Urban sketching.

A3 size urban sketching.
Medium used: Pencil/graphite.
Client's purpose: Personal gift.

A sketch based on a photo provided by the client.

Portrait & caricature artist in Singapore.

Charcoal drawing of soft toys.

A4 Drawing done from photograph.
Medium used: Charcoal Stick on white paper.
Client's purpose: Personal Collection.

The client wanted a drawing of her soft toys done in black & white so I recommended her the charcoal on white paper medium. The reason was that as the two toys were furry, I thought of using an eraser to create the effect especially for the top one which is white.






















Portrait & caricature artist in Singapore.

Appearance in Chinese magazine.

I appeared in a Chinese magazine called 'UW' recently.
Click image to read write-up if you understand Chinese.

 

Shown on TV.

I was hired by Singapore's TV Station, MediaCorp,to draw a murder suspect in their Channel '8' Mandarin drama 'Metamorphosis' 4 years ago. In the 7th minute segment of the 1st episode, it showed my hand sketching the suspect. My hand was to represent actor Terence Cao who acted as a CID agent investigating a crime scene. My job took only less than 30 minutes to complete but the excitement was the involvement in the shooting with the director shouting "ACTION!" & "CUT!" every now & then. Apart from that, I got the chance to wear Terence's watch for the shooting as well as got close to him when the director told him to stand right behind me for the camera man to capture the transition of the scene. What an experience to be acting in a local TV drama, with only my hand but not my face, haha... ;)

Fyi, the drama has just started a replay on 2 Feb 2012 at 12.50am on Channel '8'.

Here is the 1st episode where my hand & drawing appeared from the 7th minute segment onwards.


Portrait & caricature artist in Singapore.

Sam Hui Concert 2010.

I went to watch the Canto Pop pioneer Sam Hui's concert last Saturday. It was being held at the Expo-Max Pavilion, in Singapore. The living legend of Hong Kong still performs well although aged. His voice is still powerful as always. The last time I watch his concert was about 20 years ago. That was supposed to be his last but surprisingly he surfaced again after such a long absent. We were really entertained by this stylo uncle.
I took some pictures of him & his elder brother Ricky Hui who sang a few songs during the concert. These pics were taken with my small 'point & shoot' camera as DSLR was not allowed otherwise I could have taken some high quality ones.

We were seated quite far from the stage so I waited till his face appeared on the huge screen to shoot this.


I managed to capture a closer shot at the foot of the stage.


Funnyman Ricky was singing a duet with brother Sam who was also playing the guitar.

Happy New Year.

I wish all my readers a Happy New 2009 Year. As the economic crisis worsens, I hope that everybody can be able to cruise through the difficult time ahead.

In response to my main critic.

The reason this post is a lengthy one is because a particular caricaturist has recently posted some criticisms which seem insulting and humiliating on his blog and many of the references made were rather direct in nature.
In the past,responses received from him in my blog used to be compliments and even praises which I paid scant attention to, but lately the comments have become too insinuating to ignore and it reflected on his insincerity.
There are probably more than 10 caricaturists locally, most of whom could offer on-site caricature services to various clients and event organisers. Full timers in this profession like me are few, the rest would be part timers who may have other full time jobs.
Artists do have their admirers as well as critics and like any form of art, caricature can also be very subjective, there are no hard and fast rules, what is most important to me is that my clients are satisfied with what I can deliver.
My personal standard is that I aim to achieve a good level of resemblance of the subjects whether I am drawing or painting base on their photographs submitted to me. I always want my clients to feel that the money they have spent was worth it, and it is with this firm believe that I have been able to maintain my clientele for a decade at my shop in Far East Plaza.
As for on-site drawing events,I strive to attain at least 60% level of resemblance, owing to factors like the environment, lighting, my mental focus and the speed in executing each piece of work and I always do my best. I have to depend on this business for a living so I cannot afford to produce poor or sub-standard works which no clients would pay good money for, not even if I am to do it free of charge.
It had seemed that this critic of mine would have me think otherwise, in his blog post dated 19.08.08 (which happened to coincide with my birthday) he wrote that ”customers who order caricature drawing, cant’ really accept too contemporary drawing style, ‘must be looks alike’ is the golden rules here, unless you are doing it for editorial, that was different matter, that could be the reason why not much caricaturist can break this rules...” whether it dawned on him or not, it all sounded like some lame excuse for being unable to produce good enough drawings in the first instant, and he went on to declare his ruling on the matter. In stating that “(although I am in ‘rank number 999’) haahaa! So I would not like to talk bad about other artists to higher their own image, because it is equally laughing at you self.” he is so full of himself and he is indeed his own best teacher, for me the best teacher is the customer.
His blog post dated 21.06.08 had picked on Mr R, Mr L and Ms L, Mr D and “some other” entertainers and professionals whom he addressed as his “brothers” for being tardy and greedy, show aggressiveness and behaved in unsavoury manners which he personally took notice of. Let him know that this “brother” would take such criticisms constructively but I don’t know what the others may feel.
Let's face it, business is about competition, just as many copied bubble tea, coffee bun and now the doughnut when they became popular,so do art forms like caricature, expect the popular techniques to be widely followed. As they would say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you have to work very hard to stay in business.Time is money, so don’t spend yours by going around telling on other people lest they may also have something to say about you in return.
Last but not least, my “brother,” you can fart and want everybody on this tiny red dot to hear it, but the stink will always be at your end.The next time you go around farting, do remember it’s not ME EXCUSED but its excuse me.

