From 2018 to 2020, I went through a pretty intense K-Pop phase. That interest definitely seeped into my art portfolio at the time, and honestly, I learned a lot from it.
While I’m glad I’ve moved on from the genre, I also recognize that it was just a phase—teenage interests, you know? It led me to explore new mediums, experiment with styles, and dive into the world of fan art on Instagram, which opened up a ton of creative opportunities.
Even though this work doesn’t reflect my current style, I believe art is an ongoing journey. It would be a shame to ignore such a big part of that path just because I’ve outgrown the music (and the business) behind K-Pop.
So here you’ll find a lot of what I created back then—a part of the journey that got me to where I am now.
View my journey depicting members of NCT, StrayKids, EXO, BLACKPINK and MONSTA X
Straykids
One of the groups I listened to mostly was Straykids- a 2017 founded Korean group with nine (sadly now only eight) members, has mostly songs they wrote by themselfs with a lot of hiphop likely parts.
The “Bloody Straykids” series (2020)
I’ve always had a fascination with spooky themes, so it’s no surprise that even during my K-Pop phase, I eventually circled back to eerie art. Once I found my own watercolor style—something that finally felt authentic—I wanted to give my then-favorite group a dark, haunting twist. And that’s how the “Bloody Stray Kids” series was born.
One of the designs even made its way onto a shirt, thanks to my mom, who printed it as a gift for a family friend’s daughter. She was thrilled with it, and I have to admit—it looked pretty cool.
Learning watercolor and Finding my Style (2019-2020: StrayKids edition)
Here you can find variations of my StrayKids paintings. As you can See I got more confident with using watercolors and also got bolder with using different mediums in one painting. Further down this side, you will see similar and even more shocking evolutions of my watercolor art journey!
to some of these, there are entries in my BLOG, where you can read more about my (thought) process.
EXO
Inspired by some friends, I discovered my passion for EXO—they were the group that introduced me to K-Pop, after all. EXO is a Korean-Chinese boy group founded in 2012, made up of nine members. What captivated me most was their incredible dancing, paired with beautifully shot music videos that brought the music to life.
Learning how to use Watercolor: An EXO Story (2018-2020)
I think It is simply crazy to see my art developing so crazily fast within not even two years
Pencil drawings (2019-2020)
Of course, I didn’t only work in watercolor. Pencil drawing has always been a comfort zone for me—it’s soothing, familiar, and lets me create without needing to revisit the basics. Because of that, I have quite a few K-Pop-related pencil drawings as well. Most of these feature members of EXO, so I’ve included them in this section, but you’ll also find portraits of members from other groups like BLACKPINK, MONSTA X, and NCT.
BLACKPINK, NCT, MONSTA X
From the beginning to the end: A watercolor K-Pop story (2018-2020)
Here, you’ll see the most striking progression in my work—from my very first watercolor painting to my very last K-Pop-inspired artwork. They are sadly not in the right order towards the end
Rexy's Art 