Blog and Artwork updates of Singapore caricaturist, portrait artist and illustrator - Jit

Kindly note that rates quoted do not include the release of copyright ownership.
All copyright ownership resides with Portrait Workshop.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Caricature live sketching for NanYang Junior College and Chong Cheng High School Teachers' Day Dinner 2006

Perhaps this is the most memorable event I have sketched throughout my 12 years as a professional portrait and caricture artist, reason being the guests are teachers from NYJC - the junior college which I studied in 1990-1991; that is 15-16 years ago. Time really flies......
I don't know the event is for NYJC and CCHS till I reached the venue - Meritus mandarin Hotel grand ballroom yesterday. The first one I see is Mr Singh. He slims down a lot. He used to be our live model in our Year 1 Promotional Art Examination. I remembered he's holding a tennis racketduring the modeling, sitting down there patiently, and crack some jokes at times.
Surprisingly, he still remembers me, asks me what I am doing here.
He told me that he's still keeping the portrait I painted (him as the subject). I am touched. See if I can get a softcopy of that portrait which I have done 16 years ago.
I started the caricature sketching service earlier. This is not the usual case.

But I am eager to start, as I want to get back the feeling of being an art student 16 years ago.
Below is the caricature I have done for him. He's busy talking with other guys, hence I didn't manage to get him smile and capture it.


This teacher teaches Chinese at 'A"level. She joins NYJC years after I have left, hence I don't know her.


Hmmm.... which schoolis she from???


One of the kids who came along with a teacher....


A teacher who cannot keep still and said she doesn't look like that???!!!! Is it?


A friendly teacher.... Fun to draw - the bunny teeth and big smile, co-operative too.


Her colleagues said the caricature is a slim version of her........ Hahaha...... I think so. Overdo a bit......


Think she's teaching Chinese.....Why? Cos her English not very fluent....Oop!!!


She looks familiar to me. Later she told me she's teaching Economics in NYJC.
Her name is Emily Lim, can't recall though.........


I saw my Chinese teacher, Miss Chen Xiu Lan. She didn't see me, and I was busy sketching at that time.
I saw Mr Bong. He doesn't see me and don't know me too.
Miss Audrey - I saw her in the lift when I was leaving. She's one of the 2 teachers who fork out $500 to support me in printing the Aaron Kwok portrait in airbrush to poster for sale in 1992. The other is Miss Koh Suan Choo, who has left NYJC. Thanks again, Miss Audrey and Miss Koh.........

www.caricature.com.sg website goes 'live'

Hey, after 4 months of getting this domain, I just managed to create the home page for www.caricature.com.sg last night, using Google apps beta. Quite a nice stuff from Google.
Here, you will only find caricatures, more focused.
I am still in the process of thinking how to make it different from my all-in-one website - www.portraitworkshop.com
Any suggestions?

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Portrait in Airbrush for boss of Regency Steel Asia Pte Ltd

This is a birthday gift from the staff to their boss for his 66th Birthday coming in a few days time. What is special about this portrait is - using airbrush, which I have so much passion for this medium 15 years ago. This medium has a very realistic touch, through spraying, masking and detailing. The difficult part is the control of the airgun. Anything goes wrong, it is very hard to amend. Hence, lots of care and efforts have to be put in to get it done.

First is to get this portrait sketch out in pencil on a canvas board, with details of wrinkles, proportion, shadows etc.


After the client has approved the sketch, I added in the gel medium to create the texture for the entire portrait. It's fun to play around with the gel medium. It helps to give some artistic touch to the entire artwork. Then I have to leave it overnight for the gel medium to dry up.


Next is to use a brush with black colour acrylic and ink out the details of the features and hair, so that the pencil lines won't be lost through the layers of spraying. This also helps to determine and also tidy up the lines and features that is needed for the portrait.


Later is the masking of the artwork with the masking film.


Cut out the masking area for spraying.


First layer of colour. I have to spent some time in learning to control the new airgun which I have just bought. It is rather hard to control this US-made airgun, as compared to the previous Japan-made airgun. The latter is buried in my messy study room. (I spent one whole night searching for it, but to no avail)


Building of shades and tone, slowly adding in the darker tone.


Better control and muscles slowly built up through several layers of spray.


Darker shade on hair and shadow area.


Final touch of the darkest shade.


Adding in the details with brush.
I mix Acrylic paint with the liquid acrylic. It seems to blend better than using the acrylic paste alone. (Hey, new discovery!) Notice the gel medium is showing the effect through the spray. I intentionally use the gel medium to create the wrinkles, eyebag and moles. Hahaha.... This shows up real good under spotlight. It looks like protruding and have the 3d realistic feel.


Seeing that the gel medium works quite good, I apply more to the background, and paint over with white. This is the finished artwork, with shirt and tie painted-in. Surprisingly, takes me 2 working days to get this done - considered fast. It is sent or framing. I will post up the photo tomorrow when I get the framed artwork.

Hopefully this boss likes his portrait......



The framed portrait in acrylic airbrush. Looking smart, right?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Citibank - To Russia with Love

A farewell gift to the boss from Citibank staff.
The boss is being transfered to Citibank in Russia, and hence the Russia theme.
This is the brief from them:-

Ong Lay Choo - she wants to be a winged fairy with a magic wand in one hand. Also
by the side, a large calculator. (Why? She always makes things happen when push
comes to shove and she is always calculating numbers, costs, profitability, etc...)

