Caricature theme - Kota Tinggi waterfall

Meant to be presented as a Valentine's Day gift, but my orders was full then.
Think she postpones or uses it for another occasion.
Her request:-
".... I need the background with a waterfall in it. Particularly Kota Tinggi because that was where we met. It would be nice if you could draw him piggy backing me. Attire wise, i'm easy. Sports wear like shorts and shirt will do, because it was at a camp....."

Did some research on the Kota Tinggi Waterfall. Looks rather dim as the whole background is covered with trees and bushes. I omitted these on top of the waterfall, to give the whole drawing some breathing space. Didn't colour fully for the water below to echo the top. The effect looks quite good.

Caricature theme - wedding

Followed the posture as in their wedding photo provided, as requested by the couple.
Nothing much to play with this time.
Background is Esplanade.

clearing up for my SOHO

Finally decided to give these stuffs to Salvation Army, rather than sell them on eBay.
Too much trouble for me.
"If it is too good to throw it away, give it to Salvation Army."
Think they can use them in a better way, rather than collecting dust in my study room.
Took a snapshot of them using my P990i.
Said bye bye to my Yamaha external Cd writer (bought in 1995), PowerMac G4, Lexmark monochrome laser printer and Epson 1520 A2 size printer (bought in Dec 1999 - antiques now.), Hp Office Jet 950 (wedding anniversary gift from my wife few years back) and an A3 laminator.


My shop lease contract expires 31st March 2008, and 28th March 2008 should be the last day of business day. The management of China Square Food Centre will be revamping the whole building with carpark at basement (crazy for such a small space), banking hall and restaurants for 1st storey, offices for 2nd, 3rd and rooftop. Wondering how they are going to do it.Anyway, I will be working from home after that.This could be a big challenge, as now I don't have exposure to the public like in Clarke Quay (with pushcart), busking in Orchard Road, and a retail shop currently.What gave me the courage to do so is my website and blog exposure on Search Engines like Google and Yahoo. When you search for 'caricature Singapore', they appeared on the first page, and occupy about 3 (sometimes more) out of the 10 links on the first page. It was a totally different case about 3 years back. You can hardly find them on the search engines.

Most of my clients found me online now. They place their order via email and phone, and collect the finished artworks from my shop. There are some walk-in too. Giving up a retail shopfront, meaning that I will lose a fair bit of the latter.

Think my competitors are the happiest bunch, when I work from home.
Next should be my kids. They can see me at home most of the time, provided they are at home. Hahaha....
My wife should be glad too. Can ask me to run errands for her, so that she doesn't have to take leave to do such things.
Last, should be me. Save on the rental, petrol, season parking, expensive business broadband plan of $172 monthly, electricity and phone bills, ERP etc.

Let me try it out first. If it doesn't work out, or one day when I would like to get a shop again, I will be back.
Two and a half years back, when I setup this shop in a food centre, my competitor and some customers think that there must be something wrong with my decision, especially this place only crowded between 12pm - 2pm. But it works!

Anyway, my backlog orders are pretty huge recently. My clients are puzzled why they would need to wait for about 3-4 weeks to get their drawings delivered. Even when they are willing to pay more for express service, I can't accept their orders due to my workload at that time. I hate giving empty promise. Rather give up that deal, then not able to deliver when collection date is due.


Back to my SOHO (Small Office and Home Office).
Was planning the space and layout when I move all those stuff from my shop back.
Since I bought them from IKEA, I went to their website to get the dimensions.
And surprisingly, they have their own 3D software for their customers to do simple planning.
Too lazy to fire up my 3DS Max to do the visual (which may take me few hours or longer), I decided to use the IKEA software.
Considering a software of less than 20mb when compressed, it is quite acceptable, though with some limitations here and there.

This is my initial plan of the SOHO layout.
Colour scheme may follow the current shop one.
It will be a super big challenge, as first I have to clear up the mess in my study room.
It has turn into a big store room for my comics, cd, IT gadgets, drawings etc since the day I move in 5 years+ back. It became worse when I have my shop, as I seldom work in this room. It was well-known to my friends and relatives who have been to my house. Quite a shame, but still put up a photo here, as this is going to be history.


My wife has thrown away the sofa set few months ago. I have donated my PowerMac and printers etc. Still very messy. Tak boleh tahan.

Clearing up this mess will be my biggest project in the coming weeks.

