The Process- SanSan’s Bowl of Tuberose

Bowl of Tuberose (the flower is known in mandarin as 晚香玉). 24″ x 24″, acrylic.

It’s based on a photo, but I did not expect flowers and bouquets to be so tricky! I visited some art galleries in Ho Chi Min city recently for the first time, and I was so amazed by some of the work of vietnamese artists. I tried to remember as much as I could and had to experiment when I got back. I think the trick is…LAYERING!

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, SanSan, Tuberose, Flower Paintings, OIC Process, Singapore Illustrator

OIC PORTRAIT DAY, 4th September 2010, 2 TO 7PM

On-line registration open NOW !!

Hi Artists and Sitters- Book your OIC Portrait session now! Please spread the word! Get drawn and join in the drawing with us!

Sitters/ Models/ Posers!
Email us which slots you want – reserve early via email “info [at] oicsingapore.com” subject: “Sitters/ Models/ Posers/ Aug Portrait Day”.
Posing is FREE, each artwork is S$10 available for purchase- all proceeds goes to the artists.

Artists!
Polish your drawing skills & catch up with your OIC buddies at the same time. Everyone gets 20 minutes to draw the “patron/ sitter” at the same time. You get $10 for each drawing sold . Make it PLAYFUL and COLOURFUL, all skill levels welcomed. OIC Portrait Day is about artists having fun and experimenting with new ways to capture an interesting image and making new friends. You don’t have to be an OIC member to take part but you have to register and please read the FAQ. Come and draw, make friends and spread good drawing vibes. Artists Registration Fee is S$10/- *Posting your work for view & sale (compulsory ) is a sign of appreciation to the patron/sitter/ poser .

( Poster illustration contributed by XinJiee – You can see her folio here )

REGISTERATION : http://www.oicsingapore.com/events.php

( No last minute signing up at MAAD will be entertained )

Tags: “oicsingapore” “ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL” “OIC Portrait Day” “organisationofillustratorscouncil” “Singapore Illustrator”

The Process: Rude Hawkers in Singapore by Miel

PROJECT: Illustration for a Straits Times Life cover story about Rude Hawkers in Singapore

The brief from the editor was for an illustration to be done about “Nazi hawkers”– probably a reference to a “Seinfeld” episode from the 90’s about the so-called “Soup Nazi”, a restaurant owner who was ruder than most New Yorkers. Anyway, i cannot draw Hitler and show swastikas, which by right would have been the most cliched, knee-jerk, conceptual reaction to the brief.

I decided to draw it simply, meaning that, what we see is what we get since the experience with rude hawkers is almost universal with Singaporean. This being a cover illustration, the main idea has to be communicated through effectively and instantaneously.

But i had given it a twist, as you can see in the sketch (STEP 1). The focal point being the fire coming out from the mouth, nostrils and eyes of the fried mee seller.

The sketch was approved. So I scanned the sketch and save it at 72 dpi, tiff file. Once I had done that, i opened it in Illustrator CS. I reduced the opacity of the image so that i could “see” through it when I trace my lines using the “pen” tool in illustrator (weight 0.2) over the sketch.

You will notice that I had modified my illustration as I go along tracing the contours from the original sketch (STEP 2).

Once I had finished tracing over the sketch, I devised a colour palette that would tie up with the concept about “fire” and “kitchens”. So these are mostly warm colours like yellow and orange with a hint of blue/violet for contrast (STEP 3).

I highlighted those areas where I would assign colours in and use the dropper tool to click on the colour palette which I had pasted beside the outlined artwork earlier (STEP 4).

You can choose to add highlights and midtones like what I did here using ‘Gaussian blur’ and reduced “opacity” in some areas of the illustration.

Then, it’s done!

And don’t forget to save, every step of the way!
Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, Miel, Singapore Illustrator, Straits Times Life, Rude Hawkers, Soup Nazi

The Process – Compaq City

Hi all. Finally manage to find time to share with everyone my process on working on the Compaq project that I have done quite some time ago.

Agency: PMG Asia

Associate Interactive Creative director: Juliana Goh

Client: Compaq

Link for the site: http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/compaq/sg/en/index.asp

01. My basic involvement is to provide all the illustrated elements for the game area which includes one main map which was use for the opening page, three areas and some small elements here and there. I was given a rough idea what Juliana wants and I kick off the project by doing some sketches.

