caricature live sketching for OCBC Securities Chinese New Year Dinner Event 2011

A 2 hour gig (7:45pm - 9:45pm) at Megu Event Hall, Singapore Flyer.

Client's brief:-
"....FYI, this event is organised in conjunction with CNY and Chingay Parade Day 1, so our guests will be viewing the Chingay Parade from the Level 2 balcony while buffet dinner is served indoors in the event hall. That's why I was asking for some CNY elements in the sketches."


I have hard time getting to the venue because of this Chingay 2011 @ Pit Building (next to SIngapore Flyer). The road was closed. Needless to mention the carpark. I parked my car at Millenia Tower, and squeezed my way through the crowds (and securities?:D). This took me about 15 minutes. Thank goodness I went there early, expecting the jam near the venue.


Got a glimpse of the Chingay 2011 parade. Not my cup of tea.:D

My camera was not behaving this evening.
The usual snapshot mode was not working as usual.
Not much time to solve it.

I switched it off, took out the hot shoe flash.

It came back to life, with the auto flash mode.
Too engrossed on the camera, and didn't realise the subject's eyes are closed.:D


Since it is working now, I put back the additional flash.
The queue is getting longer......

and longer....
I have to speed up!





This little girl's eyes are closed (above)
And this little boy is not looking at camera......



Last piece - nice couple!

Caricatures for OCBC

Another super urgent job.
OCBC wanted to present this caricature to this client, who is the distributer for Rolls Royce, Porsche, SAAB, Opel, Mini, BMW (Indonesia) and Mazda (Indonesia).
Give me a good opportunity to further polish my car caricature skill.
You would be surprised that the time I take to draw one car is longer than drawing human caricature. I can draw about 2 to 3 caricatures with that amount of time.
So, you can tell how much time I spent on these 7 cars.


Looked quite good when framed up. Thus I snapped a photo for my record, and as sample for future clients when they need to take a look at the finished product.

Caricature for OCBC Singapore

caricature_OCBC_golfer, originally uploaded by emailjit.

A real urgent order which came in this afternoon. The client from Group Investment Banking of OCBC wanted to present this as birthday gift to her boss this Thursday, with it framed. Thus, I need to rush it out for my framing guy to get it done on time.
As the client provided a good and big smiling photo, I exaggerated his mouth and the angle captured, something different from my usual golf theme of a flat boring golf course. This time round, I made the golf course looked more like a globe, accentuated the swinging post with the dust created by the golf club. I gave the caricature a more cartoon feel by adding in a white outline around him, to make him stand out against the background.

Comments received form the client at 14:58hr 1st Feb 2007:-

"Tks,Jit! My Boss, George likes his portrait v v MUCH! All GIB staff like the portrait TOO! Well Done, Jit! "

:D

Caricature for OCBC, Singapore

The client's request:-

".....We would like to have OCBC Centre (as our office is here) as well as Singapore's famous landmarks in the background - e.g. The Esplanade, Merlion, Sentosa's cable car and the Vanda Miss Joaquim.
If possible, we would like to present to him this Friday evening at our D&D...."

"Some suggestions:

Father - playing golf
Mother - Shopping or at the theatre
Children - roller blading/surfing/skating"

This was my version of the caricatures created for them. Hopefully they like it when they see it this Friday evening.

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 OCBC Singapore

Another farewell gift done last night, for this boss from OCBC retiring. He loves golf.

Group caricatures for OCBC

Super urgent job!
2 days delivery - caricatures + frame.
There's always last minute people.
Farewell caricature for the same person who's retiring.
Both parties were quite shocked/surprised when I told them there was another order from the same bank, but different departments. They didn't knew each other. But idea of having caricatures as farewell gift to the same person was not unique anymore. Now, they should be 'fighting' to see who was the first party to present it to him in the dinner, whose gift was nicer.
I comforted them, saying that one was individual caricature, but in colour; while the other was group caricatures, more fun but in pencil. Cannot compare like that. Hope both parties felt better.

