Xiangyuan Jie was born and grew up in Hunan, China and is a professional artist now residing with his family in Orlando, Florida.

Jie received his formal art education in China, Europe and the States. In 1982, Jie graduated with a BFA degree in theatre set design from the Central Academy of Drama at Beijing, and started his professional career as an art instructor at Hunan University. Jie immigrated to the United States in 1992 and since 1996, he has been working with Disney Feature Animation Florida Studio as a background artist and stylist. He’s been involved in visual development and production of animated movies, such as Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear.

 A passionate artist, being nurtured by both western academic painting and Chinese traditional painting, Jie has always possessed an enthusiasm to explore the visual language of painting. Jie enjoys painting directly from life, often on out-door locations, trying to capture the subtle beauty of fleeting light, color and ever changing moods of Nature in a lyrical way. Jie strives to interpret the world in such a fresh yet spontaneous way that is not only pleasant to the eyes, but also so spiritually open and inspiring that they speak right to viewer’s hearts and emotions.

Xiangyuan Jie keeps a blog where he regularly updates with his paintings of beautiful sceneries. Support Jie by buying his new book - “Jie Xiangyuan : The Landscape Works of China’s Contemporary Realism Oil Painter” and be greatly humbled by his mastery.

[Extracts of Artist Profile from Ernest Fuller Fine Art]

Hiroko Hasegawa studied illustration and dressmaking at SETSU MODE SEMINAR. After graduation, her passion led her to concentrate on illustration.

She began working as a freelance illustrator and almost immediately the work started coming in. She first started illustrating for some of the top Fashion magazines in Japan and soon after was illustrating for book covers, advertising campaigns, Web sites, etc. Hiroko was born in Tokyo in Japan, and still works and lives there. She has recently signed up with Hire An Illustrator.

So-Yeun Lee is a talented artist born in South Korea in 1971, and currently based in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Her paintings are mainly self-portraits, a little eerie-looking, but sublime at the same time. According to So-Yeun Lee, she gets to know herself better by creating self-portraits.

So-Yeun Lee’s work can be admired at Gallery Conrads in Dusseldorf, Germany.

[Link via Style-Files] 

Interested to see how it’s done? Check out the following clips:
Making-of Shiseido UNO Ads 1
Making-of Shiseido UNO Ads 2
Making-of Shiseido UNO Ads 3
Interview with Inoue Takehiko

Lenovo’s design, known as the “Cloud of Promise”, was chosen over 300 competitor themes and will be carried by torchbearers around the world in the Olympic Torch Relay that precedes the Beijing Olympics. The design was unveiled on 26 April 2007, by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in the presence of the International Olympic Committee.

Since its inception in 1936, the Olympic torch has come to represent the history and culture of its host country and city. Lenovo’s unique approach for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch incorporates a sleek and modern design with historical Chinese symbolism. The primary theme of the torch’s artwork is clouds, which are intimately associated with Chinese culture and are often represented in works of Chinese architecture, drawing and painting, furniture and story-telling. Resembling an ancient scroll and featuring “lucky clouds”, the red and silver torch incorporated both traditional and modern Chinese elements. In Chinese mythology, deities ride flying on “xiangyun”, or lucky clouds. Chinese people expect the auspicious clouds to bring blessings and harmony.

Lenovo’s award-winning design team spent more than 10 months on the design of the torch. Altogether, more than 30 Lenovo design specialists were involved in the torch project including the core team of 10. The multinational team included designers from Germany, Singapore, US, Japan, New Zealand, Italy and China. The experience and specialties of the designers were equally diverse, and included majors in graphic design, chemistry, engineering, materials, anthropology, art and history. For months the teams engaged in intensive brainstorming, including game playing and creativity exercises, to help them look at the torch design from many different perspectives.

“Inspired by the shape of a traditional Chinese scroll, the imagery of the ‘Cloud of Promise’ represents the traditions of China, while the shape, texture and technology evoke the Olympic spirit,” said Yao Yingjia, Executive Director of Lenovo’s Innovation Design Centre in Beijing. “We approached the design of the torch with the same process we use in designing our personal computers. First we explore the connection between the user and the solution we create for them, looking at factors like size, weight, features, etc. Then we encourage the Lenovo design team to take a fresh approach to make the product uniquely and friendly to the customer. This is what we did with the torch, realizing it must be attractive to those who see it, and comfortab and light for those who carry it. In the case of the torch, our ‘customer’ is both the torchbearer and the spectator.”

