Little Naughty Nigel is a self-published book written by Matthew Phillips and illustrated by Michelle Lin. It is an almost true story about a boy who is always in trouble with his mum and dad. One fine day, in the middle of the night, Little Naughty Nigel discovers what it feels like to be on the other end of mischief …

Author Matthew Phillips works as a Creative Group Head for an advertising agency and has lived in Singapore for the past 11 years. Originally from Manchester, England, he now calls Singapore home. “Since the arrival of my first son, Oliver, I was on the look out for books that allowed me, as a parent, to help my children learn and discover in a fun and memorable way as part of their bedtime story sessions. Sadly there weren’t many books of this nature to be found, so I improvised and used my creativity to develop imaginary characters based on real life situations and the behavior of my kids during that particular day, never making it obvious I was referring to them. Sitting on the edge of my son’s bed, Little Naughty Nigel came to life. An improvised story that was requested every night for a week. It was eventually committed to paper, and the idea to write a book was born.”

Illustrator, Michelle Lin is an Art director whose works have been featured in international publications and her illustrations commissioned for editorials and events. “Graduating from the London school of Communications, my stay in London flourished my passion for illustration. Living with a flatmate that was an illustration major, I picked up the habit of sketching in cafés, parks and on train journeys.” Little Naughty Nigel is Michelle’s debut as a children’s book illustrator. She takes a lot of her influences from children books of the 1950s, looking into classics by Maurice Sendak, Ann and Paul Rand and Olle Eksell.

GIVEAWAY! We have one goody bag of Little Naughty Nigel merchandise up for grabs. Included in the loot are a copy of the book, postcards and a set of pins. Shoot an email with your address to Michele. Go!

Update: We have a winner!

Little Naughty Nigel will be available from all major bookstores as of 12 January.

We’ve written about Sokkuan before on the occasion of the ‘Le Monde est a Nous’ exhibit, but clearly we can’t get enough of her work. Sokkuan’s site is filled to the brim with brilliant work.

PHYLOSOPHY

I am a freelance illustrator with a versatility of styles, who looks for simplicity in the details. I admire people and things with harmonious contradiction, in the same way I admire black and white.

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THE ART

Sometimes the things that take place in life begin to dull our senses. We may wake up seeing the same familiar things again and again without realising that it has been jaded to greys in our perception. Graphic Designer, Jim Chai, tries to pool the lines, strokes, dots and colours to make things look different and interesting for him again. MORE »

Organized by Yolk and supported by MDA, GotCharacter offers the opportunity for designers to have their characters published by the biggest names in the industry. The concept behind the site is to help nurture an online community of artists and art fans and to create a platform where artists can showcase their characters. “Through GotCharacter, you can create your own profile page that describes you and your idea of character design, links to your home page and showcases your designs,” says Kelveen Soh, founder of the site. “Fans of your characters can visit the gallery to comment, feedback and show their support. The initial aim was to target local budding designers and art students, but the website has, since it’s launch, received positive and overwhelming response from other countries around the globe.”

GotCharacter also organizes an annual competition where the most voted design wins cash prizes, and prizes from the site’s key sponsor. This year’s winner, Chis Thornley from the U.K. , came from 480 entries submitted by participants from 30 countries around the world.

THE ART

Baby in Green is one of Amanda Ang’s first digital illustrations rendered in photoshop. ‘I had intended to do a piece with minimal colours, gently accentuating the illustration’ Manda explains. ‘I love drawing girls and this was good practice for a start. It was inspired by a song from the now defunct band, Agnes Gooch … “she likes dirt, dirt dont hurt, too much. She sees me, at eighteen, baby in green, she likes the way I sing to her …” MORE »

Paul Koh and Michelle Chang are the artists behind a unique body of captivating cat-inspired art, popularly known as the catmaSutra series. Sexy, amusing and karmic, the catmaSutra paintings showcase pure indulgence of the artists’ pets at play and at rest. While Paul roots around pop culture to pull out treasures that encapsulate the irreverence and bold spirit of himself and his cats, Michelle continues, from dot to point to spot, to create luxuriously-relaxed worlds that are as free-spirited as they are magical. MORE »

Opening this week at the Night & Day gallery, is “Hard and Soul”, an exhibition featuring snippets and moments from the inner world of artists Michael Ng and Andy Yang.

Andy draws his images and raw energy from his talent as an artist and illustrator and from his background in music. Michael shares some reflective moments with paintings which he created based on doodles and words from his journals. “Art and drawings that are infused with heart and soul are fascinating and very often the sketches can be more interesting than the finished piece of work.” says Michael. MORE »

Malaysia-born, Singapore based illustrator and comics author Sonny Liew is the creative force behind the Malinky Robot comics. Sonny is currently working on his third Malinky edition, tentatively titled The Balloon Bomb Factory. At the same time he is prepping a Malinky Robot short for the next volume of the Flight anthology.

Sonny created his first Malinky comic in 2003 when he was still a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, as a project for David Mazzuchelli’s class. “Malinky Robot: Stinky Fish Blues was my first solo project. It basically follows the adventures of street urchins Atari and Oliver as they pan handle, go fishing and dream of computer games in the semi-fictional city of San’ya, a near-future city based on the real city of the same name,” Sonny explains. “I was fortunate enough to receive a Xeric grant to self publish. Dealing with printers and distribution was an interesting experience, but I’m glad to let proper publishers deal with those things now.” MORE »