Caricature for OCBC

This client told me that her boss was very satisfied with my previous job (not sure which one ....hahaha..... sorry..... bad memory.....) for them.
Farewell gift for this gentleman who is retiring,
She browsed through my website, and got this similar theme of having him in Hawaiian shirt, relaxing in a hammock, at a beach, with a coconut drink next to him.

Caricatures for DBS

A farewell and retirement gift.Just like the OCBC jobs, another group from DBS came to me, wanted to have a caricature done for this gentleman.
Told them that there's another similar order for the same person.
They dropped the idea. If I wanted more business, shouldn't have told the latter. Hahaha..... Anyway, can't finish in time.


Took a long time sketching this draft, as compared to the inking and colour.
Surprised?
Ya. Need to compose the layout and getting the features right, at this scale.
The paper was A2 size. Sounds large but looking at the amount of details to be included, space for the caricatures were rather limited. Thus, have to pay more attention to the features especially.

Inking and colouring were hard too, given that this was a portrait format. Have to reached the top part when drawing, and yet not crumbling the paper below.

Clearer now with the colours put in.
Mainly to show his lifestyle.
1) Working in DBS, with the DBS building in the background.
2) His hobby - tennis.
3) Another hobby - playing with the percussion drum (this was what the other party had in mine for their order too).
4) always longing to watch "The Spiderman" movie, but didn't have the time. Now enjoying the movie with popcorn in his hand.
5) Leaving for United States for his retirement, with the landmark - Statue of Liberty in the background.

Though it took longer than my usual time to complete such collage/montage style of drawing, but I think the effort I put in was worth it. The outcome was good too! Got satisfaction too.

Caricature for Standard Chartered Bank

The client doesn't have a specific theme in mind when they place their order. They just want something oriental and Singapore skylines or landmarks.

Thus, I proposed to have her dressed in cheongsam, with a fan in her hand and a Standard Chartered Bank logo on it. They wanted a Singapore flag somewhere in the caricature, since she's leaving Singapore - something for her to remember. I made it a tattoo on her left arm. Have her on a rickshaw with the Merlion, Esplanade, OCBC building and a palm tree in the background.

Caricature for HSBC

Looked familiar?
Yes, I did his caricature last Saturday.
This order came in today, from HSBC too, but from another client. They will need it by this Friday, with it framed up. I got to clear this order before settling those bigger orders due on Thursday.
My gut feel told me that it could be for the same gentleman, before I opened the email came in with a compressed zip file attached.

Few hour later, the client who ordered the previous caricature for this gentleman, called me to check whether another group of their colleagues placed an order with me. I got mixed up, thought this client was the client who ordered the above caricature, and told her "yes, but different theme." Anyway, the answer is correct.

She said what a small world. Both groups looking for a retiring gift for him. Both thought of getting caricatures, and both came to me. Indeed a small world! Think I encountered several such cases before, like the most recent orders from OCBC. Can't remember those longer than these, as they are not posted on this blog.

Anyway, this is their brief:-
".....who will be retiring
shortly and it is intended for the caricature to be part of his retirement
gift. Other info I can give is :

Age 53, but fairly craggy with it. Hair black

Smokes and drinks so we were thinking of a glass of red wine in one hand
and a cigarette in the other ( or maybe in the mouth ?)

Outfit should be the strip of the soccer team he supports Southampton FC
or 'Saints' to give them their nickname. I believe that this is broad
vertical red and white stripes, but will confirm this shortly.

Timing is such that I need to collect the finished article from you on
Friday if at all poss."

He must be a heavy smoker. Both wanted to feature him with cigarettes.

Caricature for ERM

Farewell gift. The draft was given by the client. Background is the chemical plants of their company, and the usual Singapore landmarks like Merlion, Esplanade and OCBC building. That piece of paper he's holding is the company logo.

Caricature for Nestle, Singapore

Farewell gift. He is working as a food technician in Nestle, now leaving the company (the Jurong industrial area in the background on the right, with the factories and chimneys) into the finance centre in Raffles Place (high-rise buildings like Maybank Tower , Fullerton Hotel, and OCBC building on the left, with a huge $ sign signifying the finance sector). The client is wishing him a prosperous future with this caricature.

