new url for my Facebook Page

Just renamed my Facebook Fan Page to
http://www.facebook.com/singapore.caricature

Easier to remember!
If you want to see what I am drawing, when not blogging (lol), here's the place to go.....
Pardon me for those raw images and videos, but you get more frequent updates, as I don't have to edit them.
Become a fan of this page, and you will receive all the news feed on your Facebook.

Facebook Fan Page

I have just setup a Fan Page (Caricature) on Facebook.
I am thinking to put in some contents which are different from this blog.
More like behind the scene.
You can see how my drawings are done.
From sketch to colouring.
And what I am drawing currently. Maybe not all drawings. Too tedious.
(Cannot afford so much time.)
Snapshots are raw. Videos are raw.
More contents coming up. I will need some time to build it up.
If you are interested to follow, please click "Become a Fan" button in the Facebook badge, on the right column.
See you there! :)

Out of town - 11th to 16th Feb 2010

I will be away from 11th - 16th Feb 2010 for Chinese New Year holiday.
You can email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com for any enquiries.
Please note that order for Valentine's Day is closed.
I didn't bring any drawing tools with me during this period.:)

Out of Town from 13th - 17th Dec 2009

I will be away from 13th - 17th Dec 2009, Sunday - Thursday.
For any urgent enquiries, please email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com
Thank you.

Out of town from 14th -17th June 2009

Please email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com for any enquiries /orders.
I will try to reply you as soon as possible.

Out of town ....

I will be out of town from 14th - 22nd March 2009.
However, you still can reach me at jit@portraitworkshop.com for any enquiries.
I will try to reply your email at the soonest possible time.

Christmas orders are full!

Quite a number of orders have been coming in recently.
I have to stop accepting any more orders for collection before Christmas - 25th Dec 2008.
(Only Q-Digital caricatures is still available.)

Let me clear these orders on hand, before I can take in any new orders.
Don't want to get myself into a mess, whereby you place an order, and don't receive it on your assigned collection date.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Another case!

I was browsing on Google Images for caricature of Thierry Henry, and saw this caricature, together with my other drawings from my website, appeared on this blog:-
http://dheeb.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%8A%D9%86/

It was in Arabic language, and I don't understand what it was talking about.

I used the Google translation tools, and saw that this guy was asking people to send in orders.
Using my drawings to get business for them again?
And he doesn't know my face appeared in one of the drawings.
Left a message on his blog, asking him to take them down before I take any legal actions against him. And the good thing that they are taken down at the time of this post.
Since they were taken down from his blog, I will not pursue further.
Just don't understand why these people dare to do it, and when they know that they can't deliver similar artwork (and quality) when the client ordered from them. Just out to cheat people?
This is definitely not good for my reputation, and I have to refrain them from doing so.
Doesn't mean that I don't put watermark on my artworks, you can use them freely.
Just don't want the watermarks to spoilt my artwork.
I only put them on when I need to protect some of my clients' interest - eg when they are selling those artworks online etc.

Please resend your orders.....

Dear clients,

Something wrong with my Outlook Express - physical memory dump error.
All my emails received between July and September, were all deleted.
If you have emailed me between this period, and has orders or emails (photos and job brief) not processed, received or replied, please kindly resend them (especially the last email) to jit@portraitworkshop.com
I may not remember all the (senders)/emails that came in these few days.
Just afraid that you have placed your orders, and they are not done.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Rates adjustments

Just adjusted the rates of my services.
Same reason - cut down my workloads.
Not to show off, but the jobs are flooding in till I can't breath.
Mentally very stressed.
Thought after the previous adjustment, it should cut down my workloads, but it didn't.
After I moved out from my shop, and work from my SOHO, thought it could be a challenge to get consistent orders. Orders should be lesser, but it was the reverse. I am getting even more orders now.
Wilfred told me it will be a challenge to your competitors instead, as I have too much jobs till cannot handle, but to raise my rates. Hmmmmm......
One of my clients told me that when they need my service, they won't really care about my price.

Anyway, the only way I can think of, is to increase my rates.
Think it should cut down the demand.
This is a self-fulfilling market.
When the price is higher, demand will be lower.
This move may upset my potential customers, but will make my competitors happier.
One of them has been telling me throughout these years, that my rates are too low. (A strong hint to me that I am blocking their business?)
Now, they should get more jobs, as my prices are considered one of the highest, if not the highest, in local market. Of course, they are still considered relatively low, as compared to those caricature rates oversea.

