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, May 31, 2007

Caricature for Wealth Magazine - 2


Second order for their magazine, since last month.
The client's brief:-
"Please draw a caricature of Dr Khoo Guan Seng.....
In colour like last time.
Please draw him sitting at a computer, trading like a hot-shot fund manager. Leave the screen blank. We will fill the screen with our own picture. The article is about his idea: He wants to create a super search engine for investors. "

Very low res photo given. I can only try my best. Luckily the client was quite pleased with the outcome.

Ant




Snapped this while waiting for my son cycling downstairs.
Saw this red ant strolling around on the stone seat.
What a waste that I didn't bring my 75-300mm zoom lens and tripod.
Used the manual mode, 1/200 shutter speed, f5.6, ISO H1 (hahaha...... still dunno what it is, but I switched it to the maximum). The disadvantage is that the photo looks very grainy.
Stupid Flickr/Blogger. See the 3 photos above. There are the same photo, but upload in different sizes on Blogger. All appeared jagged. Damn. So confirmed not the size I upload that caused this problem.

Caricature theme - DJ

This client used to work in BEA, and engaged me to do this caricature of his boss in Mona Lisa theme. Now, she's working in IBM.
She doesn't know that I am the same person till she walks into my gallery.
As usual, I can't remember most of my customer faces. Hahaha.....



This time, this caricature was meant to be used as a poster for the cheer team for this girl 哓云, who will be participating in a Star DJ competition in Bishan Junction 8 this Saturday, held by FM Yes 93.3, as what the client told me.
Instead of having her holding a mic, which may make her look more like a singer, I have her standing on a golden mic, doing her favourite posture.
As the client was going to blow it up to A1 size, I did this caricature on an A2 size marker paper (biggest size available in the market). This was scanned in and I did the rest in Photoshop.

This was the final outcome. Not bad, right? Spent about an hour in spicing up this caricature.
Looked more like those flash card which was very popular in the 1990s.


Edited version, as the client wanted longer eyelashes and brighter eyes. I have toned down the yellow a bit, so that it will look better when she get it printed out.

Caricature theme - wedding + tricycle


The wedding caricatures were ordered at the same time as the family portraits.
They wanted to be on a tricycle, with the number plate of 3006 being their wedding date, 30th June.
Erhmmm.... I didn't make the bride's mouth bigger, as I don't think she will like it to be even bigger, especially when all girls like to look beautiful in their wedding.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

family portraits in pencil


Family portraits of the brothers and their wives. It was meant as a gift from the client to his brother on his wedding day in end June.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Caricature for National University of Singapore (NUS)


The client's rather long request:-
"...... is currently teaching law at the NUS Law Faculty but she is especially fun-loving and jovial. Through this caricature, we hope to bring out the character in her, as a tough but warm person.
For the theme, may I suggest that we have a classroom setting, with a row of 'students' (not necessarily 28 of them and no need for uniform) in the foreground, back-facing, chit-chatting, surfing internet on their laptops,d ozing off, with only some paying attention.....as the 'teacher',will be in front of the class, still appearing very composed and focused, holding a thick green book (this is the WTO book), and going on and on.......
The theme should center around the course named "WTO Regional Trade PolicyCourse, Singapore 2007", which is a partnership between the World Trade Organisation and the NUS.
......I'll leave it in your good hands to inject some fun and humour into the picture. The WTO and NUS logos would need to be visible though."
There's a limit of number of additional cartoon characters for each caricature I can put in. Thus, I proposed to him to have 3 students chatting in the foreground, while she was teaching. I put the NUS and WTO logos on the whiteboard, on both side.


Bug-Buster


Look at these worms above?
These are found in my room (on the window frame)just now, inside a hornet's nest (as claimed by Wilfred, after showing him this photo). I suspect these belongs to a bee, but think twice again, couldn't be.
How can the baby be bigger than the mother bee? My wife said it is wasp. She just couldn't stand them, after I broke the nest, and see them wriggling out.
I saw the similar ones in my study room last year, in the pigeon-hole shelf. But those were yellowish-orange in colour. (My wife's conclusion is that those were the older one. The above are the younger one - green in colour.) After I scrapped them out and dumped the whole shelf, a bee flew in minutes later. That's why I suspect those worms are its babies.