Group caricatures for Morgan Stanley, APB, F&N and Heineken

Big job usually comes with long brief:-
"Hi Jit,

We would like to prepare a caricature picture with a theme something like the one you prepared for Lenka on Temasek.......

In terms of timing, looking for the final product by 10-11 April. Would like to see some rough sketches in the next 2-3 days.

If you can let me know the charges and who to address the cheque, I can deposit the advance amount today.

For the theme, we had the following in mind: 2 parties sitting across a table, there is a map of Asia Pacific laid on the table. The parties are negotiating on which territory belongs to whom. Place a flag for party 1 (Heineken) on India and party 2 (APB) on Indonesia and New Caledonia (an island in Pacific). Then there are other parties watching on the sideline. Have put together a rough sketch of the theme I have in mind

we have around 29 faces to incorporate as follow:

APB
Roland Pirmez (Key)
Vivek Chhabra (Key)
Philip Lam
Sze Khim
Geraldine (Key)
Karen
Adrian
Boey (Key)
Weng Hong

(Geraldine, karen and Adrian with lots of papers and files; Boey with a calculator)

Heineken
- Marc koster
- Siep
- Kenneth
- Steve (Can we show him doing some sort of theatrics - banging the table etc)
- Ernst

F&N
Koh Poh Tiong
Simon Israel
Anthony Cheung
Peng Seng

APB's Advisors
David (Key)
Peter (Key)
Johan (Key)
Gaurav
Eric
Sonali
Ibu tuti
Steven Lo

(Can we show Eric working on a computer and Gaurav and Sonali looking over his shoulders kind of supervising him; Ibu Tuti on a Phone; Steven Lo with files and papers)

Heineken's Advisors
David
Arfat
Ramiro

Let me know if 29 face are a bit too much and we can discuss....

These are the best pictures I could get, so please do the best you can with these. Understand for some faces this may not give best results but this is all I could get......"



This could be my toughest job, till date.
Not the biggest group. (I have done 87 pax for Coca Cola, 52 pax for Philip Morris), but I was provided many low resolution photos. That was bad enough. To make it worse, many of the photos are either looking down, hand covering mouth, three quarter back (not front) view etc. This is not the client's fault, as he also requested and waited for weeks for better photos, but we don't have much luck.

I told the client that we may lose the resemblance on some of them, given such photos. He understood. I came up with the above draft, based on his brief.

Feedback from the client:-
"Some minor comments on the caricature:

1. Can you make the people sitting on the table relatively bigger and the people in background a bit smaller to emphasize on people sitting on the table
2. Among APB advisor - David Aronovitch, Johan Dulat and Peter Chang should be more prominent than Gaurav jain, Sonali Johari and Eric Gnock Fah
3. Will send you photograph of David Serre later this afternoon
4. Move Sonali Johari from the left side to the APB advisor group side. You can have either David Aronovitch or Peter Chang shaking hands with David Serre
5. Please also show one APB flag on Indonesia and another APB flag on New Caledonia. New Caledonia is a small island on the right side of Australia (see attached picture)

Rest is good, thanks"


After relocation of these people, I started with this detail pencil sketch.


The inking.


And the colouring. Looks easy? No no. See the pain I went through on my Facebook.


(This is the high resolution scan-in of the original artwork vs those camera taken snapshots on top. See the difference in sharpness and colour.)
The background was added in the balance the whole drawing. The APB has more people on the right. F&N people needed to be in the centre, according to the brief. The Heineken people has lesser people, even with 1 APB guy shaking hand with them. I can't shift the APB guys over. While colouring them, I thought of having buildings in the background to balance them. So I drew in a window with Singapore skyline including landmarks like Merlion, Singapore Flyer, Suntec City, OCBC building etc. The curtain and carpet were added in to fill up the white space.
Looked pretty balance now. Do you think so?