"Food Inked: The Cookies" Drawing

Jeesoo Kim is a Melbourne based contemporary ink artist known for hyper detailed, continuous tone drawings executed entirely by hand. Born in South Korea and establishing her practice after studying animation at RMIT University, Kim was drawn to Melbourne’s distinct urban rhythm, anchored by the belief that home is wherever she carries pen and paper.

Kim’s work spans spontaneous live documentation and obsessive studio draughtsmanship. After gaining early recognition capturing Melbourne’s café culture through rapid expressive linework, she shifted during the city's lockdowns toward meditative, high precision fineliner work. Dissecting the micro mechanics of horology led to live showcases and commissions with global luxury brands, establishing the technical stamina behind her architectural series, Travelling with Ink.

Kim elevates everyday forms into monuments of quiet permanence—from the iron geometry of the Eiffel Tower to the buttery glaze of patisserie and the glistening armour of marine life. Stripping away colour, she relies on structural light and shadow to lay bare texture, surface tension, and tactile presence across high-contrast monochrome studies.

Each work is an intensive feat of manual patience. Kim renders objects exclusively with fine nib archival pigment fineliners on heavy cotton rag paper. Using an obsessive micro scribble (scumbling) technique, she layers hundreds of thousands of tiny circular ink marks to coax photographic greys and velvety blacks from pure black pigment—without digital tools or diluted washes.