From All Walks Of Life: In progress report for graffiti caricature public performance

Final performance to complete this mural of ‘live’ caricatures

Saturday 2nd August 2008 from 10am – 4pm at the Esplanade forecourt

“From all walks of life” is a performance art presentation where I pick interesting people walking at the Esplanade and do a caricature of them ‘live’. Each caricature takes about 20min to half an hour using spray paint and markers. This project is in conjunction with Singapore’s National Day Celebration. There will be 43 faces on that glass wall to commemorate our nation’s 43rd birthday. The mural will remain until after National Day on 11th August 2008

I will post a proper report on this project soon. Anyway I spotted some interesting reports by those who saw me perform. They have nice photos too.

http://www.singaporedailyphoto.com/index.php/2008/07/27/graffiti-artist/

http://bugcreative.multiply.com/photos/album/30/Wall_Caricatures_

Tokyo Caricature Scene

It took me awhile to figure out how to get around by myself in Tokyo’s terrific maze. Luckily I have a kid brother who is a Japanese speaking crew member with Singapore Airlines. He picked me up at the airport, gave me a crash course on Japanese culture and taught me the train routes and then I was on my own. It was fun discovering the city by getting myself loss most of the time. Well getting loss was not the agenda of my trip to Tokyo, I was to meet up with the current World Caricature Master: Kagehito Nakanishi (Kage).

Kage won the 2007 NCN Golden Nosey and that is no small feat as it is based on the votes by among the greatest caricaturists from around the globe assembled at the annual NCN convention. He not only has superb drawing skills and great artistry, he also runs a very successful caricature outfit. He took good care of me and it was indeed a humbling experience to be able to exchange knowledge about caricature with him. I learnt a lot from the special tour of his caricature booths and the studio office, he even allowed me to draw at his booth for an unforgettable experience.

Takayuki Watanabe and Kage at the studio office of Caricature-Japan

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Cartoon Caricature Drawing Show for School Assembly

Someone saw me drawing at a shopping mall, as it was closing time, he took my card and called a few days later and engaged me to do a studio caricature of him and his girlfriend. That was my first studio caricature commission. He is a school teacher and Head of Department at Bartley Secondary School. He later engaged us to do one for his boss (principal) who is leaving, by this time we were getting better at studio caricatures.

This time around he called again and insisted that I do an assembly programme for his school. Another first for me. I sincerely thank Mr. Asmadi Mohamad for his appreciation for the art of caricatures and putting me to a higher platform once again.

Mr Asmadi (second from left) presenting me with their school mascot teddy bear.

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Caricature Drawing Workshop at APAD

I volunteered a caricature drawing workshop at my art association, the Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya. Its a three hour session which was attend by only six person. I was a bit dissapointed at the small attendance because there was overwhelming enquiry for the course when it was published. Though small, we managed to have a good time and each of them got caricatured by me.

Throughout the year, I get numerous queries from the public requesting for me to conduct art courses for individuals. I have accumulated a long list of names . Sadly when the time comes that I announce a class, they never show up. So if you ever wondered why in the first place I am reluctant to accept individual students and only operate for schools and corporate events, its because I’d prefer to spend time with my wife and watch my kids grow rather than be stood up by strangers. Then again, if you really want to engage me for a session and can organise a crowd, we can discuss it.

This is not the first time I’ve had small audience or been stood up by students. For the love of art, I’ll do this again but only once a year. It used to be once a week in the past years but I gave up on being Mr. Nice. All proceeds for this workshop goes to the association.

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Caricature Drawing at Art-A-Fair, Parkway Parade

It was too bright and hot when the sun shines through the atrium, that was why we drew in shades and hat. Cool hor!

Last weekend (8 & 9th March) was a busy one for me and Ruoshi. We participated in the Parkway Parade’s Art-A-Fair for the second time. This time we introduced speed colour caricature drawings on-the-spot, which was such a hit with the public that we ended up drawing non-stop from 10am-10pm. Customers were game for exaggerations and it was great fun for me to draw, good satifaction for the customers and entertaining for the other shoppers that pile up behind me and also peer down from the balconies upstairs.

Its official now. We launched our new logo at the fair.

There has been a steady increase in caricature commissions which I post here that it is distracting the contents of this art journal which document my art and art teaching activities. So I have decided to separate those posts to another blog. I will be posting all my commissioned caricatures at cartoon.sg. We’ll also have more pictures of this event there.

 

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Most wanted man in Singapore: Mas Selamat Kastari

All news is on this man Mas Selamat Bin Kastari who escaped from an Internal Security detention facility on 27th February 08, 4.05pm. He is still at large nearing a week. He is the suspected leader of a terror cell that was uncovered after 9-11 for trying to sabotage public facilities. How he managed to escape has baffled authorities. Never have I seen such a massive manhunt. His mugshot is posted all over the place, even the telcos has sent out MMS of the photo to all its subscribers.

Singapore is a very densely populated place where it is almost impossible to avoid contact with people. How a high profile fugitive could elude detection this long is bizarre. As an artist, how could I contribute in this situation? I have read of research in UK proofing that caricatures are more effective at jolting peoples memory of a face than the existing police photofits system. Read the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/nov/26/ukcrime.humanbehaviour

There are photographs of him off course, but a mild caricature seems to help in memorizing the features. Here is my quick take of the most wanted man in Singapore with watersoluble Graphitone.

Golfers joke: A birdie for birthday gift

This caricature was commissioned as a gift for a 21 year old golfer. His dear friends wanted to surprise him with a humorous gift and they explainded to me how the term ‘birdie‘ in golfing was derived. I did some research and got a clearer picture of the term for this gag. I hope my humour is not too cruel by having the bird hit with a golf ball in between the legs. Oouuch!

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Caricature for back-to-school party concept

A team of insurance agents from Prudential comissioned this set of 21 caricatures for their upcoming dinner and dance with a back-to-school concept. I reminisced about my schooling days while doing this and thus managed to come out with 21 different poses to elaborate on the given theme. Too bad is was not done in colour.

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

I reminisced the days when I had hair and always playing truant.

Caricature of rider on BMW R1550 motorcycle

This is a farewell gift for a boss who rides a BMW bike. I hope I got the technicalities of the BMW R1550 right as I did not see the real thing and only worked from several photo references. Besides the usual challenge in caricature for achieving likeness of the face, this is also a caricature of an inanimate object. Through simplifying and exaggerating certain features of a motorcycle I was able to achieve an impression of the specific model. I bet he’d be riding away smiling, into the sunset with this gift in his leather jacket.

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.

Valentine day gift for loving couple

Beginning to get orders to draw caricatures for Valentine day. It is good to plan ahead if you already have a ‘Steady’, so that the rest of your energy can be focused at being super extra romantic on the special day.

This couple specifically requested for an Audi R8 car and a host of other items around their caricatures.

 

Note: We established a website specifically for our caricature drawing services in January 2008 at: WWW.CARTOON.SG. More caricatures can be viewed there. Please click here.