Caricature for Raffles Education

If you read The Edge Singapore magazine frequently, you should be familiar with this face.
He's the CEO of Raffles Education Corporation.
His features are quite unique, especially the mouth/smile.
I used a more cartoon approach for his caricature, and focus less on the shades and details of his features, for this round.
Just a slight shift in style, that you may not notice it at all.
As the photo of the school provided was not a full view, I have to shift it to the left, and the other side blocked by the caricature, and (added in) the tree and bushes.

Caricature theme - 公主小妹

Last Valentine's Day order.
Followed the poster of “公主小妹”, without the other characters at the side and in the background.
The client requested to have the pastel background as in the poster, but it won't look good, since I am using colour markers. The colours were too strong, and especially awful with the overlapping marks, when it was meant to look soft and sweet.
Thank goodness that he headed for my advice.
If not, the whole caricature will be gone.

Caricature theme - Austin Power

Back from my CNY holiday.
Still in holiday mood.
That's why it took me ages to complete this caricature.

Used to draw this Austin Power's theme years ago.
This client likes the theme, which she saw it on my portfolio.
So I draw it again, but the guy without the Austin's glasses.
Added in the Mondrian type of background this time (previously was white background withthe flower icons). It was in the original movie poster, just that I added in 2 more black vertical stripes.

祝大家金鼠年好運到!

祝大家鼠年平安順心,永保安康。

好運到
~放~輕~鬆~ Relax.....

Go Go Japan!!!

Client's request:-
"...I would like the theme be in Japan tower, and my friend and I are the parachuters. And if possible add in a Japan flag. Maybe add a word "Go Go Japan " . I have attach a sample japan tower picture as well for reference. "

Gave them same colour outfit. Looked more like buddies.
Isn't the Japan Tower same as Tokyo Tower?
Looked similar to what I have seen when I was in Japan 3 years ago.

Phew!
Last job before I go for my CNY holiday.

One'derful birthday!

Turning 1 year old.
Taken the snapshot of this caricature in my shop. Mixture of cold and warm lighting. Looks quite good on this pencil caricature. Not on the original artwork, of course.

Couple caricatures in colour

Valentine's Day gift. Not sure whether they are an item yet, so I didn't draw them so close.

Caricature theme - honeymoon at Tibet

A different honeymoon venue - Potala palace in Tibet.
Unique, right?
The whole palace is huge. I can only draw in the most significant part, which is the main palace in the centre (the maroon part).
The groom is 'piggy-backing' the bride up the steps. Xiong!
See the difference in caricatures black and white ink, and colour? Which do you prefer?

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.

lady caricature in colour

Think I made her look more comical than the original face.
Red singlet..... because the client has chosen red frame. Hahaha.....
Works the other way round.....

Thank you, mentor!

Received a call from the hamper company, told me that there was a hamper for me from my mentor (not art mentor), while I am on my way to his office.
Oh, so touched.
Second hamper I received for Chinese New Year over these years. Miserable......
Reached home and saw that it was not the usual hamper somemore.
There were abalaone, bottle bird's nest etc. Woo.... must be damn expensive.
The message on the card;- 'Thank you for your support and beautiful painting!'

Couple portraits in pencil

Another Valentine's Day gift, but it is couple portraits in pencil, instead of caricatures.

Another princess!

The big glasses + this cheeky expression made this caricature turned out different.
Since this caricature is without theme, this princess has no tierra.

The Monkeys Market (Satire)

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers
that he would buy monkeys at $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around,
went into the forest and started catching them.
The man very gentlemanly bought thousands of monkeys at $10 each,
but as supply started to diminish,
the villagers slowed down and eventually stopped their efforts.

The man then announced that he would now buy at $20.
This renewed the energy and efforts of the villagers
and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further, and people started going back to their farms.
The offer was then increased to $25 each, but the supply of monkeys became so little
that it was a almost a miracle to even spot a monkey, let alone catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 !
However, since he had to go to the city on some business,
his assistant would transact on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant assembled the villagers and told them :
“ Look at all these monkeys in the big cages that the man has collected.
I will sell them to you at $35 each, and when the man returns from the city,
you can in turn sell them to him at $50 each.
Deal or no deal ? ”

The excited villagers, smelling a quick-profit killer opportunity,
immediately rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again,
and there were just monkeys everywhere!

