INTERVIEW
Illustrating Mindfulness
Julie Lai creates expressive and fluid illustrations, inspired by nature and the space around her. In 2021 we welcomed her to Grand Matter as a Future Maker, one of three in our mentorship programme for up and coming artists. Whilst Julie creates much of her work digitally she is heavily influenced by traditional mediums, incorporating these into her process, and recently has been exploring the expression and evocation of emotion with ink painting.
We're more aware than ever about the importance of practicing mindfulness and taking good care of our mental wellbeing, and there are lots of books, apps and content out there that navigate the topic. One such series of books, by Vietnamese monk and writer Thich Nhat Hanh, resonated with Julie in particular. Together, we developed an illustration brief allowing Julie to explore the topic her style of work lends itself so well to, and develop the more abstract and expressive side to her portfolio, as book covers.
The challenge was to create a series of covers that each have their own sensitively crafted identify, whilst sitting next to each other seamlessly as a complete set. We spoke to her about her explorative process, Chinese calligraphy, and finding inspiration in traditional mediums.
What made you pick out the Mindfulness series to illustrate?
I have found myself really enjoying books written by Thich Nhat Hanh over the past two years, they're packed with wisdom and insight that often bring a lot of clarity. I thought it would be interesting to showcase these topics tackled in the Mindfulness series through line quality and colour.
How do you think your style lends itself to the topic?
My style often consists of flowing lines, influenced by Chinese calligraphy. I thought the flowing nature would suit a topic like mindfulness quite well. The focus was primarily on experimenting with mark making in an abstract way, seeing how the line quality could perhaps convey certain emotions or feelings relating to the contents of the books.
Julie's illustrated covers for How to Sit, How to Eat and How to Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Was there anything you did differently in creating these, compared to your usual process?
It was quite different to my usual process, as there was a lot more room to explore and experiment in the beginning stages. All my ideas were done on big pieces of paper with ink, so that there would be no restrictions. Afterwards, it was a matter of developing ideas and picking out ideas and segments that stood out. I took a very intuitive approach where I channeled the emotions relating to each book, painting with ink what came to mind. The final result is a combination of ink paintings and digital drawing, it gave me the opportunity to preserve the raw and spontaneous quality of ink while introducing layered colours.
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Traditional mediums are something I always come back to, especially if I'm looking for an outlet or inspiration.
– Julie Lai
Where does your love for painting come from?
Painting has always been incredibly soothing and calming for me. My mum practicing Chinese calligraphy and painting has been a big influence on my style. Ultimately, the love for painting comes from that tactile feeling, the process of painting really speaks to me. Although I love painting digitally, traditional mediums are something I always come back to, especially if I'm looking for an outlet or inspiration.
Left: Julie's illustrated cover for How to Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh; Right: An earlier ink painting exploration
Ink painting explorations
The hand painted type is very successful, is this something you've done before?
To be honest, I haven’t done too much hand painted type before but I’ve always been interested in type and fonts throughout my life. I liked the result of the hand painted type for this project, as it compliments the illustrations a lot more.
The three illustrations sit harmoniously together as a set, how did you find that process of illustrating a series?
The process was more about discovering how to express a certain type of feeling or mood, with the combination of colours and lines. Like the lines themselves, the series of covers kind of flow into each other with similar colours or motifs. I found it a fun experience to tweak and see how the series could be harmonious but distinct, it gave way for a lot of play and experimentation.
Are there any other books you'd love to be commissioned to illustrate?
I would love to be commissioned to illustrate books relating to more mindful and spiritual topics. Though I also think The Green Bone Saga would be a wonderful series to illustrate. I have been absolutely glued to the books, but still waiting on the final instalment of the series to come out!
About Julie Lai
Hong Kong born illustrator, Julie Lai, draws inspiration from urban and natural landscapes with fluidity and expression, capturing the feelings and emotions associated with environments, spaces and nature.
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