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Speaking with Designer, Bobblejot
Saturday, 10 April 2021 16:00:00 Europe/London
Phoebe Im Eun Bee, also known as Bobblejot, is a talented illustrator who creates adorable designs largely featuring cute cartoon animals.
In our latest interview, we caught up with her to discuss her comic series, Tori and Samuel, her inspirations, how she first developed an interest in design and much more.
Keep reading to find out what she has to say and for a chance to see her wall stickers.
Hi Phoebe, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Can you start off by introducing yourself and telling us a little about your life?
Hi, thanks for having me here. I’m a full-time comic illustrator and the creator of Tori and Samuel. I currently live in Singapore with my husband and dog, Elizabeth, although we call her Lizzie for short!
How’s quarantine life treating you? Has it affected your productivity?
Thankfully, Singapore is coping with the virus really well. While we have to wear masks everywhere we go, but most businesses have reopened. It’s great to be able to move about my daily life with minimal interruptions, hence productivity has not been affected by it at all.
How and when did you first develop an interest in art?
Growing up, my parents played a big influence on me. My dad paints a lot in his free time and my mom would draw little picture books to teach me the alphabet. Ever since I was young, I have been exposed to art and that made me interested in creating my own artworks.
What’s a day like in the life of Phoebe Im Eun Bee?
I try to keep a tight schedule and routine. I’m usually up by the time my husband leaves for work before 07:00, and I usually have some time till about 09:00.
After that, I let Lizzie out of her playpen and alternate between spending time training and playing with Lizzie and drawing!
Can you tell us about your creative process from coming up with an idea through to the finished piece?
Usually, it starts with my husband coming up with a rough idea of a storyline. He would then create a script detailing what the characters say and do in each panel and I would take a look at it and make edits to it along the way.
Once everything is finalised, I start on the sketch for all the panels and after that move onto the line art and colouring.
What inspires your work?
Tori and Samuel were initially based on us, although now they are mostly based on my husband. Tori’s personality was supposed to be based on me while Samuel’s personality was based on my husband.
After working on the series for a while, we realised that we started to base both Tori and Samuel’s personalities on my husband. As a result, most of our storylines are based on things that happen to us or around us.
We also like to incorporate popular trends happening around us in our stories from time to time!
How did you develop your adorable signature style?
I always loved drawing cute characters, with Pokemon being quite a large influence in my life. I would draw lots of fanarts in my free time and over time I started to adopt and develop my own style of drawing cute creatures based on these fanart characters I drew.
Can you tell us about your creations, Tori and Samuel?
Samuel is a munchkin cat who is quite aloof, but deep down he is a softie. He is extremely caring and protective of Tori. Samuel is a cultured cat who enjoys the finer things in life, just like my husband. He loves art, opera and reading, especially fantasy novels.
Victoria or Tori, as she wants her friends to call her, is a young and energetic pup. She is extremely curious about life and has made it her life goal to try new things and make new friends.
Tori and Samuel are best friends, though Samuel usually takes the role of a nurturing father while Tori is the carefree child. Tori isn’t perfect and often gets into trouble, but Samuel is always around to help her get out of trouble and make sure she learns her lesson.
If you weren’t a designer, what career would you have pursued?
I might’ve tried my hand at making music - I just love creating one way or another!
What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?
Just keep doing what you love. I remember when I used to carry around my laptop and tablet everywhere I went before I was able to invest in an iPad, to draw while commuting to and from work back when illustrating was still a hobby for me. It was just something I enjoyed enough to want to do every day.
It also helped to make the transition between full-time work to full-time illustration effortless because I was now doing what I had always been doing.
What’s the future looking like? Any big projects on the horizon?
I would eventually love to create and publish a physical comic book collection for all the Tori and Samuel episodes we’ve created!
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