02. Once the line is confirmed and we are set in a clear direction I started to paint the illustration. I’m using mainly Photoshop for this and an intous 3 wacom tablet.

03. All the stuff is in layers. For a style like this, I basically path out the element first before I start painting. Since I wanted it to look 3D-ish, the edges of the elements need to be very sharp and clear, but the tonal transition inside the element can be smooth and airbrush like. Lighting wise, I’m thinking of sometime neutral. More towards natural sky light. In 3D term, I think it’s something like a dome lighting.

04. Final Look

05. Once my illustration is complete, Juliana and her design team took the psd file and animated it, giving it more life.

Link for the site: http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/compaq/sg/en/index.asp
Do feel free to checkout the website. Enjoy

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, Ray Toh, torei, compaq, Singapore Illustrator

HP City of Dreams “woot! woot! 45″

I was recently invited to be a guest designer in the HP City of Dreams “Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag” campaign - commemorating Singapore’s 45th National Day for HP.

This is my rationale:- “The national day flypass by the jets has always been the highlight of the event signaling the start of the parade/ celebration! Mindflyer’s Flying Circus troupe’s flypass hopes to usher in more peace, openness and creative freedom in Singapore!”

My aim is to make a fun and lively piece that depict a mood of celebration and optimisim without being overly nationalistic.

If you’re now inspired to design something of your own, join the open contest now here. Closing date: 31 July 2010.

Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, flying circus,  Singapore Illustrator, michael ng, HP City of Dreams, Hewlett-Packard

The Process – Love Is In The Air

Hi there everyone…I would like to share one of my painting’s processes with all of you.

So let’s start!

1. Concept: I was just thinking to draw something wild, adventurous…so came up with the idea of kissing lovers in the air, was laughing on my own idea so this is the first doodle I made.

2. Drawing & Composition: It’s time draw details…the dress code of the lovers, their vehicles & the city structure. If you are wondering about those sinister buildings then it’s intentional..yes, to show the bravery of the lover, I just wanted to add more drama in the whole composition, it also depicts that these two lovers are so passionate about each other that they don’t really care about the consequences of their Kiss.

Since I wanted to show something Futuristic yet ancient (sounds silly I know!) to make it more clear, I would like to say more about the culture I was looking for…

this city is somewhere above the sky and they are living there from ages… I tried to show more organic feel, like it’s made with natural stuff. Check out the overlay building’s roof.

As u can see, I’ve added few elements (Overlay) to add more depth. I wasn’t sure about the colour scheme till this moment.

3. Colour scheme: Since its going to be an ancient fantasy…I thought about Golden Yellow scheme.

So I created a new layer and filled Golden Yellow and tried the blending mode options. It’s a great option to achieve harmony in the artwork. Sometimes you can get lots of unexpected and beautiful effects

through this feature. I think most of the people are already aware about that. So as u can see here the look and feel is changed due to the blending mode adjustment. Now I started adding details in overall composition.

Sometimes I don’t follow the ideal process and work on different area at the same time. To show the depth of field, I made the foreground elements blurry

using Gaussian Blur filter. So I suggest working with lots of layers, so that we can tweak each layer separately without spoiling the whole artwork.

4. Background: Background was almost merging with the characters…so added light pink colour on a separate layer to add more depth in the background. So the character will come out.

5. I think we should take a break and see the same work once again after some period of time. After looking at this artwork after few days, I realized that the composition was too tight for the subject.

So I made few changes… minimized the character’s sizes and flipped entire canvas.

It was looking better than before…then started working on the details. I chose Calligraphic Brushes…these Brushes are great for painterly look & feel.

6. Final details and tweaks: I’ve used smooth edge brush around the character to avoid those sharp edges…added clouds and light in the sky. Hope u enjoyed the making. Click the last image to view the final bigger image.

Happy Painting!!

Process – Blueberry Cheesecake for BLU Shangri- La with TBWA Singapore

Alright guys, some analog stuff. Behind the scenes and process for a very interesting project with good friends which were from TBWA Singapore then, Pei Pei, Ng,  Merlin Kwan and David Chan. Another piece was crafted by our OiC darling, Sokkuan. An amazing illustrator in her own right.

1) Straight forward agency brief complete with idea and sketch.

2) Counter sketch from my side to enchance idea. Execution style is discussed and agreed upon with the creative team. In this case. Heavy body and soft body acrylic style.

