Deductive Abilities Should Be Better Applied

Doodle doodle doodle...

Inspired a bit by Punch Magazine (you Brit historians should know this), and bad toilet humour. In retrospect (mind you, retrospect in this case means 'immediacy') this isn't really that funny. Sigh.

Dame Edna Everage...

Tentative illustration for the ASEAN Society Costume Portrait Day. No typo, because I suck at typo. Essentially, a girl dressed up as Edna Everage (the only garish costume I could think up of off the top of my head)- the 'costume' aspect is shown by the blatant wig she's wearing.

I kind of realized after I finished drawing that it looks like me. But I suppose that would make sense, considering I based it off a self-portrait lying around in my sketchbook...

New Blog Design!

New blog design! Because I needed an excuse to use the pixel art I did of myself. Having spent way too much time on that. Heh. I'll change the other images as I feel like, but one thing you can expect is a cornucopia of colours and unwarranted amounts of girliness. I'll also be cleaning it up of unnecessary elements to make it a bit more concise. If it's possible for someone as blabber-mouthy as me to be concise.

Don Giovanni - Cambodia

Don Giovanni. Khmer Rouge, Cambodia.

So, for my Don Giovanni project, I decided to cast Pol Pot - head of the party, the Khmer Rouge, and dictator of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 - as the eponymous character.

Don't know whether this was smart on my part or not. At the time, it made perfect sense to me. I didn't want to do something light - I wanted to make people think. But, after copious amounts of research, I realize this topic is much too heavy than I could ever take. For how could I, a middle-class adult, living in First-World standards with little exposure to the rest of the world, ever hope to understand the pain, the suffering, the cruelty which he inflicted upon an entire nation? How could I ever do justice to such a heavy topic?

I've seen some terrible photos of the aftermath of the tragedy; some were so sickening I couldn't bear using them as reference. The mere thought that these photos are representations of a reality that actually happened is more than I can fathom. How could things like this happen?

I remember visiting Tuol Sleng - the prison - and the Killing Fields during a school trip in 2004. The experience, as daunting and uncomfortable as it was, was something I am glad to have gone through. It was singularly humbling, horrifying, eye-opening. I remember walking through the rooms, with endless black-and-white photos of frightened people - most of them perfect representations of the very same civilians I saw in the city - thinking - how many of these photos are there?

And then it strikes me. These photos were a death warrant. Any person you choose in the endless collection was invariably executed, tortured to death, subjected to unbearable pain. They were starved, beaten, forced to live in deplorable conditions. And in the end, they would take these photos, before they executed you. In some cases, they were even forced to dig their own graves. It got to a point where they executed so many people that the Khmer Rouge didn't even have the money to buy the bullets to kill them with. And so, they simply crushed their skulls in.

You see photos of scared children, young mothers - there's even an eerie photo of a teenage boy smiling at the camera - and you think: did the Khmer Rouge seriously believe that all these people were traitors, spies, plotting against them, planning their downfall?

I remember being so overwhelmed by the horror of it all. Despite the walls and walls of photos, even then, you realize: this is only a small number. Almost 2 million people - a quarter of Cambodia's population at the time - died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. And most of them you would never see the photos of. Most of them are forgotten, unknown, a mere estimate, a statistic to be quoted.

Even then, my 14-year-old self could begin to understand what we, as a people, were capable of. I never wanted to know, but I did then. While the rest of my trip-mates were hanging around the museum shop, buying ice-cream and soft drinks, I had to sit down. I remember putting my hands to my head, crying. In a corner of the building near the bedrooms in which the Vietnamese found the bodies of prisoners as they raided the prison, I cried.

It was then a small, young Cambodian woman noticed me. Quietly, she sat down. I remember her taking my hand, trying to sooth me, saying things I didn't understand. I was so overcome with shame - at myself, at the inaction and apathy of the world as this was happening - yet, I wanted to ask her - how? How could you comfort me - a tourist, who knows nothing better - when you were so affected by this yourself?

Yet, something in that simple gesture - the holding of a hand of a stranger, who, removed from such events, cries for you nevertheless - placated me. I can't remember how she looks now, or even what happened afterwards - but I look back on that one gesture with fondness. That, even in that place of darkness, of unimaginable inhumanity and loss, she could still have the faith, the kindness to reach out and comfort some random girl like me...in itself, that one gesture gave me some respite in the face of all the horror.

Portraits from Rome

I took Rome to be a good exercise in drawing my friends. There are other sketches in my sketchbook, but perhaps another time.