History repeats itself. About 10 minutes later, after I have dumped those worms into the rubbish chute, a bee - Ah B (much smaller than last year's one) appeared in the living room. My wife said cannot kill it, or else other bees will come and attack us. She asked me to chase it out of the house. I said I can only kill, don't know how to chase. Hahaha......


Then, this cockroach (Ah Keong) came into the scene which made my wife screamed on the top of her voice and jumped onto the sofa with my 2 kids. I thought Ah Keong saw that Ah B and wanted to eat it up, as it moves towards the latter. Hahaha....


This one can be killed. My wife said must kill. (Can't stand her. Mouth opened bigger than the size of that Ah Keong. What if it flies into her mouth. Hahaha....)
And then, it really flies, when I got the newspaper to hit it. First 2 missed, and the last one, I managed to slam it down flat with the end of the newspaper, just barely hit it. Heheh, and it was just nice and no juice came out from Ah Keong's body.


I turned around to look for Ah B.
Alamak! It was half-dead. I think I either hit or step on it, in the first 2 hits for Ah Keong.
The cleaner who promised to clean up the mess before I started to take action done a good job. She even put a piece of wipes on Ah Keong's corpse. Hahaha......
Till now, no bees come back to look for me yet. Maybe it is late.
Just don't understand why they love to build their nest in my house. Out of convenience? Just because I stay on the second floor. Damn!!!

Caricature theme - wedding at OCBC


There is a restaurant in the OCBC building, as what the client told me.
Is it? Never heard of it.
9th June is their wedding day.

Client's feedback through email:-
"Just to let u know, my niece and her husband-to-be are very pleased with the curicature. They are considering to put it up at the wedding reception. That will be good advertisement for you is'nt it?Thanks for the good job done and I look forward to working with you again."

Caricature for a birthday card


A simple illustration for a birthday card.
The client doesn't want it to look too comical.
Thus, I need to reduce the size of the head.
She just wants him standing, hands in pocket, dressed in shirt and pants.
She will then scan in and do up the artwork of the birthday card herself.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Caricature for The British Club


A birthday gift from the client to his boss.
The client's initial idea is just having him standing, with both of his hands on his hips.
That will be too plain.
Given that he is a chef, and as the Director of Food and Beverages, I propose to have him holding his signature dish, with a thumb up.
'Yarlow' is what he likes to say that when he’s in shocked or curious, according to what the client has told me.

family caricatures in pencil



Second order from the this client. This time is for her family.

FIR artiste coming...to town and Portrait Workshop

One of the FIR artiste, not the whole team. Sorry, I still don't know the exact name, but the Teenage Magazine has just called me up to arrange for a live sketching for him/her at my gallery this Saturday, 2pm. Maybe it is that artiste on TV these few days. They will need to photograph the live sketching process, while doing a writeup for me(?). Did I hear it correctly? Will confirm again.
Hopes his features not hard to draw.
Hahaha.....

3D caricature dolly display showcase


This showcase was setup last Saturday, just that didn't bring my camera in to snap.
Looked neater now, and more presentable, rather than squeezing with my other displays for space.
Wonder whether do I have to dismantle it when I am moving my gallery next year, when my contract expires?

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Portrait for AFPD, Singapore


A birthday gift for the boss, with the AFPD building in the background, based on the similar concept I have done for the Singapore Air Force 10 over years ago. (See below)

Portrait in ink and brush of an Indian lady


Another portrait. This time in pen and brush. It has been sometime since I last did portrait in this medium.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A sinful day!