3) Preliminary colour proposals done in photoshop.For analog or natural media work, this stage is very crucial because there is not much room for amendments when it gets to the real thing.

4) Final stages of colour, look and feel approved by agency creatives and  client. Canvas and paints are prepared and halfway through the completion of illustration, art director steps in for minimal final touch ups and amendments.

5) Voila! Final touch ups and off to the photographer to do his magic lighting. Crucial stage as well because photographing paintings need another set of skills.

The Process – Vue Privée’s Maiko

Client: Vue Privée’s Gallery

Brief: Aimed at capturing the elegance of Old Japan, seen through the lens of photographers living and working during the late Edo period (1872 – 1912). Using gallery owner’s private antique photos collection as inspiration.

Process: To start any project i always do extensive research for the items i planning to draw. Sometimes, even read up facts on them.

While looking for research i basically already have an image in my head on how i want my illustrations to be, so most of the time i only look for items that goes similar to that idea. Similar meaning; species of plants/animals, man/woman, dressing, pose, angle/view/perspective etc.

I do all the initial sketches on tracing paper, so i can overlay them on top one another to “check” if the composition works. And after that some minor adjustment/fine tuning will be done before i redraw the entire image as a whole.

Once the image is scanned onto Photoshop, i began an extensive cleaning up of tiny dust spots and pencil lines. Followed by pathing out the items that needed to be coloured. Here’s the view of my path window in Photoshop.

And also the process of colouring.

Even though i been given total freedom to create this piece, from time to time i do email the client on the sketch done for update, so to assure that i am on track and do not stray to far from the topic.

So here’s the finish piece!

Two most important tips i can offer to anyone.

A) SAVE YOU FILE

B) BACK UP FILES RELIGIOUSLY

Thanks for reading and comments will be very appreciated.

The Process- Tangs tote bag hunt 2010

This is the behind the scene work sequence of how the project “Tangs tote bag hunt 2010″ was executed.

The game/ contest can be played here: http://www.tangs.com.sg/totebaghunt2010/

1. Design brief was analysed and understood. Basically the game consist of finding 60 shopping bags hidden in the gameboard/ floor plan. My task is to make the gameboard/ floor plan look interesting.

2. Site recce with game designer and client was conducted. Many photos and video were taken of existing shop floors.

3. Using actual plans of the shop floor, I start designing afew floor plans layouts for approval. Since this is a web based game- care was taken to check pixel dimension/ scale of furniture and floor plan. This is important for all web projects to ensure leanness/ efficiency of file size vs screen size.

4. Once plan has been approved- I start planning how and where the fun surreal bits will be. One of my concern was to ensure enough nooks and spaces to hide bags. A preliminary plan was also shown to the designer/ client for approval of where all the bags can be hidden.

A sketch showing how the characters will look like and where they are sited was sent for approval.

5. Once the basic plan is approved- I starting drawing the outlines of all the components and plan the colours. The whole illustration was drawn and painted in Adobe Photoshop.

5. Colouring commence once the outlines and colour scheme is approved. This is the fun part for me – to make the whole board look colourful and fun.

The approved outline was also sent to the game designer/ web programmers so that they can start doing all the back-end work concurrently.

Meanwhile – more jpgs were shown to the designer/ client of where and how the bags will look hidden during the many days of painting.

6. Finally everything is in place and approved- I spent afew more days adding the finishing touches to complete the illustration ready for the game designer/ web programmers to do final game tests.

Tags: mindflyer, singapore illustrator, singapore illustration, Tangs game illustration, mindflyer for Tangs

Tangs tote bag hunt 2010

Finally after much hard work and “secrecy” , my new surreal illustration for Tangs game has been launched on line. When I was 1st asked to illustrate the game board- I thought it will be be any other shopping mall floor plan. I love technical or complex drawings so that itself was already fun for me. Then after my initial proposal sketch – I was given free rein to really coat it thick with the “mindflyer” magic to make it look more fun and whimsical!
This is a very cool project for me- thanks to Kevin and the Spoon team and Tangs of course!

The Tangs web announcement blog post was here: http://bit.ly/aO3sJo

Do take part and play it here:  http://www.tangs.com.sg/totebaghunt2010/

Tags: mindflyer, singapore illustrator, singapore illustration, Tangs game illustration, mindflyer for Tangs