Project 2: Ego Final

The overall concept of my ego is actually explaining (visually) how I re-imagine Singapore’s local landscape into something dreamlike and childlike. I hope I can divert the viewers’ attention to the seemingly insignificant fragments of our everyday Singaporean encounters through the frames of my imagined outcome.

All of my last frames has a same younger female character in it to highlight the child-like quality of the imagined outcome. This character is actually inspired by my younger self (such EGO) where I used to always tie 2 ponytails, had a very bad fringe cut (cos my grandma cut it) and had a very iconic looking kindergarten uniform (green checkered dress with 2 ribbons).  The female character is seen to be unrealistically situated in the composition to reinforce the surrealistic nature of the imagined outcome. 

Since I really love to draw, I usually have to go out to find drawing content. This means bringing my camera out and going to more unconventional/ unexplored places in Singapore. My exploration, unlike many others, is for the sake of drawing more realistically grounded pieces. Hence, I will use the photos taken and  turn them into dream-like, surreal landscape. I chose to use the Old Woodlands Town Centre landscape as my final imagined outcome.

I really love to drink Teh-Bing, Teh-Bing with less sugar to be exact. Loving such a drink also means visiting coffeeshops very often. I always felt that that the coffee/tea making kitchen scene is very uniquely Singapore and decided to play with it after watching Beauty & the Beast. The movie had a talking tea pot and tea cup which then inspired me to bring it over to our local coffee making tools. The female character is seen sitting on a stirring spoon and flying around like how harry potter flies on his broom.

Since I don’t stay in hall, I have long bus rides to school and to home everyday. These bus rides are usually extended snooze time for me which explains the visuals on the first frame. However, taking a bus ride on a day with heavy downpour can be really really cold. It’s made worse when I don’t have a jacket with me. This inspired me to create a snowing bus and it was a scene set at the stairs going onto the upper deck of the bus. The female character is engineered to move as though she’s jumping from one step to another. 

The snowing bus is actually one of my favourite frames because it felt like I gave a new life to a seemingly insignificant part of the public bus. It is also this frame that will continue to spur me on to re-establish insignificant parts of our everyday lives into something special and dream-like. The last panel is one that explains and sums up the reason behind my inclination to illustrate images in a child-like manner. The first frame captures me at my favourite daydreaming spot at home which is in the kitchen. I often stand at the window to face the scenery outside to get a mental reboot before returning to work.

My daydreaming tendencies turned into something more than just a dream after I discovered the world of children’s illustration books. These books became a living proof of the potential direction of my artistic style and inclination. Artists like Ah Guo, Jimmy Liao & Shaun Tan became my main sources of inspiration to bravely venture into the world of illustration books.

Hence, the last frame has the older me hugging the younger me, showing how I have chosen to embrace and accept the child in me through my artistic pursuit.

 

P.S. I think photos of my drawings don’t portray the colours rendered at their best but oh wellz, the best is seen when it’s live.