Pictures: Colour your streets and Instagram/Leo Park
At 16, South Korean artist Leo Park has taken his detailed drawings of buildings and streets into a colouring book featuring 30 cities across the United Kingdom. The teenager, who began sharing his artwork on Instagram in 2019, has collaborated with British company Colour Your Streets on Enchanting British Cities, a collection of hand-drawn illustrations featuring famous landmarks and local architecture.
The book was released in June as a limited edition.According to Colour Your Streets' official website, the collection includes illustrations of Oxford, Sheffield, Cambridge, Manchester and Liverpool. Unlike a conventional travel guide, the book lets readers add colour to Park's drawings. Each page contains detailed architectural features, along with hidden emblems incorporated into the scenes.For Park, drawing buildings is not simply about recording what he sees.
His sketches often contain changes to the original structures, reflecting how he imagines a place could look. A building might retain its recognisable design while gaining new features, or an ordinary street scene might be presented differently to emphasise its architecture.This approach has developed over several years of travelling, observing buildings and studying their history. In an interview with Hallyuism, Park discussed how his childhood interest in drawing gradually became a serious career ambition.
Instagram sketches to published books
Park had been interested in drawing long before he started posting his work online. However, 2019 became an important year because it gave him an opportunity to show his sketches to people beyond his immediate circle. As more people began seeing his work, he started taking on increasingly complicated drawings.His Instagram account, @draw_vengers, also reflects another childhood interest. Park came up with the name when he was 10, combining his enthusiasm for the Avengers films with his interest in drawing.The account eventually helped him secure his first publishing opportunity. A publisher came across his artwork and approached him about creating a book. The result was Leo's Art Adventure in the United Kingdom: The Boy Who Draws the World, published in 2022.Park chose Britain as the subject because he had recently spent considerable time travelling there. During that visit, he had collected drawings and experiences that could be developed into a book.
He had also met artists, writers and other people whose stories became part of the project.His publishing work has since expanded to include Leo's Fantastic Urban Sketch Coloring Book and the collaboration with Colour Your Streets.
Why drawings don't always match reality
One feature of Park's artwork is that he does not consider an exact reproduction of a building essential. He sometimes sketches directly at a location, but the final illustration may include changes that are not present in the original structure.He explained that his choice of subject depends on several factors. Sometimes a building attracts him because of its appearance. In other cases, its historical significance makes it worth drawing.St Paul's Cathedral in London is among his favourite subjects. Park has drawn the building at least seven times and considers its architect, Sir Christopher Wren, one of the most important influences on his work.He also admires Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Leonardo da Vinci.
Bernini's ability to show movement in sculpture interests him, while da Vinci's practice of carefully observing his surroundings has influenced how Park approaches his own drawings.His interest in history can also be seen in sketches of Winston Churchill's statue in London and Napoleon's Tomb in Paris. But drawing human figures has occasionally presented difficulties. While working on Churchill's statue, Park struggled to give the figure the appearance he wanted.
He eventually used hatching, a technique involving closely placed lines, to add texture.In one illustration, he combined Korean architectural traditions with the fictional world of Harry Potter to create a Korean-inspired version of Hogwarts. Other works bring together landmarks and references from films and musicals.
A different education path to pursue art
Park's commitment to drawing has also influenced his schooling. During his Hallyuism interview, when he was 15, he said he had completed middle school and decided not to follow the conventional high-school route.Instead, he intended to obtain an equivalent qualification through an examination, allowing him to devote more time to developing his artistic skills.His parents, he said, have supported that decision and his wider ambitions. Their encouragement has been particularly important because his work involves travelling abroad, which requires both money and time.Park had also discussed plans for an extended sketching trip across Europe, where he hoped to concentrate on drawing streets and buildings before returning to further study and practice.Although much of his work features European architecture, he has drawn the Taj Mahal on more than one occasion, including in 2022 and 2024, and has expressed a desire to visit India to explore its history and cultural heritage.