At the railroad crossing in Yongsan, Seoul

I am a member of uskseoul. Every Sunday morning, a few of us gather to do urban sketching in a quiet city that is still half asleep. On Saturday evening, when the time and place are announced on someone’s Instagram story, anyone can go and draw. This time, it was Baekbin Crossing near Yongsan Station, where my favorite K-drama, ‘My Uncle’, was filmed, so I had high expectations.

I got off at Yongsan Station and walked for 10 minutes, and in the middle of the building forest, I found vintage houses, cute and pretty cafes and shops. The shadows cast by the morning sunlight on the quiet houses were also pretty.

Arriving at the crossing, I met about 10 people who sat side by side and did urban sketching. I stretched out my sketchbook and started to draw. I focused on the Hangang Laundry and Yongsan Mill buildings in front of me and simply sketched the train tracks. I expressed the buildings in the distance only with colors without lines.

The name of the laundry shop, Hangang, was even more delightful because it was the same name as Hangang, who is the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.
We sat on the side of the road and sketched. Even the exhaust fumes from the parked cars couldn’t stop us. It was a time of concentration and immersion. After two hours, we gathered, took pictures, had lunch, and went home, waiting for someone’s announcement next week.

Juhee Oh is a math teacher and a member of urbansketchers seoul.