect Kimono and I drew a lot, but not yet any of them had reached the most perfect point I'm seeking for.
Satisfy yourself first! Tons of people do arts without even appreciate the work themselves, but wishing others to. That is extremely sad.
Lots of them, like Rella, REI, JW...lots of them.
Tons of them so I won't list them all out hehe...but they all have one thing in common, that is that I think them beautiful works.
This is a very interesting question...because even for myself, I'm not a robot so have still certain level of capriciousness with me, which means that sometimes I think this work of mine is the greatest, sometime other works, sometimes all of them, or sometimes non of them. One thing I am certain though is that at the moment when I'm making my artwork, every piece at that time is the greatest one to me (or I will revise it to be the greatest I felt at that time)
Again, satisfy yourself first! make sure that at least at the moment when you are creating, the piece of work had reached the highest point possible for you at that time.
Aha I'll say it is impossible not to become a designer, because even if you are not called one by anyone when you are alive, someone after your life in the infinite future will.
A combination of elements. at least that is the definition for me.
Myself! You will find that the greatest obstacle in your life is always yourself...like for example lots of people say that you need to have a rich parents to support you to become a great artist. But was van Gogh born in a ricj family? Was da Vinci a Bourgeoisie? No...the only artist that had gained plenty wealth when still alive is probably only Picasso...
Myself, hehe
Had I become a design master?...Well at least not under my own understanding of myself. I'm just an explorer in the vast sea to find the pearls that shine the most. People could call me master but I think it is a bit irrelevant for myself if I call myself one or not.
Intrinsic. Art is intrinsic. If the beholders cannot feel any beauty of an object themselves but need explanation to start and appreciate any, then it is not art, but an artefact, cultural or historical.
Kimono...quite some of them. But you know, the God Muse is capricious that who knows what will come out next!
To find the most shining pearl in the vast, dark seas...
Something they like, I guess? To me, it is like people find restaurants because they think that restaurant has the most dishes they like.
I'm going to be a bit evolutionist - it is whether the society change and fit the new design (like we have no more keyboards on cellphones anymore), or the design survives the society (like telegram dies out). So in the end only the ones that fit both sides are left, and they are called a good design (if it is the case that it is the design that survives) or a better society (if it is the case that the society changes to adapt the design)
Kimonos, hehe
Every one at the moment when I am composing them, because otherwise I will revise them until they become so. Whether they remains so afterwards is out of the equation though...
Hmm is there a "design industry"...? at least for myself I find it awkard to define one, because once you define one, people will try and find which part is more "authentic" then other parts, and call it the more "real design industry", whence people will start and try to seek the "more more authentic" portion amongst it and declare it the "real real design industry"...until there's nothing left, which means everything is design industry and here we come all over again.
Same as above, since I don't define a "design field", I don't anticipate any destination of "design fields".
like 30-40 hours max? 20 if it is quick.
Art should be intrinsic. My only rule for art is simple: it should look beautiful. We have already enough ugliness in our world, and we don't need to add more.
Could be both!
Make my speed faster and easier.
I use Easy Paint Tool SAI 2.0 as software (Photoshop a bit sometimes), and Cintiq as the drawing tablet.
Everything. if there's no color, there's nothing. even when you close your eyes you see colors dancing around.
They don't need to - just behold in the way they like
I like it! I want to make something like that!
Not yet any ideas...the road of art is simply solitary, just like any of our lives that in the end, everyone suffers solitude, and that's why we have the illusion and want to seek company, a partner, etc.
Not aware of any...
The Kimono Patterns Dictionary
Just try and make sure that I can draw whatever I want to draw. This sounds simple, but is most difficult!
Right now it's someone I'll call C
I'll say that fame comes afterwards that you are not seeking fame, but seeking the best work you can make, and then awards and fame will seek you!
Right now purple, but previously red, and sometimes blue. Capricious!
It is that funnily whenever I finish my work, though I think it is by far the best work I made, at the same time I also think that it is so miserable and I'm so poor at drawing (and other works are simply worthless). it usually takes like one month to recover and think that actually that work has some merits in there and is not *that* worthless. Lol.
If I draw things quick, it makes my day...because I can enjoy the afternoon and afterglow more!
No I don't think so...my parents always say that there are signs that I'm a bit paranoid like when doing art assignments from school I always want to draw into very very details of them...but whether that is a sign of a great designer or it is a sign that I'll become a psychopath, I don't know...or maybe great designers are all psychopaths!
Not very interested in that though...my priority is to find the Pearl, no time to muse about the future!
I never think myself talented or gifted. And so can you be an artist/designer like me (if you call me one) even if you think yourself mediocre or mundane!
Designer Interview
23 October 2024
Actually I studied Economics for my Bachelor and Master, and never attended any art school or studio...I learn solely by myself and some free online tutorials!
The moment when I start and become a designer is when I'm in my high school, summer holiday just before 3rd grade - I enjoyed other people's work so much that I can't get enough of them. Then suddenly a thought occurred to me - why can't I draw myself? And at that time my father gave me my first tablet computer as my birthday gift with a stylus - his intention was that I could use it to take notes to prepare the university-entry exam, but I used it to start painting instead and even rejected to attend the summer school (where schools help student study for the exams). Spoiler - I still got a high grade and admission from the best univerisity in my country, even though it's Economics and not art related decipline!