Can you guess who's who? :D

BBC Sherlock -- Ooooh, cute!

OMG! I need to fangirl about this. SO ADORABLE!

*turns off switch*

Okay, so basically I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fangirl. (Not that that wasn't obvious.) In fact, my unhealthy love for Benedict Cumberbatch stems purely from the new BBC Sherlock series.

http://y0do.deviantart.com/art/Sherlock-Visual-Novel-203366010

Basically it's a visual novel (you know, kind of like those Japanese sim games where there are some different outcomes but in fact it's just a lot of clicking and reading...um...not that I really play Japanese sim games) and it's a case set after the first season of the series. Kind of a mixing and modern take on the canon stories 'Charles August Milverton' and 'Devil's Foot'. Clever!

The art's pretty cute too! Although I'll admit they take a lot of liberties with cute-ifying.


Check it out even if you're not really a fan! If nothing else the concept of creating a visual novel like this is pretty interesting from an illustrator's point of view. I kind of want to make my own now...

Narrative Project: "I just don't understand women..."

My idea's changed so much, it veered off the brief (*in a whiny voice* But it's not my fault, Sion suggested those changes himself...), but this is one of the first projects where I actually feel really proud of the result. Once again the style is not my usual (it's a bit more simple and cartoony)...a la Chris Ware, Luke Pearson. One day, I'll do a project in my actual style. Haha.

Basically: two people have a banal conversation about the fair sex. But wait! There's more than meets the eye...

If you're interested, here are the changes I made:

- Originally, this was meant to take place in a bus, both of them on the journey home. Sion suggested a more intimate setting where they could talk without inhibitions and get to know each other better.

- There was a third character - a woman with a baby - who we were also supposed to learn about, but I cut it due to it being too much content. And I also wanted to work on the 'woman from a man's perspective' angle.

- Originally, the businessman was simply supposed to stalk a random woman walking down the street, corner her into a dark alleyway, kill her, then jump on the bus home. But Sion wanted something even more sinister and over-the-top, thus (with Jason's suggestion) the addition of the call-girl.

- The drunk broken-hearted man is supposed to have done more wacky hijinks in his inebriation, but I decided that if he had a night typical to what any other dumped guy would have, the contrast between him and the businessman would be greater.

Prapim's Inspirations: J.C. Leyendecker

I only discovered J. C. Leyendecker recently, when I was browsing in a book-shop in Soho. I swear, though, it really seems like I have known his work forever; it just fits so perfectly into my folder of influences almost as if I have always been using his works as references. I suppose this is partially because his work is comparable to Norman Rockwell (another artist I love) although he was before Rockwell's time, but I do prefer Leyendecker for the fact his subject matters appeal more to me. That is, pretty people.

It's a bit of a shame that he isn't more well-known, since his illustrations during his time were very popular and he has influenced illustration tremendously. Los Angeles Times even says he "virtually invented the whole idea of modern magazine design".

What I do certainly love most about his work are his very hot men! Haha! So, I am shallow. But I hide this behind the facade of pretentious art snob. Hem hem.

Also, his works (although unnoticed at the time, those innocent people) had subtle layers of homoeroticism, Leyendecker being gay himself. Myself: sold!

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Prapim's Inspirations: Robert Fawcett

Apparently one of the things the tutors want me to do is to start to veer towards a consistent illustration style, so I'm planning to blog artists that influence me in the hopes this might help me somehow. Also, you can get to see what my influences are (since my work is all over the place this might prove interesting...or not. Haha.) and hopefully you might like them too!

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Robert Fawcett is an English-born artist I discovered recently whilst on the prowl for Sherlock Holmes illustrations (yes, I know...sad right). I didn't know true love at first sight could exist, but it does. Head over heels was I as I clicked through scans of his illustrations. I found myself swooning, holding imaginary handkerchiefs to dab at wet, awestruck eyes, feeling faint at their beauty.

Apparently he was partially colour-blind, which makes his full-colour illustrations even more impressive. But I remember reading about how this actually made it easier for him, since he could put emphasis on strong form and lineart as well as detail. It's easy to see that his sense of composition and lighting, coupled with a limited colour palette created extremely expressive, detailed illustrations.

Venus of Urbino, my take

Back to blogging! Heavily based off Titian's Venus of Urbino, except lacking all the details (because I'm lazy). For my poster, I had typography before, but it didn't go so well. Need to rethink my slogan...

Anyway I feel really accomplished with this piece since this is the first time I tried proper 'painting' with Photoshop :D