My most loyal customer.

Introducing Mr Wilson Long,a swimming instructor,my most loyal customer so far.This guy has a unique surname which makes people remember him easily.Mr Looong started to use my portrait sketching service since day one when I started my business in Far East Plaza since 1998.Come December,it has been almost a decade,a looong time already.He does an average of 5 pencil portraits per year.A total of around 50 portraits to date. The interesting part is that all those portraits were meant as gifts for his family,relatives & friends but he has never done any for himself.The reason why he sticks to me till now is b'cos in the past he had tried almost all the portrait artists available in Singapore but couldn't find any whom he think was good enough to draw up to his high expectation.
He is very demanding & would not accept anything less than a 90% resemblance level.Whenever he makes an order,I would feel pressurised to ensure that he will give me a smile upon collection.Perhaps I should give him the most loyal customer award for his looong support...(laugh)

Individual sketch of an angel.

A3 size of a sketch of an angelic character.
Medium used: Pencil/graphite on white paper.
Client's purpose: For tattooing use.


As Far East Plaza has quite a number of tattoo shops,their clients are usually recommended to me for sketches that involved human faces.I've done many of such requests but never have I done any to be tattooed on my own body.I'm sure that will never happen simply b'cos it's not my cup of tea.!-)
The client actually provided me with a reference picture of the angelic body as well as a photo of the girl to be superimposed.I believed she might be his wife otherwise how to erase if the relationship doesn't work, right?.
As the space available for me to draw the face was rather small,it was extremely difficult to capture the resemblance of the girl.However,I've got no idea whether it looks like her.I just tried my best but he didn't complain about the resemblance upon collection of the artwork.I guess I've got it right.

Comic strip for Singapore Air Force

A3 size comic strip for SAF.
Medium used: Colour-pencil on white paper.
Client's purpose: Print on poster.

Over 1000 visitors

While Dr Mahathir's blogsite has attracted 1,000,000 visitors in his 1st. month of blogging,mine has hit more than 1000 visitors worldwide today since I set up the Neo Counter on 18th May 2008 to keep track of the number.This average up to about 13 visitors per day.Hmmm... not bad for a small fly like me.
Cheers

Sketching of a big house done from picture.

A3 size sketch of a big house.
Medium used: Pencil/Graphite.
Client's purpose:Personal gift.

Pictures shot using my Sony Camera.

I bought my 6 Mega Pixel Sony camera DSC-W30 about 2 years ago to use it for my work. Only till recently I started to realise the quality it produces.On the way to the gym at Paragon Orchard,I saw Yafriro's event being held at the atrium of Paragon Shopping Mall.As an artistic person,I found the atmosphere was so fantastic that I immediately drew out my camera from my pouch & started snapping at the models.Just take a look at the sharpness,colour,details of these photos.They might even be used for advert,he..he...
For your info,I'm not a professional photographer,just somebody who likes to snap at anything I think is nice.I'm beginning to show interest in photography & who knows,one day I'll become a pro.It really motivates me to snap more in future.




Showtime...

Hand-drawn logo

A4 size drawing of logo for Sierra Brabo Charlie.
Medium used: Black & red marker pen.
Client's purpose: Print on bikers jacket.

Illustration of a green dragon

A3 size drawing of a green dragon.

Medium used: Colour Pencil on white paper.

Client's purpose: Unknown.

Dragon drawing is something I've never done before. The customer provided me with a picture of the same dragon but it was in red colour. He requested to change the colour to a green one instead. My job was only copying directly from his picture. Although it's not my interest to draw something like this,I decide to give it a try.The result was quite satisfying as this is my first dragon drawing.

Shooting of Channel-8 Chinese drama series

In 2007, MediaCorp Singapore hired me for an hour to shoot a Chinese drama series about CID. They shot only my hand drawing a murder suspect. The character of the CID was played by actor Terence Cao. My job was to sketch that suspect on the spot. Of course Terence's face was shown on TV, not mine.It's a good experience being able to watch the making of a TV drama.The above videos were recorded using my Sony 6 mega pixel camera after my service was rendered. Too bad I couldn't shoot any of myself doing the sketching as I didn't have anybody to assist me then, sayang lah...

This is the murder suspect whom I sketched.It was an easy job as I didn't have to draw his eyes.

This is the main actor,Chen Hanwei.

This is Terence Cao (left) whom I lend my hand to. In turn, he lent me the watch he was wearing so that it look like his.