See this video for behind-the-scene sketches and process in designing this unique torch. 

Cartoonist Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet 鉄コン筋クリート (English title is Black & White) is a manga masterpiece, which was published serially in the weekly manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits in 1993.

Finally, the animation film of Tekkon Kinkreet was shown in cinemas in Tokyo in December 2006 - 7 years after they made their first pilot movie. Resfest Japan held a premium screening of Tekkon Kinkreet on 23rd Nov 2006. Studio4°C was the animation studio responsible for transforming this famous manga into a stunning animation. 

See Tekkon Kinkreet Trailer on Apple.com 
More details of Tekkon Kinkreet on IMDb
Read Interview with Studio4°C on the Making of Tekkon Kinkreet

Hayeng is Prabesh Limbu, a very talented illustrator / animator / fine artist born in Hong Kong in 1987. Hayeng spent his childhood in Nepal, received his education in India and then in the UK.

Hayeng draws with a mixture of Indian ink and watercolour. Check out more of his works on his Flickr page. He also keeps a regularly updated blog of his sketches, and another site where he indulges in writing music and poetry. Currently, Hayeng lives and work in London UK.

100 artists unleashed their talents on 100 wooden chairs, which will be auctioned off as pieces of art. All proceeds goes to the Singapore Children’s Society.

100 Chairs is a fully youth-run project, supported by *scape and youth.sg. Check out the chairs and their artists here. All chairs were displayed as outdoor installations for a week-long auction process at *scape Youthpark, Singapore.

Good news is that ALL chairs were adopted. Bad news? We missed the auction.

“Rinpa” is a word created by the founders of the group meaning “to bring people together, while “Eshidan” essentially means “art crew.” The Rinpa Eshidan is a team of artists brought together by a common creative expression.

Led by Noiz-Davi (Yoshiaki Kusunoki) and Daisuke Yamamoto, the group’s main activities are performing in live painting events and creating videos of art in action. Instead of focusing on the finished project, they believe the process of creation itself is where art comes to life and their videos aim to engage the audience in that process.

Most recently, the group created the piece - 1 Week of Art Works, documenting a week in the life of the Rinpa Eshidan. The 5 mins worth of footage has since been viewed 1,441,014 times on YouTube, and favourited by 2,2022.

Check out the rest of their equally amazing art performances - Puzzle, Sai, and Terra Trance.

“Many people who see my paintings describe them as being very ‘Chinese’ or oriental in style. I am of Chinese race, am Chinese educated and I am traditional in both my upbringing and lifestyle. But one must not forget the fact that I am above all, Singaporean. I would describe my artistic style as being predominantly ‘Chinese Singaporean’ with a touch of the current ‘East Meets West’ ideology.”

Kit Tan Juat Lee has the honour of being the only artist in Singapore to win the prestigious United Overseas Bank Group Painting of the Year Competition twice, first in 1997, and then again in 2004. Her work brings across an acute sensitivity and attention to detail. Drawing inspiration from writers as diverse as Zhuang Zi, her new series explores the issue of women and femininity in the 21st century.

Kit Tan’s paintings embody her complex sensibility of memories, deep cultural resonance, heritage and personal identity. Her new works displayed in her latest exhibition - “Wanderlust“, show a different side of Kit Tan, a side that is intensely proud of her womanhood, and her Chinese-ness. The central figure in these paintings is always a young woman, sometimes a girl. With her eyes closed, she is in her own personal space, relishing her experiences and reflecting on her life. She is anonymous, yet we find ourselves not questioning who she is, but still able to relate to the message her expression conveys.

Having exhibited works throughout Japan in cities such as Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, this first installment of “Dual City Sessions” premieres null’s collaboration with overseas artists, and marks its maiden voyage outside of its country of origin.

Launching in Tokyo at DesignTide from 30th October to 4th November 2007, “Dual City Sessions” 
is currently exhibited at the Singapore Design Festival from the 27th November to 8th December 2007.

“Dual City Sessions: Null” is conceptualised and curated by Felix Ng, founder of design studio, SILNT. “Dual City Sessions” presents itself as a platform for international collaboration and cross-pollination of diverse creative disciplines. Its aim is to showcase efforts between Singapore and Japan, bringing together emerging and innovative practitioners in the fields of art, fashion, music and design. For the first of its series, Felix has invited acclaimed Japanese design group artless and its successful project unit, null, to collaborate with 14 Singaporean artists.

