Comic illustration - Bear Traps

Besides the evil bear and the injured bull, I like this hatching style, especially the fury bear.
It is a different feel from the previous few comics.
The form is cartoon, but I put in a more realistic shading to the fur, muscles, dust, mud etc.
This is the same approach I apply to my caricatures. Cartoon form, but realistic shading., to make them look cute and yet real.

I like the concept (my sudden inspiration) here too. Before the injured bull can run (or walking?) far with its 'tongkat' (walking stick), he was tripped by the bear, with just one leg sticking out.


In a bear market, there's a bear market rally, whereby the prices and indices will rebound after continuous falling. They will change from the downtrend to the short term uptrend, until they hit the major downtrend resistant. Investors and traders will usually fall in love with the short term continuous upward movement of prices, and get caught in such situation, which is known as bear traps. The prices turn down from here, and if they don't realise it and cut their loss fast enough, they will get trapped. They will keep praying some white knights will push up the stock prices to their level, to bail them out. It is dangerous, in the sense that what the (especially high)prices they have entered, may not come back to them, in a bear market.

Malay lady caricature in pencil

A pretty simple caricature job.

Caricature theme - netballer

The bride's sister - a netballer.
This finger sign must be her favourite posture, as the client requested me to put it in her caricature.

Caricature theme - Gorgeous lady with LV bag

The bride's sister.
Gorgeous enough?
I got this posture from one of the LV model photos online.
Changed the bad, as the original LV logo on the bag is not really obvious.

Caricature theme - chef

The bride's mum - a chef.

Should be someone who loves cooking for her beloved ones..

Caricature theme - golfer

Continue with the caricatures of the family members of 8.

The bride's father - who loves golfing.

My auntie told me that she saw all these caricatures at her relative's wedding dinner on 7th Dec 2008 (delayed blog post here).
They looked familiar to her.
She went closer and saw my signature.
Wah! What a small world! and what a small ring of caricaturist in Singapore too.

She said that I must be a very popular caricaturist in Singapore.
Her relative (niece of her husband's sister) won't engage non-popular people's services.
Heard that the photographer they engaged was paid $500 per hour. Wah! And he was engaged for 10 hours that day!!!

Caricature live sketching for Far East Organisation (FEO) The Miro

A 3-hour event (6:30pm - 9:30pm) for soft launch of the Miro (off Scotts Road) by Far East Organisation.
Name of the event is SPH Media Night.
The guests invited by the organiser are all those people from the media, and the latter told me that the former was the "atas' class type.
This condominium belongs to those high class type.
Heard from the event organiser that each unit can cost as much as $10 million! Or did I hear wrongly?!


The Miro site model.
Reminded me of those architectural model which we have done in School of Architecture, NUS.
But the scale done by us is a lot smaller,


These 2 guests are trying to 'disturb' me. Hahaha....
Entertaining me too.
They asked me why one of their caricatures face turned out so round and the other one so long.
..........


This lady told me that she has a caricature of herself, together with her husband done by
a caricaturist in MayBank Tower on National Day.
I asked her whether that caricaturist drew with 2 hands.
She said yes.
Must be my caricaturist friend, Welles Tan., as I saw his posting on his blog.

Her husband.


The queue list is getting long here, after the guests saw the caricatures I have done for the first few guests.


She wanted a messy hairstyle, and mess her hair further half-way through the sketching.
What a special guest! My usual request is - "Make my hair looks neater!"



The usual case.
After the guests saw the couple drawing, the next few requests will be the same.


This couple were really interested with my drawing. And enjoying the sketching process.
They told me that my signature was very nice.
Oh, is it? Thank you.
In the early days, especially those drawing order from photos, some clients will request me not to sign on my drawings. Given that the drawing were done by me, I will insist to sign on them. I just felt that they have no respect for the artist, when they requested for that. Some even want to their girlfriends, instead of my signature, they put in their own. If they think that their partners would believe that the drawings are done by their boyfriends (who can suddenly become an artist overnight), who's the more foolish party?


While I am sketching these 2 guests, I can feel that many guests crowded around us.
I think could be due to the guest on the right. His features were so distinctive.


She told me her caricature was very nice. Thanks.:)))



Another good one, I think.


This one too.





Last one.

Still have some guests waiting in the queue.
But, the time I was engaged for, was up.
It has to stop somewhere. Of course at 9:30pm, in this case.
Some property agents told me that they have waited very long, but didn't put down their name on the queue list.
I have already stop drawing the guests on the queue list.
I can't be rejecting the guests in the queue, and continue drawing others, when the time was up. Right?
But I must thank them for appreciation of my drawings.

Caricature live sketching for Dow Jones

A 2-hour (6:30pm - 8:30pm) event at Rupee Room, Clarke Quay, for Dow Jones (News feeding company for the finance sector) Year End Event.
Not sure of where's Block 3B, even though I have worked in Clarke Quay for 11 years. Hahaha.... I was there early, to give myself ample time to look for the Rupee Room.

After the revamp in 2005 - 2006 (think so), everything has changed. The Gazebo in the centre was replaced by a fountain. The open-air streets are now covered with big "umbrella' roofs. Push-carts were gone. Satay Street/Club was gone. The collectible toy shops have moved to China Square Central, and didn't come back after the revamp. The food court is history now. Think the Management has taken away the initial concept of nostalgia in this revamp.

I can't really tell what this new theme is. Perhaps for the pubs with unique concepts, and target at higher class of consumers, as it was also reflected in the high rental , after this revamp.


This is the place which I first started drawing in Clarke Quay, along the corridor.
That time was Nov 1994.
No time to dig out the old photos of my setup, to show you here.
Maybe next time.


Current Clarke Street, the street where my push-cart used to be located from 1998 -2004.
The push-carts are now replaced by booths.

See the tree? My push-cart was situated next to it.
The rows of retail shops are newly erected.
Before the revamp, it is a side corridor covered with canvas.
During raining season, this is where I do my drawings.

A newspaper cutting showing me working at my push-cart.


Finally, I found the pub for this evening event.

The invited guests are all from the finance related companies, like NextView, Citibank etc.

First guest drawn.
Very bright setting?
No. The actual brightness is about 20% of this brightness.
What you see in these photos are brightened up by my bounce flash when I snapped them.
This is a pub.
Expected bad lighting. That's why I requested for lighting from the client beforehand.
But what they get for me are tap lights and small table lamp.
Anyway, appreciated the client's effort.
Thank goodness that the government has banned smoking in pub few years ago.
I used to reject jobs held in pubs, as it is very bad for health (cigarette smoke) and bad for the eyes (dim lighting)




She told me that she has a caricature done by me, in pencil, few years back in a furniture show in Caltex House.
Wah! That was pretty long ago, at least before Aug 2006, since I can't find that event on my blog.


Having some fun here sketching these few gentlemen.


He think I have drawn him too old. Is it?!!






This gentleman is easy and fun to sketch.


2 enthusiastic ladies, waiting patiently for their turn.


Job done.

Feedback from the client via email, after the event:-
"Hi Jit,

Thanks again for the good work you have done.

Ann Lim
Senior Marketing Manager "

Caricature theme - Ballerina

The sister - Ballerina pose

Q-digital caricatures - Kimono

The client requested to take out the Japanese wordings on the right, in this case.

Caricature theme - macho guy

The brother - flexing muscles on both arms and showing off a nice, lean, v-shaped body.

Caricature theme - Yoga

The mother - Yoga pose, sitting down cross-legged.