Ladies and gentlemen :
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Caricature theme - cupid and angel

Valentine's gift.
He wanted to be the cupid with a 'heart' arrow, and she will be the angel.
Noticed the overlapping lines of the dark blue sky?
This was the nature of colour marker.
When you colour over the existing patch, it will add on another layer. It would be good for building up shades and textures for the facial muscle etc, but not for smooth area like sky and flat colour background. That's why I seldom colour the sky. I would leave it blank instead, add in the clouds and birds etc. It can't help in this case, since we need a dark ble sky to bring out the night sky effect, with moon and stars.

Caricatures for Deloitte

Soccer and golf theme.
They got the samples I have done, from my website.
They wanted the same design, but replace the 'Sharp' logo with 'Deloitte' logo, and the other was to add in the name on the cap.

Caricature for Barclays Capital Global Services Singapore Pte Ltd

Drawn his mouth and teeth exceptionally big. Turned out quite good.
This time, I didn't colour the base biege colour over the teeth as what I usually do. to make this set of teeth bright and shinny.

Caricatures for Central Provident Funds (CPF)

Think these were the staff/committee members who didn't get their chance to be drawn in their company D&D last December. I guess only. Hahaha.....
Anyway, this drawing took me 3 days to finish!
Unbelievable, right?
In fact, I finished two-third of it on Friday night.
Ding-dong here and there, and too many stuff to settle during weekend, it was finally done on Sunday night.
No more delay, as I have other orders piling up, and terribly behind time.
Noticed this time round, I drew the caricatures quite close together, which was quite different from my usual way of drawing group caricatures? Maybe that was the main reason for the lengthy time for completion. This whole drawing was A2 size. The faces were relatively big. To squeeze in 12 of them, I felt stressed. But luckily the final outcome looked quite good.

over-sensitive?!... moving forward

Case A:-
Did some searches on Google yesterday, and found a few Singapore artist websites and blogs follow the way I blog.
They put up client's request and sketching process etc. (maybe these are what artists can blog also.)
Maybe they are eyeing on this url too, since they got another similar url.
Thought I can be more easygoing now, since I have another bigger goal.
Now I may need to stay more alert.

Told my wife about it.
She said they follow your style, maybe because they think yours is good.
Hmmm.... is it? Should I be happy or .....?!

It may be unwise to talk about all these here. These artists (competitors and friends) could be following my blog. (If they didn't follow, they won't see this post; If they follow, I could be right.)But since this is my blog, I should have the freedom to talk about anything. Isn't it? Not those very sensitive issues though. Too many factors to consider. Maybe I can tell you more about this artist ring (like takeover etc) more if I have time and mood, and if you are interested.

Case B:-
About 10 years ago, when I was strolling with my wife along a Pasar Malam just opposite my workplace (where I draw for business). We were looking at the displays on the tables, and we stopped at a table, with black and white caricatures displayed on it. We looked at each other. The first thing appeared in my mind was that how come my drawings appeared here? But I didn't draw these faces before?

We looked at the artist, then we walked off.

My wife said that artist's drawing style looked so much like yours. I agreed.
Perhaps you may think I am over-sensitive or whatever ...... Perhaps you are right.
We take note of that artist's face.
He's now quite a well-known artist in Singapore.

That day, this artist told me, in an event, that he is using some of the caricature postures I used for the guests in events. I won't say no to him. He has the freedom to draw these postures. I have no rights to stop him from doing so. But this justified what I thought earlier on, in a way.

My friends told me that there are artists following what I am doing, just that I used certain styles which they can't copy easily.

Yes, I used G-pens, fountain pen and brushes. I learned to express the lines with brush and pen strokes through comics. I learned the cartoon, expressions, body proportions, cross-hatching styles, rendering (digitally too) methods etc through comics too. From there, I digest and put them in my caricature and portrait drawings. If you do notice, these are seldom seen in caricature drawings especially.

When I first started out as a portrait artist, I gave my company a name - Portrait Workshop.

Many clients thought that I am conducting workshop for the public. In fact, it is a workplace that I explore different methods of drawing style, method, expressions etc. I am excited every time I thought of one new method to approach the drawing in front of me. I will spend hours on it to get it done right, with satisfaction. Before entering this line, I was already exploring on acrylic painting, then airbrush rendering. I drew my own comic strips.

Over the years, the flame dies down. Maybe I have reached the bottleneck. Maybe I have another vision. Have been reading up a lot on another subject recently. Acquiring a new living skill. (It is still not an appropriate time to reveal it here yet.)