Another reason for this move is that I am appointed another bigger task to work on in the coming months (and perhaps years). I have to setup a company (trading school), create a website (with SEO, registration, spice up the contents, video editing etc), blog, design logo, namecards, design advertisements and brochures, spice up the Powerpoint presentation contents etc etc. This will definitely take up a lot of my time.

Anyway, the rates have been adjusted. Let's see how it goes.

Out of town from 11th June 2008 till 16th June 2008

Paying my mum and brother a visit in Kuantan, Malaysia during this period.
Please email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com for any enquiries.
Will be using dial-up there. Thus, will not be accessing my email as often as what I am doing in Singapore.
Alternately, you can call me at +60139121884 from 6pm tomorrow onwards. This is the temporary prepaid card I will be using during this period.

Problem solved!

From Usonyx:-
"There should have been no problems with portraitworkshop.com, but we had DNS problems with domains hosted on the same server as "caricature.com.sg" (so this domain had problems)

This was already resolved and will not reoccur. We sincerely apologize for inconvenience caused.

DNS for your domain didn't work properly because of Control panel bug. Bug is fixed now."

Stupid.......
Just my luck.
Hope they test their software next time before updating their control panel next time.

Confused!!!

Usonyx hasn't come back to me.
http://www.caricature.com.sg/ and http://www.caricaturist-jit.blogspot.com/ don't work on my laptop and my son's laptop.
http://www.caricature.com.sg/ works , but http://www.caricaturist-jit.blogspot.com/ does't work on my PC.
Same for Wilfred's case.
Don't know what to do now.
Maybe just wait awhile before I do updates on my website again.

www.caricature com.sg is down!

Down. Don't know why. Contact Usonyx but not working on weekends. Very bad techincal support. Changed the url back to the original blogger url to caricaturist-jit.blogspot.com on my website. But individual posts are down. This will affect me a lot as my links on search engines all direct to http://www.caricature.com.sg/
Got to complain to them on Mon. 2 days. How much is the loss?!!!

Moving out!

Tomorrow (27th March 2008) will be my last day in China Square Food Centre.
Initial plan is 28th March, but I have to sketch for a wedding event in that evening.
No choice, but have to bring forward 1 day.
Thank you Ivan, Lee Lee, Wilfred, Adam for their helping hands in packing and shifting, voluntarily.
Thank you my 2 sisters-in-laws and my wife for helping me to paint my SOHO, and clear the mess.
Thank you my parents-in-laws in looking after the 2 kids, so that I can concentrate on the transition.

2 years and 5 months. Time really flies.
This shop has brought awareness of its (Portrait Workshop) existence to the public, and of course with the help of my SEO efforts to my website.
Think the shop has done its job, and it is time to give me a new challenge - from retail shop to SOHO. Quite crazy and risky, and let's see if it works.
And I look forward to my new working environment.

Close on 25th Feb 2008

I will be out for an event on 25th Feb 2008.
Portrait Workshop will be closed on that day.
Please email me for urgent matters and enquiries.
I will reply you at my soonest possible time.

Close from 6th Feb 2008 - 10th Feb 2008

I will be out of town during this period, for the Chinese New Year's holiday.
Please email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com, for any urgent matters and enquiries.
Business resumes on 11th Feb 2008.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

This year, the Chnese New Year (CNY) and Valentine's Day are so close.
Worse is that Valentine's Day comes later, and I don't want to spoil my CNY mood ( think this is the only holiday in a year that I want myself to relax) and work so hard on the V Day orders. If the V day is before the CNY, I can work harder, and clear all the orders before the CNY holiday.

Since I am not working during CNY, I have to cut down on the number of orders I take in for V Day, and it is full about 1 month ago. Current next available date is 12th March 2008, for normal delivery. Express service subject to availability, i.e. my work schedule and workload.

Close on 28th Jan 2008

Out for an assignment. Portrait Workshop will be closed on the coming Monday - 28th Jan 2008. You can email me at jit@portraitworkshop.com for enquiries etc, as I may not be able to pick up calls.
Business resumes on Tuesday 29th Jan 2008, 12pm - 5pm.