I wish I didn't have to open my eyes in the morning

“I wish I could be a hundred years old” is the first sentence of the picture book.
“I wish I didn’t have to open my eyes in the morning” is a precarious start.
Bold sentences that might remind some people of death come quickly.
The lines of the poem continue to convey the plain feelings without hesitation.
“If I didn’t have to open my eyes in the morning,” “The sound of water drops rolling on the grass,” “The sound of a wet sparrow shaking its body,” “I wish I could listen to it under the blanket and become a tree.” A restful sleep, where you open your ears without getting up once from under the soft blanket and soak up the warmth of the light.
The end of deep rest is still midday, and I wish my whole family would surround my bed in the soft afternoon light.
If someone asks you if you had a good rest or how you feel, you'll want to smile and say you feel great. I can relate to that.
Everyone has the same desperate wish that after a good rest, the reality will be a warm color.


Poet Hwang In-chan wrote this poem with picture books in mind even before it was selected as the winner.
From the sum of solid sentences, a story is told and images emerge.
The blank space was generously filled with space for the picture.


With earth, with wood, with a bright, deep orange imagination

The first sentence is neatly placed on a light emerald background.
The painting, which takes a breather in the introduction, creates a vivid landscape of relaxation with a colorful combination of orange, blue, white, and various other colors.
The wooden structure of the bed on which the character was tossing and turning naturally transforms into a dirt floor in the next scene, gradually guiding us into a world of nature that seems to be connected to the world of childhood.
As artist Seo Su-yeon said, “It reminds me of the peaceful sleep of someone who has been wandering for a long time in a place they have never been before,” the following paintings are well-planned yet dreamlike and beautiful.
The painting harmonizes with the poem, but sometimes intentionally misaligns to bring out the world imagined by the poem more vividly.


This book is illustrator Seo Su-yeon's first picture book.
Just like his personal work 'After-work Drawings' that he posts on social media every night after work, his unique and impressive drawings now have a narrative flow.
After organizing the story of the picture several times, I used a combination of wet and dry materials such as oil paint, oil pastel, colored pencils, and pencils to complete an image that feels heavy yet light, soft yet rough.

When I wake up, it's still broad daylight

Living according to time is really hard.
Sometimes, there are times when I feel excited because I have time to wait, but in my daily life, I always check my watch, my phone, and the time display at the bottom of my desktop to gauge my urgent schedule.
The things he mutters while doing so are mostly about the weekend, the reward that will come if he gets through this time well.
But has there ever been a weekend that went by slowly?

This picture book says it would be nice if it lived not for a month or a year, but for a hundred years.
I wish I could say that I felt really good after resting for a hundred years.
Just imagining it makes me feel dizzy and free.
And, step by step, the red-haired boy's footsteps fill this 'imaginary' world.
The boy's transparent body wandered peacefully for a long time, and the place where he returned after resting for a hundred years still had the warmth of midday.
Great imagination is always the answer.