Each country’s team of artists will be working based on the themes of nature, architecture and other items symbolic of their country. Using only two elements in monochrome, the artworks are conceived, designed and constructed personally by each artist.

The participating Japanese and Singaporean artists - 28 in total - will each render their theories on two 8-metre-long original prints. When connected together, the individual pieces become one artwork, inspired by and representative not only of Japanese beauty and culture but also of the connection between human and nature.

Julienne Hsu was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1983. She currently works and resides in Upland, California, as an artist.

Julienne paints impressionistic images of beautiful landscapes and people, working primarily in watercolour. See some of her latest works and sketches in her blog.

Robin Chyo is a 24 yrs old Korean concept artist / illustrator currently based in the United States.

Robin’s works has been featured in Spectrum 13 & 14, ImagineFX and PAINTER. Check out more of Robin Chyo’s latest works in his blog.

[Link courtesy of Tom Scholes]

Fei Lu is a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Born in Beijing, growing up in Toronto and living in Los Angeles has made her fall in love with an international lifestyle.

Fei Lu comes from a family of artists. Her grandfather, Enyi Lu, a famous propaganda artist during the Chinese Communist revolution, was elected to paint the portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong and the rest of his policital party. Jia Lu, her aunt, is an internationally-collected contemporary figurative painter.

Besides being a designer and painter, Fei is an activist for human and animal rights. She is an obsessive recycler and uselessly stresses about the fate of the Earth. She is inspired by great design, smart advertising, interesting people, truth, films, music, and nature. She loves to travel, try new foods, and sleep in on Saturday mornings. She currently lives in Markham, Ontario.

“I do not despair or think that the mixture of two different cultures in the development of my sensibilities was destructive. I would rather like to think of this as a progressive chaos that enabled tolerance.”

Born in Choohgju, Korea, in 1951, Inkie Wang was educated in the U.S. and Korea. Trained as a painter, he describes his work as digital sansuhwa (or digital landscape) - a transformation of traditional Korean ink-and-brush painting via new technologies. Rendered in unusual materials, his large-scale pieces reference the artist’s own drawings as well as Korean masterworks and photographs.

Inkie Wang has been widely exhibited in Korea and was one of three national representatives presented in the Korean Pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Foon Foono is a digital artist from Singapore. Graduated from an art school in Malaysia majoring in illustrations, Foon worked for 5 years in publishing as a designer before deciding to explore doing his own drawings.

Using illustrator software, Foon’s digital artworks focused on human factors with different characteristics. Foon recently launched the Lily-T Campaign, a fashion line based on the character Lily, a frequent subject in his drawings. Foon’s drawings are eerily beautiful, a result achieved through his often pretty, yet expressionless models.

Mikish is a Japanese self taught illustrator and artist living in and working in Chiba, Japan.

Mikish started drawing since 2002, mainly drawing girls and children. Her works were recently exhibited at Design Festa in Tokyo.

Cherie Tan illustrates. Her drawings make your gallbladder feel funny.

Cherie, a Singaporean illustrator draws funny, and writes funnier. When she is not creating art for fun, Cherie assumes the role of ‘Supreme Editor’ for her newly launched online pdf magazine - MRRR. Download the inaugural issue here for ‘your free frivolous read’. 

Check out her blog for more of her whimsical drawings and writings.

The World Expo is a large-scale, global, non-commercial event which aims to promote the exchange of ideas, development of the world economy, culture and science & technology. It is often regarded as the Olympic Games of Economy, Science and Technology. Taking over from the successful Aichi World Expo 2005, Shanghai will be the official venue for World Expo 2010.

The mascot is a very important spirit carrier of the Expo theme. Mascots of every Expo drew the world’s attention. Kiccoro and Morizo, the mascots of Aichi World Expo 2005, created a huge cult following in Japan. Following the success of it’s predecessor, Expo 2010 is set to create an official mascot which effectively conveys and communicate the theme - Better City, Better Life.

An international solicitation of the 2010 mascot has been released in January this year, and it has since drawn great attention from both commoners and artists globally. Expo officials are expected to receive more than 20,000 responses for the mascot before the May 31 deadline. Comparing this figure to the Beijing committee’s calling for the Olympic mascot, which received only 600 entries, organizers of the World Expo might have a wider selection of lovable mascots.