Not doing any drawings since yesterday.
What's worse is that I keep spending money since last night.
Bought a bicycle for my son from NTUC FairPrice Xtra, as the one he's cycling now was rather small for him. Hard for him to turn.
Then, this morning went to IKEA at Alexandra for breakfast. Bought a showcase to display the 3d caricature dollies. This almost all glass showcase weights 42kg. Sprained my neck while carrying it into my gallery. Spend almost 1.5 hours setting it up, with the 2 kids quarrelling on and off, playing with my drawing tools and pc.
Then, went to Funan to buy an A3 size printer.
Had been looking for months for a printer, as my HP 950 Office Jet all-in-one printer at home from my wife few years back was not working properly for the past few years. Scan, copy and fax takes forever to warm up, i.e., not working at all. The only function I can use is print, but it doesn't work all the time. The ink tanks were empty up for weeks, and I am not intending to buy new inks.
I need a printer to be able print on cds and dvds. I have an 8 years old Umax scanner which is still working fine. Hence, I am struggling whether to get a simple function printer, to get a all-in-one printer, or Epson Durabrite printer. Went to Courts and FairPrice Xtra for umpteen times, and still can't decide on which one to take. Surfed Canon and Epson last night, and finally decided to get an A3 size printer. If they have an A2 size printer. I will take it too, so that if I need to print at that size, I don't have to rush to printers to get them printed out, especially when I need to get them done in the middle of the night.
And, I have an A2 size Epson printer 1520. (hahaha.... like a collector for printers) 8 years old too, but not working since when all my computers upgraded to Windows Xp. Instead of printing at A2 size, it print at A4 size, due to lack of driver for Windows Xp. What's worse is that it cannot feed in the paper properly. Thrown aside liao. Thinking of whether Cash Convertor will buy from me, together wth my Lexmark monotone printer. Yes, 3 non-working printers at home, besides the Canon MP780 and the new Canon Pixma Pro9000 bought today.
My wife laughed at me, saying after considering on the budget printer for so long, and ended up buying a so expensive printer of $899. Hahaha......
Got to do some drawing later. Or else next week 'jialat'. Go Go Go, Work Work Work!!! Sound familiar, Wilfred? Hahaha......

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Portrait of a guy in pencil


Not easy to draw as the photo provided was not in focus - blur. Spent around 2 hours in shading and building the tones of the facial muscle. Quite a good breakaway from the many caricatures done recently.

Samples for Nihonbashi Gallery

These are some samples created upon the client's request:-

"We are a art gallery at Nihonbashi Tokyo in Japan.First, we sorry about poor English of us.Now we interested in dealing caricature made from photogragh in our gallery.Your caricature arts are very atrractive we think.Would you please make our caricature products to order from our customers.Customer's needs in Japan are portrait, wedding welbome board, illustrationof name card etc.Web site of us, now planning.We think we are only art gallery handling the foreign caricature in Japanprobably.We cannot say the amount of selles of your caricature now. But we try tosell and learning ennobles your art.Attaching a picture of our gallery."

Perhaps they wanted to try first. Thus, they ordered the most basic categories.

Caricature in pencil without theme


Portrait in pencil (simple sketch).
Which one do you prefer?


Caricature in pencil with theme of a little girl.
All these artworks were sent to them via email, after scanned into softcopies.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Caricatrue for HP, Australia



The client's brief:-

"- One person, themed marker caricature, A3
- The theme is a girl pole dancing - Note the dancer should be cheeky (e.g. wink her eye or something like that), but this is not pole dancing in it's 'traditional sense' i.e. no high heels or overly sexy outfits, just small dancing trainers or bare feet, sleeveless top and shorts (just like in the picture below).
- The recipient of the caricature is our dance teacher, Jen. It is the one year celebration of her own dance studio that is called "Studio Verve". It would be great to have words "Happy 1st Birthday Studio Verve" written on the caricature also. You can check out the studio logo (with the pole dancer silhouette) and the font of the studio's name on
http://www.studioverve.com.au/. She often wears a top with the same logo printed across the chest.
- The dance move we would like in the caricature is show in the picture below. You would probably need to turn it around a bit to have her face visible in the picture, but I hope you get the idea."
This client placed his order through email, payment made by his colleague in Singapore, who had ordered a caricature from me few months back. This original artwork was posted to Australia through registered mail.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Caricature theme - Pretty Woman + Wu Zun 吴尊


The client's brief:-
"My friend is christian foremost, quite a strong believer, her religion forbids her from idolising which i feel maybe a useful informatin for you when you designing the picture. Probably something thats not too overly exaggerating but still show a fondness of her over Wu Zun."
I proposed the "Pretty Woman" theme to him, as I felt that it was quite appropriate in the sense that she will be closed to him, while not so much on the idolising.
The client wanted a black and white as he felt that it looks more like cartoon, which I don't think so. The caricatures should look better in colour as it will bring out the 3 dimensional structure of the facial muscle through the shading, as well as distinguish the face with the body with the face, especially when there was a background.

