THE ART

Dawn Tan creates fun and fancy children’s illustrations in watercolors.

“Because of global warming, most of our beloved animal species don’t get to live on forever. And that’s really a horrible thought! I See You is a self portrait done for a children’s book, which I wrote about a year ago. At that time, there was a lot of talk about global warming and endangered animal species. So I decided to do my part as an artist, by coming up with a picture book on how climate change affects the animals, and it’s titled ‘The Big Move’. My art has always been happy and cheerful. I know it’s a big ambition, but hopefully my optimism in my art will create an awareness and make an impact one day.”

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THE ART

The brainchild of Josef Lee, Adam’s Apple offers a refreshing interpretation of the tale of Adam and Eve, with many laugh-out-loud moments. Adam’s Apple is not sacrilegious by any means, and can be best described as a story about a biblical theme infused with contemporary components.

“I have always loved short stories and wanted to do something like Tim Burton’s ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy’. But it wasn’t easy to write in rhymes so I was stuck for the longest time and nothing came out of it. One day, while thinking of another story during a train ride, the phrase ‘Adam was the eldest son. In fact, he was the only one.’ suddenly popped into my mind. From that point onwards, I knew I had to do a story of Adam and Eve. The Apple idea was developed along the way and it turned out to be a surprise hit among Mac lovers. ”

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THE ART

Cherie Tan, Creative Genius at *scape and Supreme Editor of frivolous online read, mrrr, does some lovely illustrations in Indian ink. But for this fascinating, if somewhat surreal artwork titled Umbilical, she fuses Indian ink with watercolor.

“I’ve always erred towards the fantastic and macabre. Much of my art doesn’t make sense, and there is seldom deep thought behind them. Umbilical happened while I was looking at biological drawings and thinking about creative incubation. Also, it was like the last piece in the watercolor pad, so better paint something decent, right.”

Browse Cherie’s stylish portfolio for more examples of her work.

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

Melly’s new artwork is a happy mix of watercolor gnomes mounted on vintage tapestry looking fabrics.

PHILOSOPHY

Hi, I’m Melly and right now I’m obsessed with all things art and craft and handmade. I like the idea of takeaway muffins in a brown paper bag with patterns on them. As much as I enjoy drawing, now I draw to explore other ways of creating the imagery I have in my head. I choose to cut and paste and get the glue gun going. It’s nerve wrecking but more often than not, the outcome really excites me so this is my booster!

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THE ART

Ray Toh’s illustration is the visualisation of an outlandish remedy for my monumental hangover this morning. But Ray’s piece titled Fractured Thoughts is about a different type of sentiment.

“The creation of Fractured Thoughts is based on frustrations, on reaching a point in time where I feel like shooting my head off and letting my ideas run wild. You can explore so many things, at the right time and under the right circumstances, and play with the creative bulbs in your head. I don’t think there is commercial value in the theme of Fractured Thoughts, so it’s part of my personal portfolio, and I execute new ideas when time permits. The whole piece is painted in Photoshop and the name Fractured Thoughts comes from a mistake I made when I was looking for Neil Gaimen’s novel “Fragile Things”. The name got stuck in my head ever since.”

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The Pepper Project is a self–initiated artbook project by Stanley Lau aka Artgerm and Imaginary Friends Studios, and revolves around the sexy and enigmatic muse, Pepper and her friend Wanda.

Pepper was created five years ago as a recurring subject for Artgerm, to experiment with drawing and illustration styles; from Nagel-esque vectors to Ashley Wood-ish brush strokes to cartoony two dimensional Peppers and photorealistic Peppers. As Artgerm continued to experiment, he noticed that his character had gained a few fans who provided a spin on the original Pepper. These fan variations were as versatile as the fans themselves, sometimes with the only common elements being Pepper’s fiery red palette and her headphones.

The Pepper Project book will spotlight Artgerm’s original Pepper character with the addition of never before seen work. It will also showcase an exciting collection of Pepper and Wanda art by some of the industry’s top artists as well as pieces done by fans and friends.

The project’s deviantART gallery is chock full of fabulous Pepper illustrations from all over the world. I chose three entries from Singapore to run with this post.

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Next Friday, Le Monde Est A Nous will open its sixth exhibition titled ‘Pixelmunky in Gardensilly’, featuring works by Chia Aik Beng and eeshaun. Both illustrators teamed up to unite their worlds in a delightful collision of pop art, graphics and surrealism.

“The world is ours, but we’d like it to be yours too,” says eeshaun.

An art-director by day, Pixelmunky spends his time tripping and pushing the envelope creating dreamscapes and filling them with his imaginary surreal friends.

Eeshaun, a facilitator with the School of Technology for the Arts in Republic Polytechnic, is a self-taught illustrator who enjoys the immediacy of spontaneous and whimsical drawings. To date, eeshaun has been busy working on commissioned illustrations for Nike, onedotzero, Play Imaginative and Zouk among many others. He was also recently featured in 20/20, an exhibition celebrating 20 of Singapore’s most creative talents, under the Singapore Design Festival 2007.

“Often, I try to challenge logic and perspective in my artwork, as a response to the way society is largely shaped through systematic research and planning. It is the unexpected twists and surprises in the drawing and narratives within the illustration that brings on endless amusement for me.”

Pixelmunky in Gardensilly will be on display at Night & Day gallery from 23 February until 21 March.

THE ART

Pencils and watercolour typify Kristal Raelene Melson’s work. Her illustration, ‘J’adore La Nuit’, is entirely done in digital colouring, but is equally beautiful to behold.