Quoting the words of Weng Ling, the director of Shanghai Gallery of Art, “We need something that needs less explanation when we show them to the world, rather than merely a totem of China, which contains too many cultures.”

The official expo mascot will be unveiled at the end of 2007. Watch this space for more info.

Patray Lui is a Hong Kong born designer currently based in the Netherlands.

Patray started her illustration series - “Le Avventure del Cane Picio“ (The Adventure of Dog Picio) earlier this year for the sake of killing time but is now enjoying herself with it. The adventure is inspired by her everyday life experience with some fantasies. The ongoing project records the different pieces of her life, no matter happy or sad, in a way that can bring a smile to audiences.

All the illustrations are done in a strictly black/white palette. Patray hopes that perhaps one day, her friends can help to add colours for her illustrations and bring about some interesting outcomes.

A big round of applause for Claremont College’s Digital Library, who is so kind to have scanned 289 stunning Chikanobu and Yoshitoshi woodblock prints. An amazing archive of woodblock prints collection.

And the best part? Most of the prints are accompanied with a corresponding Japanese folk tale or fable.

[Link via Drawn!]

Having recently returned from living in Japan, where she rediscovered her love of illustration, Andrea Innocent, a.k.a. Innocentgirl, is an emerging freelance illustrator/animator/artist now living back in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Innocentgirl had lived in Japan for 3 years and now visits twice a year for inspiration for new works.

Previously working within a broad range of disciplines including fashion design, textile design, animation and character design, it was after studying her Masters of Multimedia Design and subsequent travel to Japan, that she discovered that digital illustration was the best medium to express the “pictures that appear in her mind”.

A self-confessed nipponophile, there is no denying the influence her exposure to Japanese culture has had on her work. Themes range from investigations into the cult of otaku to traditional Japanese folk tales and Japanese textiles and their meanings. Innocentgirl’s inspirations can come from various sources such as newspaper articles, Japanese television, and advertising, books, music, toys, animals, the internet or just from watching life unfold around her.

Heavy in symbolism the illustrations fuse contemporary art and socio-political comment with traditional works. Aesthetically the works borrow heavily from the traditions of ukiyo-e, manga and subsequent contemporary styles such as ‘Superflat’. Combining a strong sense of colour and composition and blending this with ‘found’ photographic and textural images her works become a collage of icons that tell a story to the viewer. It has been remarked that her pieces tend to float between both a Western and an Eastern art aesthetic.

Among her many influences are Yoshitomo Nara, Tsutaya Kiichi, Tomoko Konoike, Chiho Aoshima, Haruki, Murakami, Osamu Tezuka, Mark Ryden, Troy Innocent, Nathan Jurevicius, the Pre-Raphaelites and her two nieces.

See more of Innocentgirl’s drawings in her sketchbook and blog.

Jihoon Hong, a Korean illustrator based in US, is well-known as HOON in the digital arts community.

The dynamic artwork being produced by HOON is unforgettable, with subjects ranging from killer schoolgirls to sword-wielding supermodels and mechanical maidens in disrepair. All the stuff of dark sexual fantasies. While these drawings have cartoon elements, only the cutest, most innocent pieces can be confused with mainstream anime. Nearly all are richer, darker affairs; detailed digital paintings mixed liberally with emotional depth and sinister undertones - and sexy, sexy women.

HOON, a CG Choice Award Winner, currently works as an concept artist at Mess Studio.

[Extracts from Lucid Skin]

“The most important thing when I paint is to be very careful. It is a consciousness in which I can’t anticipate what kind of work will result. I hope to challenge in paint what I couldn’t handle with my mind. An adventurer makes his way without fully knowing what lies ahead. A chemist never succeeds without experimentation. When I am working, I get to the point where I can’t even imagine the outcome, and then suddenly see a brand-new, beautiful path.”

The paintings of Japanese artist Yosuke Ueno is a weird blend of beautifully drawn cutesy imageries, with a big dose of irrelevance.Yosuke Ueno is a young Japanese artist who paints in a style very close to the pop surrealist artists from America. His drawings reminds us of yet another great artist - Mark Ryden. 

Yosuke Ueno’s first exhibition was held in Tokyo in 1994. More successful shows followed in Japan, in New York and in Los Angeles. Mondo Bizzarro Gallery presented his work in Europe, for the first time in 2006.

