Who is Puuung?
Puuung is a digital artist based in South Korea who has been creating illustrations and animations since 2014. From the very beginning, her work has focused on a simple but enduring belief: love is not something extraordinary — it is found in the small, ordinary moments of everyday life.
Through her warm and gentle illustrations, she captures scenes that many people recognize as their own — sharing a quiet cup of tea, brushing hands while washing dishes, falling asleep side by side on a lazy Sunday afternoon. By finding extraordinary meaning in these small moments, Puuung has built a body of work that resonates deeply across cultures and languages.
Over the past decade, her storytelling has connected with a global audience, and her combined social media following has grown to over 11 million people worldwide.
International Recognition and Early Growth
Puuung gained international recognition in 2015 when her illustrations were featured by major global media outlets. In April 2015, platforms such as Bored Panda, DeMilked, and Pulptastic introduced her artwork highlighting everyday love. In May, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed showcased her heartwarming drawings. By June, HelloGiggles featured her illustrations, further expanding her international reach.
These features helped her work spread rapidly across social media, allowing millions of people to discover her art for the first time.
Books and Global Publication
In 2014, Puuung self-published a limited series of books for her dedicated fanbase. In 2016, her first officially published book was released in South Korea, marking the formal beginning of the _Love Is in Small Things_ series.
Since then, she has published nine books in South Korea. Her works have been translated and distributed internationally, reaching readers in multiple countries including Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, China, the Philippines, and Russia.
A successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in June 2015 also enabled her to produce limited-edition books and postcards, which were distributed globally to supporters.
Illustration to Animation
Although Puuung first became known for her illustrations, she has always had a background in animation. In January 2017, she debuted her first short animation on YouTube. Feeling that still images alone were not enough to fully express her storytelling, she began developing animated stories centered on the quiet daily life of a couple.
Starting in January 2018, she regularly uploaded animated episodes focused on the simple routines and emotional moments shared between two characters. This initial series was later referred to as Season 1 and continued for about a year.
From January 2019 to February 2021, she expanded the storyline through Seasons 2, 3, and 4, exploring how the two characters met and gradually fell in love. These seasons deepened the narrative world behind her illustrations.
Animation production, however, is an extremely time-consuming process. Compared to other forms of content, maintaining a steady upload schedule on YouTube proved challenging. There were moments when view counts did not meet expectations, and the slower pace of animation created difficulties in sustaining growth on the platform. Nevertheless, Puuung continued investing over two years into producing and releasing animated works, supported by the consistent encouragement of her audience.
Expanding Through Short-Form Content
In 2023, Puuung began adapting her animations into short-form content tailored for social media platforms. Starting in January 2023, she consistently released shorter versions of her animations, which led to significantly higher view counts and a renewed surge in global popularity.
By the end of 2025, her combined follower count across major platforms had surpassed 11 million, allowing her work to reach an even broader international audience.
Artistic Process
Puuung’s artistic process often begins with pencil sketches drawn by hand on paper. These sketches are later refined and colored digitally, blending traditional and digital techniques to create her distinctive soft, warm aesthetic. Some of her works are created entirely digitally, depending on the project.
In recent years, while illustration remains central to her identity, she has focused increasingly on animation as a way to deepen emotional storytelling and expand the world of her characters.
A Growing Creative World
What began as simple illustrations shared online has gradually grown into a larger creative universe often referred to as the “Puuung World.” Through books, animations, crowdfunding projects, and digital art releases, she continues to expand this world while remaining grounded in her original philosophy:
Love is not grand or dramatic.
It lives quietly in the small things.