I have always been interested in comics (or graphic novels). Perhaps it’s due to the early exposure towards cartoons and Japanese manga at an early age, I have always tried to make my own comics and tell my own stories. My parents had me enrolled into painting, drawing and handicraft classes, but comics have always been my ultimate preference. Scrap A4 papers from photocopy shops and a pencil are my favorite creative mediums. A lot of lazy afternoons are spent sketching and drawing. Making up stories and drawing them out is my getaway from real life. It also became my way for documenting situations and recording happenings, instead of writing a diary. Even if I do write, it will be accompanied with a lot of drawings. Little did I know what I did last time have a genre named ‘comic journalism’ now!
After entering college, my vision was instantly widened. I’ve always been artistically affected by mainstream Japanese manga, and this came by as a culture shock. Comics are no longer what I had envisioned to be; there are more to comics than I’ve ever known. Through recommendation by lecturers and friends I have got to know about Chris Ware, Koji Morimoto, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Art Spiegelman, Joe Sacco and a lot of other comic artists spanning different genres. Their works had a huge impact on me; never had I thought that there are such artists that exist. I have been creating comics non-stop but never thought through my stories and the message they would contain. I’ve never stopped long enough to discover and savor works that are beyond what I am familiar with. Since then I have been learning on how to explore, whether artistically or storytelling-wise, instead of blindly creating works that have no soul or content.
All artists have their main source of influence. I’ve always have a soft spot for Takehiko Inoue’s strong, realistic, soulful characters. His characters often felt very human and very much relatable, something that I wish I could learn. The realistic proportions that he employed in his manga is deemed ideal and perfect to me (at that period of time before being exposed to more comics) What creates a lifelong impression of his work to me is when his art style practically evolves and improves through the making his manga. It motivates me more than anything to be like him.
After entering college, I have known Koji Morimoto and Tatsuyuki Tanaka through classmates, and their artworks grow on me fast. Quirky, kooky with a dash of gore/violence, their works intrigued me to no end. The world they created for their characters are as fascinating as the protagonists themselves. It is through them I see different variations of manga there is, and how the craft their quirky characters by incorporating different concepts towards their anatomy, personality and attitude. Their act of merging unexpected elements together creates a fresh visual impact that I’ve never seen before, and I have since adhere to this rule when I am stuck in a creative rut. It is also thanks to them (and another great comic artist Craig Thompson) that I’ve stuck to creating artworks by using traditional media. I have always been prone to using pen and ink.
Besides being exposed to different forms of comics, I’ve also came in contact with something that I’ve never dreamt of understanding – graphic design. Compositions, layouts, typography are so foreign to me and yet I couldn’t help but being drawn to them. Through classes I learnt that graphic design and illustrations can actually share a space together harmoniously, and I marveled endlessly at Milton Glaser’s works that magically weave these two elements together. Who classified them into different words? I wonder. The exposure to installation arts that played with space had also clued me in on narratives could actually be told by a human experience or a sensation.
Why comic? One would ask. Comic as one of the cheapest and most flexible but no less great art forms there is. It allows me to have perfect creative freedom, only restricted by my own imagination. I can play god on paper; it gave my full control on the past, present and future, an extra dimension existing in its own time, created by me. Call me a control freak, I am. The sequential nature of comics allows me to explore more about human emotions, something that I am devoid of during childhood, hence my interest in it. Comics, often with humans as characters, could depict a huge range of human emotions and reactions in different situations, sometimes even better than movies. It gave me plenty of room for imagination. An example would be two men locked in a room. What if one of them started to regurgitate? It’s a snake! What would be the other person’s reaction? Would he scream in terror? Or would he calmly take a drag from his cigarette, saying things like ‘I told you so.’?
Other than human interactions, I think of my artworks as a reflection of my real life to my audience. My subject matter is often derived from real life happenings and people; to me, they are an endless source of inspiration and muse. Daily routines means much more than they are, and we often take them for granted, but it is what makes us what we are presently. That, perhaps explains why lately I am never without a sketchbook; I wish to record everything down before it fades like an old tradition. Then perhaps, one day, that little gesture will appear in a scene where a post-apocalyptic world dominated by little trolls with teapot heads exists.
For this thesis project of mine, I tied in from an element from my comic book project, a falling dream, and set to construct my thesis project from there. A falling dream reflects insecurities and external stress, which is what my main character is currently facing. He is put in the middle, surrounded by his falling experiences in his dreams, whether is falling over a city, clouds passing him by while falling, or his own leg jerking up right after he was awaken from his downward dreams. I’ve used a technique called scanimation, to depict his experiences as well as to give an interactive feature towards my thesis piece. It wraps up my 4 years of learning nicely.
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