“The name of my drawing is “J’adore La Nuit”, meaning I adore the night … which i do. I wrote it in French to make it sound pretty and fancy schmancy and also because it is extra cool to speak French … but I don’t. I created this drawing after a lovely night out with some insane friends …. enjoyed rolling around in the grass, so I felt happy drawing this. A good way to remember good times.”

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Foon Foono’s illustrations always send tingles up my spine. He really likes to draw clown noses and bunny ears. But just as well, since they’ve become a trademark feature of his work.

PHILOSOPHY

“Alone … no pretending, no hiding, the only moment that we are who we really are. I like to remember things or feelings my own way. How I remember things is more important than remembering the way things really happened. I portray my own reality into my art.”

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I love this colorful, semi-nonsense green monster with its gnashing teeth and its crooked eyes. It’s the work of Sonic Arts student, Hippo, whose illustrations will transport you into a mythical world.

“I have been doodling since 2005, took a one year break, then got back to business. I used to watch a lot of Sesame Street, Disney and Nick cartoons. My ‘iloveyoumonster’ is a hybrid of Oscar The Grouch -the monster in the trash can- and Mr. long-neck -the Loch Ness monster-, wearing an I Love New York style T-shirt.”

Fans of cute things will have fun looking trough the other illustrations on Hippo’s site.

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

THE ART

With this illustration, Alan Leong creates some very interesting imagery that combines the strengths of traditional Asian brush strokes with vector art, photo imagery, and the imprint of his palm forming the sub composition of the art piece.

“I created this for Tiger Translate, to celebrate its 75th year anniversary. Pop art you can call it … it’s a perceived imagery of someone behind the wheel when he’s high on alcohol, a higher state of consciousness, the fusion of lights, colors and speed. But definitely not to promote drink driving here!”

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Banner: startdrawing in green website.

startdrawing in GREEN is a project initiated by startdrawing.org, a web resource portal for Asian artists, founded by Josef Lee and Sam Lay. The project kicked off in June last year and was initially named ’startdrawing for LIVE EARTH’, inspired by the Live Earth concert. “We wanted to do our part in spreading the ‘green’ message and hence started this campaign to get artists -or even non-artists- to draw something in green. Our aim was to collect the most number of green drawings and set a world record,” says Josef.

The project was recently rebranded startdrawing in GREEN to disassociate it from Live Earth. “We are looking at injecting new life into the project,” Josef explains. “As of now, submissions are closed. However, we are looking at doing an exhibition or collecting the works into a publication. Once our new plans are finalized, we will definitely look into getting new submissions to increase our collection of ‘green’ drawings.”

A total of thirty four countries have participated in the project, rounding up nearly one hundred and fifty green artworks by more than one hundred artists, including a nice selection of Singaporean talents. All participating artists have their work featured on the startdrawing in GREEN site, so make sure to hop on down for the full run down.

We picked four entries from Singapore and found out what inspired the inspirational.

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THE ART

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kenfoo is best known for his comics, but he also has some fascinating artwork. His drawing titled ‘Innocence Lost’ is gloriously executed with brilliant expressions, and is a playful reflection of today’s societal anarchy.

“Innocence Lost is about today’s world, where countries strive for a better economic existence for its people. But it’s also about the degradation of the lower social class that struggles for its livelihood. The worst hit of all, are of course, the growing younger generation. Without moral support and guidance, with a poor environment that is sometimes made worse by war, most of these children will grow up having little or no education at all. Left to the dreary and sluggish lives of adults and parents who do not set the right example, and more often than not, give little care and affection to their children, the innocence of these youths will soon be corrupted as they turn to a life of wandering the streets and making do with what they can to survive its harshness and bitter reality.”

“I am trying to depict a period in time where the kids are just about to lose what’s left of their innocence. Soon sex, drugs and crime will open its doors to them. I see beauty in such plights … the way people struggle with what seems like a wretched existence. I feel ashamed at times of somewhat exploiting such misery even though this is a type of ‘beauty’ in life which I appreciate through compassion. I feel it is through ‘knowing’ and ‘identifying’ hardships that we are able to learn about life.”

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Kaiqun Chun is a young artist who attempts to expand an aesthetic consciousness based on joy, pleasure and phenomenological knowledge. He engages in various artforms and recently started his own Mail Art Project, titled Unfinished Adventures.

Kaiqun ‘briefly’ explains what his project is about …

“…. it’s about reviving the curiosity in people. As children we come into the world with curious eyes and see wonders in the most surprising places and the miraculous within the very mundane. Unfortunately this feeling gets conditioned out of us by culture, by experience and by conformity. There is a part in everyone that desires to get back to an instinctive approach in experiencing the world.”

“…. but it is also about the desire to make interesting or special objects for another person. There is a need for more intimate and creative communication amongst people. We are all using emails, text messages, etc. Sometimes this style of communicating feels passive and distanced. In the past, I collected many music posters from all over, the anticipation for it to travel halfway round the globe and the excitement when you finally have the artwork in your hands is something I enjoy a lot. So I think I can recreate this kind of experience or process through this project.”

“… but most of all, it’s about having fun. I don’t think one should expect to gain from submitting a work, sometimes it goes nowhere, depending on how committed I am. It can be amateurish, but it doesn’t matter. I mean the world is entirely utilitarian, everything is based on a cost-benefit analysis, it can be pleasurable to free yourself from this nature of sense-making sometimes.”

“…. oh, and on a personal note, I also take it as a motivation for me to keep making more artwork. For every artwork I receive, I respond with one of my artworks.”

There is no dateline for submissions … “maybe in six months. I really don’t know how it will grow …”, Kaiqun says. “I am planning to organize a small exhibition once I have gathered enough works and all entries will be documented on my website.”

Feel inspired? Head to Kaiqun’s website to check out the details.

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.