Today I share my conversation with Saehan Parc, author and illustrator of Hello Sleep, translated by Selene Bright. Saehan's English-language debut is special for many reasons, one of which is her process for creating the illustrations. Learn more below!
About the book:
We all sometimes have a hard time going to sleep. But did you know that Sleep itself can have trouble sleeping, too?
Sleep is a friendly figure with a magic wand, who visits all living things and sends them off to dreamland when night falls. You know about Sleep, she visits you every night without fail. But what about Sleep, doesn’t she need her slumber too? Everyone she stops to ask just dozes off!
Sleep travels the world, seeking cozy places to settle down, from atop a bunch of baby chicks, to Santa’s beard, to a baobob canopy; she listens to a lullaby, a meditation; she floats down the Amazon and rides an updraft in Siberia. Nothing does the trick: sleep keeps evading Sleep! Until a cat’s soft purring snore sends Sleep just where she needs to go. Goodnight, Sleep.
Sleep is a friendly figure with a magic wand, who visits all living things and sends them off to dreamland when night falls. You know about Sleep, she visits you every night without fail. But what about Sleep, doesn’t she need her slumber too? Everyone she stops to ask just dozes off!
Sleep travels the world, seeking cozy places to settle down, from atop a bunch of baby chicks, to Santa’s beard, to a baobob canopy; she listens to a lullaby, a meditation; she floats down the Amazon and rides an updraft in Siberia. Nothing does the trick: sleep keeps evading Sleep! Until a cat’s soft purring snore sends Sleep just where she needs to go. Goodnight, Sleep.
Let's talk Saehan Parc!
LTPB: Where did the idea for Hello Sleep come from?
SP: It was during post-covid period, my friends were suffering from their burn-out, questioning the meaning of work and life, and some of them had sleeping problems. I thought of someone who could help them, then imagined that person would be in the same trouble, because we are all a labour. So I wanted to make a story to treat this theme, by beginning from one of the most forgotten ones. The character ‘Sleep’ is born at that moment.
LTPB: Did you hide any details in the book for yourself or readers? What do those details mean to you?
SP: Now I am living in Strasbourg, France. In Hello Sleep, you can see a little bit from my hidden details: The first double page of Sleep running over the city is from Korea, my hometown. Then on the second double page, we are somewhere in the countryside of Alsace, France, the region I live now. This panorama is a real composition of the environment that I took in picture when I was riding my bike around the city. I wanted to show that Sleep made a whole tour of the globe and arrived somewhere to find peace, even though I never made this trip myself. I’d love to, though!
SP: It was during post-covid period, my friends were suffering from their burn-out, questioning the meaning of work and life, and some of them had sleeping problems. I thought of someone who could help them, then imagined that person would be in the same trouble, because we are all a labour. So I wanted to make a story to treat this theme, by beginning from one of the most forgotten ones. The character ‘Sleep’ is born at that moment.
SP: Now I am living in Strasbourg, France. In Hello Sleep, you can see a little bit from my hidden details: The first double page of Sleep running over the city is from Korea, my hometown. Then on the second double page, we are somewhere in the countryside of Alsace, France, the region I live now. This panorama is a real composition of the environment that I took in picture when I was riding my bike around the city. I wanted to show that Sleep made a whole tour of the globe and arrived somewhere to find peace, even though I never made this trip myself. I’d love to, though!
SP: I use normographe (stencils), an architecture tool. I learned to use this from my classic manhwa (comics) class, to draw the dynamic movement of the character in an action scene. Then during my illustration study in France, I was wondering how to find my own graphic style. Experimenting different things, I rediscovered this tool as a wonderful constraint. Everything had to be contained in a circle and it was funny, so I drew in this way again and again. By the way, it's funny that sometimes people think that my works are digital based. It’s all hand-drawn on paper, and I like that. I’ve been there, when I was studying in Korea for example, in the middle of the beginning of the Webtoon era. Then in France, I re-discovered the pleasure of making things on paper, drawing on it and printing and binding things. Maybe it’s because I started like that when I was little, so maybe it’s different for younger generations, so-called digital native. But for me, I still prefer to touch the paper, to make or read the book.
LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?
SP: For this book, I loved to make some big panorama scenes. In general my artworks remain very small, maximum A5 size. Then for this book I extended to A4 format, very similar to the printed size of these pictures and I enjoyed very much filling it with many little details. The thing is that it was also the biggest difficulty. Maybe nothing is given free I think!
SP: For this book, I loved to make some big panorama scenes. In general my artworks remain very small, maximum A5 size. Then for this book I extended to A4 format, very similar to the printed size of these pictures and I enjoyed very much filling it with many little details. The thing is that it was also the biggest difficulty. Maybe nothing is given free I think!
SP: The process of the picture rests almost the same: First, there is the base of the text, around 5-10 lines. Then the main characters arrive, and I start to draw the first pages with them, to figure out the graphic and narrative mood of the whole book. For Hello Sleep, I made first the second and 3 of the book, the first double page of the dark city with the beginning of sunset. Then as it progresses, new sequences appear and are fixed one by one. Sometimes, new ideas pop up during the drawing process. Then I show them to my editors. This time I was dialoguing with two editors, Editions 2042 in France and Munhakdongne in Korea. They often gave me different feedback on the same scene, on different time (there are 7-8 hour difference enter the two countries)
SP: Oh, I’m really not sure that it will be in real life, there are so many more great human beings than me. But if I have to appear in a book in some way, I’d like to be drawn by a person I don’t know, a new artist in the future who has some common points in life with me. Maybe an Asian woman artist immigrant in another country. And if this person enjoys it, it will make me happy too.
A big thank you to Saehan for talking to me about this book! Hello Sleep published earlier this season from NYRB Kids!
Special thanks to Saehan and NYRB Kids for use of these images!
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