Uju | A Big Friendly Space Dog

In a small, unassuming park in Daejeon, South Korea, I met a lovely Old English Sheepdog named Uju. In Korean, uju means “space” which is a fitting name for such a large dog, especially compared to the average pup you see in Korea. Imagine Shih Tzus and Pomeranians on every street corner! This is mostly because Korean apartments are much smaller than the average Western house, and they usually don’t have gardens.

One cold February afternoon, Ali and I went to a café for some wobbly jelly cat desserts, which were a bit of a trend at the time. Wanting to burn off some of the sugar, we went for a stroll. That’s when we spotted this giant ball of fur bounding around the park. I couldn’t resist going over to say hello. I adore big dogs, and Uju was such a lovable, gentle giant.

I didn’t get around to drawing him until last week (oops!), though I had sketched the outline back before leaving Korea. I’ll admit I was a little apprehensive about this one; the mass of curly fur and those beady eyes in the outline felt intimidating. Yet somehow, it ended up being one of the quickest and easiest drawings I’ve done. Maybe it flowed so smoothly because I’d already surrendered to the outcome and wasn’t being too precious about it. There’s probably a cheesy life lesson in there somewhere…

The finished drawing of Uju (and my other minis) is now available to buy.