The moment when I start and become a designer is when I'm in my high school, summer holiday just before 3rd grade - I enjoyed other people's work so much that I can't get enough of them. Then suddenly a thought occurred to me - why can't I draw myself? And at that time my father gave me my first tablet computer as my birthday gift with a stylus - his intention was that I could use it to take notes to prepare the university-entry exam, but I used it to start painting instead and even rejected to attend the summer school (where schools help student study for the exams). Spoiler - I still got a high grade and admission from the best univerisity in my country, even though it's Economics and not art related decipline!
A combination of elements, that's design.
Painting, and within painting, cloths.
Kimono and white dresses...Kimonobecause it's simply beautiful and splendid, white dresses because they are elegant and angel-like.
Computer. It's unbelievably useful.
Near night...from about dusk to around midnight.
Color. The combination of color that can catch the eyes of the beholders and convey a scene that stirs their imaginations
Tranquility. Excitement some times but relatively rare.
relieved... because "thank God, I don't need to deal with this piece of waste anymore" lol. usually only after 1 or 2 months that I start and appreciate the work I've done.
If people find beauty in there, it's successful.
Beautiful or not. That's the nature that people seek beauty.
Make beautiful products, and not make junks and force people to praise them simply because the creator says that it's a piece of "art".
As the core value is to seek beautifulness, the design field is never evolving, but resolving. The self-proclaimed "designers" changes from era to era but the core is the same.
Somewhere around 2023, in Japan...not sure when will be the next exhibition though, because I can't disclose those I signed NDA under.
Other people's works. I muse about if I tweak some elements in there, combine some other items in there, add my own thoughts in there...you name it.
I don't know my design style and how to describe it. I'm simply seeking the most elegant and fascinating way to combine elements I know, and whether it becomes a typical "style" or not belongs to the beholders, and a thousand beholders have a thousand interpretations.
I live in Taipei. I'll say it matters not much as traveling is easy and the internet brings the whole world in front of you in seconds...the key, therefore, is the cost of living that it's easy enough to live and a good social security system.
Just don't mess with them, thinking that you need to "participate" in the design by giving suggestions/orders simply because you want to feel you are participated. If you're so good at design, do it yourself!
So quite straightforward - collect references, make drafts, color it, make some final touches and that's it!
My computer, my tablet, my Magnepan speakers and my Stax earspeakers, plus a gaming console.
I'll say wake up, have breakfast, watch some news, browse the internet and check new works from artists I follow, start to work, until night, take a shower and go to bed. Nothing fancy.
Just try and persue things you think are beautiful. Don't design for design's sake.
Not much...every life has its own positives and negatives unique to its owner.
Works need to be beautiful.
Persistence and perserverance.
Wacom Cintiq/Cintiq Pro, Easy Paint Tool SAI 2.0
Eat meals when it's meal time, go to bed when it's bed time, nothing complex!
about 10 hours recently.
"How do you make such a good work?"
Make profits...it immensely helps you keep motivated especially when you are not wealthy enough to live a life without selling anything (whether your work, your time or your expertise).
Individuals
Beautiful paintings...because, let's face it, who doesn't like beautiful paintings?
Make more and better works!
On my own.
Nothing yet...or there are items I signed NDA for so I can't talk about them too lol
you can reach out to requiem3lee@gmail.com
No. Thanks for the interview!
Grand Interview
23 November 2024 · New Year Illustration
So creativeness is not like popping out of thin air, but like fermentation, or brewery - you collect lots of ingredients and let it sit, while waiting for the "Eureka" moment where everything suddenly clicks together and your creative inspiration stirs like a hot spring all over the place.
You can say it's like a kind of OCD - obsessive-compulsive-disorder - that it's not like "inspired", but paranoid to attend to details and make it perfect for the eyes. Well, artists usually have to some degree OCD and that's what makes an artist and artist.
So the key is saturation. When you see the background, the red and yellow leaves, they are vivid and splendid, but when it comes to the main figure, the dominent color is black, and the saturation level is low. That's the exact reflection of wabisabi - even though you are sitting in a colorful world surrounding you, your heart remains still, as if you are enjoying your own solitude but feel tranquility in there at the same time.
So use Gaussian blur, that's it. It's a common technique in photography that to blur out background and let the beholder instantly focus on the main object, while creating a feeling of space. It's the same as perspectives but just without lines.
So I played a game called Ikenie To Yuki No Setsuna (I am Setsuna, 2016) on PS4 years before I started this painting, and the main visual of it is a big maple tree covered in snow. I believe that is one of the prototype in my mind that brewed in there.
So firstly the choice is limited if you wish to be authentic enough on the patterns - then I just go through my "kimono pattern dictionary" to see which variation looks the best.
It's like I just keep creating arts that I want to, and if some of them got some award it's awesome. If we take an extreme case, van Gogh, he won't care how many prices and award he will get nowadays or how high a record price his work can hit in an audition, but keep creting arts as he wish.
It's now quite blurred how it matured - but again it's like brewery that you collect various ingredients, and suddenly the image jumps into focus that "this is what I am going to draw", and as far as I remember I only got blurred images during like 2017-2018, and suddenly it becomes very clear - so I draw and make it into incarnation.
You know, it's more fun when you have restrictions. Just like creating Sonnets, you have to follow certain rythem rules and that's what makes it fun - another analogy will be poker that why poker is so popular, because you need to follow poker rules while playing cards.
Actually it's like "where's the Mickey Mouse?" in every Disney movie - it's a playful mind that you want to put some easter eggs for the beholders to not just behold the work, but "interact" and "play" with it. And what serves better then the zodiac symbol?
