A selection of recent illustrations by Brooklyn, New York-based artist Dadu Shin (previously featured here). After working digitally for a long time, Shin’s recent works are drawn with a ballpoint pen, embracing the creative freedom of making art for himself as opposed to the parameters of commercial work. “I’ve been finding inspiration in my own life and what makes me who I am—whether it’s something as complicated as my Asian-American heritage, my upbringing, my neurosis, or something as simple as my age, my social life, my likes and dislikes, etc. I, for the most part, try to achieve an eerie, melancholic feeling in my work,” he explains. “That’s both an aesthetic choice and a representation of how I’ve been thinking of things lately.”

“The world can be pretty, beautiful, and wholesome, but the world is also most definitely unsettling and weird. As someone who isn’t the most stable anxiety wise, I would say I view many things through the lens of that weirdness. I like when my work feels eerie and melancholic because it’s an acknowledgment and a reminder that those feelings exist. It’s almost therapeutic in the sense that when that work is acknowledged, it is a reminder that it’s okay to feel sad, and moody – we all feel those things. I just try to also remember the beautiful and wholesome parts too.”

See more from Dadu Shin below!