But after seeing that the competitors are catching up with me, I have the urge to push myself harder to move further ahead. However, all this while, I still try to make myself to draw something different. If not possible, at least I can work on the execution - finer rendering, strokes and postures etc. Play on the angles, expressions, features. Most importantly - QUALITY! If my customers (including the potential ones) can't tell the difference, either I have failed in expressing them on my artworks, or I have not done enough to tell them on artpiece.

I am definitely not the best here. But I must make sure that I am not the worst, and stay above the water. Always good to have friendly competitions, and I believe that I can perform better in that way. I still remembered that I have sketched in an event with 6 caricaturists. I was so excited, and I performed far better than my previous events.

学如逆水行舟，不进则退。

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.

Caricature theme - cowboy

His friends wanted to give him a full cowboy suit initially, and then changed their mind to have him in brown G-string. They added in his blue Subaru and his boxer dog. Can't remember why they added in the US and Japan flags. The sandwich with the 'Hotboxe' logo on it was retained, as he has his own sandwich vending machine business. Cool!

Caricature for Baker Tilly TFWLCL

Client's brief:-
".....need to include the word of IPO Emperor as the heading and the emperor will be stepping on all the pearls & jewels. With a lot of eunuchs or shou xia with him to show that , there is wealth and luxury...."

Emperor dealing with IPO?

Caricature theme - roller blading and cycling

Guy roller blading, which the gal cycling, along the beach.
Left the solid ground white instead of colour it with grey, so that they will stand out better, and the drawing not looking dull.
She was in this caricature artwork I have done for Lasalle Investment Management. Can you identify where she was?

Caricature for Tridium Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

He must have a craze for Harley Davidson bikes, as the client requested me to draw him riding it. Turned out quite good, slightly beyond what I have expected initially. Maybe because of the big curl (I exaggerated it slightly) on his top, and his beard. Think the treatment of shading part of the face helps a lot too.

Caricature live sketching for DynaForce Gala Dinner

Quite rare to have events on Sunday, especially at Sentosa.
Nevertheless, still took up this job, as this event organiser (Jason from Vision Event) was one who appreciate my art and skill. Though I have increased my rate, he still engaged my service. He will always tell me, after the event, "You are the best caricaturist I have seen in Singapore!" "You are the best at your works!" etc. Makes me feel as if I am really that good, though I know I am not that good yet. I know myself better. Still have lots of room for improvement.

The event was held at Amara Sanctuary Resort.
I was there early, just in case I am caught in a traffic jam along the way, CTE especially.
Jason afraid that this event slipped my mind.
He gave me a ring to check, and I was already at the carpark.


After setting up, the guests were not here yet, not the time to start yet, and nothing better to do, brought my Nikon D80 to snap some photos of this new building. Testing how wide my wide angle lens can cover. Not as wide as I thought.


It was slightly brighter in this photo, as compared to the actual lighting in this lobby.


Kicked off by getting this lady to sit down and being sketched. If not, I will be bored to death.
After that, the guests started to crowd around and have their names written on the queue list.



Quite a good one, right?


This one even closer resemblance.
Shorted the feather on her head, so that there won't be a big gap on top.


This guy was easy to draw. Long face, closer eyes, long nose with 2 moles. Can't run away one.


He told me that he will look boyish if he smiles. But a smiling caricature is always better than a serious one. The outcome was quite good, isn't it?


This guy can really hold his smile.


Summary of what I have done for this event. All lying on the table, waiting for the ink to be dried, before inserting into the plastic bags.

Lady portrait in pencil

I like the overall feel of this portrait.
The hair, the eyes, the overall mood and feel, her expression, the hatching method on the clothes, the distinction between the treatment of the hair and shirt.
Most importantly, the photo provided was not really good.
The face was in the shades, especially on the eyes part. I tried to shade less to bring out the brightness of her eyes. Perhaps her features were quite pronounced, it turned out better than what I have expected before I started sketching it.

Caricature theme - wedding

This couple will be using these caricatures for their wedding invitation card.
In fact, if they want to lower the cost of printing in choose one colour printing, they can opt for caricature in colour with wedding theme.
With the shading, it brings out the facial muscle better.
To reduce cost by using one colour, they can opt for sepia tone printing.
The outcome is a lot better.
One of my clients did that before.
Just that I don't have a copy on my side.

This round, I am still using fountain pen for this job. A different feel from using the G-pen and brush. Wonder how it will turn out on the card when it is a reduced version.