3D caricature dolly

You may have seen these 3D caricature dollies in Singapore, Taiwan, China and even USA.
I had seen these in Bishan Junction 8. Some of my customers told me that they have seen these dollies in Kalm's. Yes, they are now available in Portrait Workshop. They are the products done by Usually Creation. Adam Koh, the boss of the company has been discussing with me on the possibilities of exchanging links on both of our website, for few months. Now, he will be leaving for China in managing the production side with Qminime. These 2 companies have merged. Given that they need some retail shops in Singapore to take orders and for their customers to collect, besides the Wedding Giftshop in Delphi Orchard, Portrait Workshop is the other reseller for them in Singapore. (In fact, he has placed more samples here, making Portrait Workshop the biggest reseller for their company in Singapore. With this additional product, my gallery now looks more like a gift shop. Hahaha...)
Adam told me that he has collected back on the samples in Kalm's Singapore outlets. Prices are still the same as you see on their website. I will have to get familiar with their prices, before the potential customers call up to enquire. Hahaha... head getting big. They have hundreds of ready-made, semi-customized, and fully customized dollies. It will take me some time to do it.
You may wonder why they have chosen Portrait Workshop? These are 3D caricature dollies. I am doing 2D caricatures. In terms of context, they are similar. Now, the customers have more variety to choose from. In fact, I have thought of doing such 3d caricatures 10 years ago. But, I am one-man-show. There's a limit of the quantity I can produce. These dollies production are labour-intensive and time consuming. Unusual Creation and Qminime have more than 50 artists to work on them, to cater to the world market. I have more interest in creating different drawings (3d digital caricatures too) than in the management side. Thus, I shelved the idea.
As these dollies are not done by me, you may expect a different styles in the modeling and sculpturing of the features, as well as the style. According to what Adam told me, they can get 60%-70% resemblance, based on the photo you provide. They have QC (quality control) after the head has been sculptured out, to check on the resemblance.
These are the 3d caricature dolly samples he has brought in this afternoon.
I will need some time to re-size the images and put them up on my website product page later.


All the dollies sitting on my drawing desk in my gallery now.
Of course, they are not here permanently. I will need to hunt for a rack or shelf to display them nicely. Need to do some shopping this weekend.


Soccer theme.


George Bush - Superman theme. Should get popular, since most of my clients like to feature their bosses as Superman.:)


Marilyn Monroe......'s body in caricature form. Of course not the head. Hahaha....


That famous tennis player - but I don't know her name. Hahaha...... Saw her on TV before.


One of the customers.


Soldier on a tank. Should be popular among Singapore Armed Forces.


Tennis player theme. You can change the colour of the shirt and short etc, at a slight extra cost of $10. ( The body and colour are all ready-made, except the head.)


Graduation theme.


Bruce Lee theme.


Another Bruce Lee theme.


Another customer's caricature.


Baby with milk bottle.


Soccer theme - another hot theme, even not within the World Cup period.


Another graduation theme.


Wrestler theme. This one is bobble-head dolly. The head rests on a spring. Very popular in the west.


Killer theme?!


Young boy theme.


This is what they did for a school in United States, based on their existing mascot, mass-produced it, with suction cup.


Ehmmm, may look a bit obscene. Hahaha..... Pen holder, on my desk now.


Flintstones theme.


Couple - beach theme with surfboard.


Wedding theme, with platform and background.


Beach theme, with photo frame as background.


Starry starry night. Romantic theme.


Couple on Harley-Davidson motorbike.
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