Paul Hode - He warts to be drawn up in a kimono. Just as in the pidura.

Dennis Tan ~ he wants to be a juggler- He wants to Juggle 4 things - a small building,
$$$$, Dunan, Shit. (Because he is always juggling between getting in Revenues,
branch expansion projects, thorny issues and all kinds of shit that comes in the way.)

Paul Nah - he wants to have a body of a durian. (because Joel hates durians and he
made him eat one )

Roy Phua - he wants to be a Jedi Knight Gust like in star wars). (Why, he is the one (g)
always protecting the budget and expenses and ensuring the good of everyone)

Marco Low - dream as Elvis holding on to a mic.


-Sunny Quek - he wants to have a body of a sexy fat cat. (Why? Because Joel's
favourite are his cats at home and he loves them to death)


Frances Cheng - She wants to be a judge. Why? Because she is the compliance head
in our division. She ensures things go as they are and spot t he discrepancies. The
beholder of truth.


The Main Back ground, could we have sketches of Singapore (Meriion) on one side &
Russia landmarks on the other side.


Joel Komreich —
To be dressed in Russian Outfit. Because he is going there to be the Country Business
Manager of Russia. To Russia with Love.

Aruna Raghavan - She wants her face on a Mona Lisa painting. The edges of the
painting make it have the ridges of a postage stamp. So this looks like it is a stamp withher face on it. She loves the arts


Pl^oSshu - always carrying a big bag and Tons of papers in one hand , shuffling between Esplanade branch office and MilleniaTower Head office. She will be carrying a lot of papers and in Mrs incredible suite.

See how I transfer it into the group caricature.

First, the draft of the placement and theme of each character.


The detail pencil sketch of the caricatures.


Inking in the caricatures.


The colouring process.


Finished artwork.


Framed caricature artwork.

Tokyo Drift theme caricatures


I quite like this artwork, done on the 4th July 2006.
Simple, clean, colourful; thanks to the movie poster.
What do you think?

live caricature sketching of a loving couple on the 3rd August 2006


This is the caricature of this couple I have done on the 3rd June 2003, when I am still busking along Orchard Road, outside Hello Singtel, Crown Prince Hotel.

In July 2006, they email me again, requested another live caricature sketching for their wedding invitation card. They make a booking 2 weeks in advance, and came down for a live sitting on the 3rd August 2006, 2pm sharp. (really punctual!)

The following photos are captured by them during the live sitting.

The groom in the caricature.

The bride in the caricature.

The inking process.

Caricatures coming to life with the shading in colour marker.

Artist at work.

They have requested this artwork to be scanned and burn on cd.
This is the final product.

You can see more on their blog here.
http://dacrappybitch.blogspot.com/2006/08/caricature.html
http://dacrappybitch.blogspot.com/2006/08/caricature-part-2.html

3D caricature of Bruce Lee featured on The Straits Times




Vincent, who used to work in Intense Animation, the school which I learned Maya 2 years ago in Singapore, sent me a sms when I just stepped into my gallery today. He asked whether have I seen the Life section on The Straits Times 23rd August 2006. I asked whether it’s something scary on it? He told me to get a copy, and I will want to get a copy.
I went down to grab one. I saw the Bruce Lee created in Maya 2 years ago for the course animation project on the front banner of the newspaper. Anxiously, I flip open and see the 3D Bruce Lee’s caricature I have created, bigger than what I have expected. Though nothing mentioned about me, I am happy enough as it is the only graphic featured in the whole writing.

caricatures of National Library Singapore



This group caricatures of the National Library committee, is used in their email invitation to their Dinner and Dance 2006

caricatures of Oracle staff and vice president



This is a farewell gift to the vice president of Oracle. He likes Formula 1. The staff wish to have a caricatures of all of them in it, featuring their specific preferences. In fact, they had the caricatures done by another caricature artist, but the resemblance is not there. Hence, they look for me. The feedback is the VP likes it very much and very happy about it. It is a very personal gift for him, as a remembrance of his colleagues in Oracle.

3D perspective of proposed new Shop-in in Bugis Village





This is a proposed shop interior design (by MYA, 3d perspective by Portrait Workshop, generated in 3dsmax, using V-Ray global illumination. Black and white concept. Shoes and shirts etc are not in yet, as the project is put on hold until they have signed the lease contract of this retail unit in Bugis Village, with Capitaland.

Shop-In perspectives







These 3D perspective space are done by Portrait Workshop, but the cutting and pasting of the shirt, shoes and posters are done by Mr Lim Meng Yi of MYA

Monday, August 28, 2006

3D perspectives of proposed landscaping for Kolam Ayer, Singapore





These perspectives are really a nightmare to me.
I have planted in too many RPCs of the trees, shrubs (as required by National Park) and people in the 3D scene.
When it comes to the rendering, even my 3ghz Xeon Dual processor, 512mb Wildcat Realism graphic card, 2gb RAM can't render the whole image of A4 size at one go. The error message is not enough memory for the bitmap. Hence, I have to render 1cmx1cm at a time. I used 2 PCs and 1 laptop to get these done within 15 hours, throughout the night. One PC renders one perspective, split out the work, and finally managed to get them done on time. I can't imagine if I have only 1 PC.
After this job, my conclusion is 'In fact, money can buy time, at least can buy me more time'.
Hey, think it is time for me to invest on more PCs... Hahaha.........

Update:-Built-up site photos here (posted on 9 Dec 2008)
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