One will notice that Yosuke’s art is full of icons, and he has put a page describing them, so we understand his iconography way better. Read more of Yosuke’s thoughts in his blog.

Dominique Fam is a Singapore-based illustrator who specialises in photo-realisitic digital paintings (comic book characters and portraits especially).

He has created artworks for various clients including DDB, Leo Burnett and Lowe & Partners. 

The world renowned 3D anamorphic pavement artist, Julian Beever has created a ‘hole’ on the pavement in Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore!

Lest pedestrians are worried that people may fall into it, the artwork is actually an optical illusion rendered in colourful chalk. Seen from a certain angle, the artwork depicts massive mobile phones rising out of the pavement. But when viewed from another point, it becomes distorted.

The 48 yr old artist worked from 7am to 7pm daily for three days (May 15-17, 2007) to complete the 5m by 3m drawing. This is the first time Julian Beever is drawing in Asia and he was invited by phone company Nokia to celebrate their new multimedia smart phone, the Nseries N95.

For those who are unfamiliar with Julian Beever, he is a talented British chalk artist who draws on pavements and presents a spectacular perspective to his craft by drawing anamorphically. His pictures are all drawn on a 2-dimensional medium, but when viewed from a certain perspective, they look stunningly 3-dimensional. Beever has made pavement drawings for over 10 years. He has worked in Britain, Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, the United States and Australia.

Pop by at Raffles City if you are in Singapore to take a look at the amazing artwork. You can also check out more of Julian Beever’s drawings here:
Julian Beever’s Official Page
Julian Beever’s Wiki Page

KimStyle is a fusion of the art of traditional Chinese water paintings and representative fashion design drawings. Every single piece contains a personal statement and spiritual expression of the artist dealing with the emotions of being love and especially being hurt from love.

KimStyle is Kim Xu, a young artist from China, born on 28 April, 1982. In his fine drawings, the historical oriental culture is combined with a global art feeling. Among the contemporary artists in China, Kim’s style stands out as unique. Most of his major pieces have been acquired by collectors from Europe.

His current project is named “My Ladies”, a set of 12 pieces, each accentuated with a different colour, representing a comprehensive look at the beauty of different types of women.

Monsit Jangariyawong is a freelancing lead artist in Thailand.

Monsit’s key areas of expertise includes; illustration, modeling, lighting, texturing and art direction. In contrast with the traditional illustration, Monsit’s works exhibits strong story background and content. Taking the example of the Mantis Queen, this amazing 2D production seeks to explore the complicacies of relationship between the mantis queen and the male mantis.

Also check out Monsit’s collection of 3D works which are even more impressive.

Kris likes to draw. And we mean, she REALLY likes to drawrrrrrrrrr!

Kristal Raelene Melson is a designer and freelance illustrator from Singapore, who creates beautiful artworks. She is currently drawing mainly for Arena and Cleo magazine.

Most of Kristal’s whimsical drawings run along the themes of sleeping and dreaming. See more of her newest drawings and sketches in her blog.

Thitipong Jitmakusol, or Pao, a nickname given by his grandfather, is a talented and multi-skilled digital artist born in Bangkok, Thailand. Growing up in a wholesale paper factory initiated Pao into the world of arts and creativity.

Coming from a traditional background where art is still largely misunderstood, Pao’s family, culture and society naturally pointed him towards a non-art related education. Pao’s addiction for the arts grew in 1996 when Margaret Scott, a high school art teacher encourages him into practicing.
 
Pao’s works have received numerous recognition in Thailand and internationally. His illustration – The Officer Girl, was recently published and featured in EXPOSÉ 4. Electronic Arts also quoted him as the Rookie of the year in 2004. Pao currently works as a Digital Artist at Digital Domain, and was involved in projects like Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and the Halo 3 tv commercial.

Tetsuya Ishida (石田徹也) was a a Japanese painter, born in June 1973 in Shizuoka Prefecture, who died in 2005 after being hit by a train.

Tetsuya Ishida painted scenes of ordinary Japanese life, but with the protagonist (a self portrait) always trapped in a machine-like body, or treated as part of a production line.

Tessar Lo is constantly worrying about his paintings. He is a recent graduate of the illustration BAA program of Sheridan College in Oakville, Canada. Originally from Indonesia, Tessar is currently based in Ontario, Canada, working as an illustrator.

Tessar also loves reading Haruki Murakami, Monocle and making daily log entries. He often wonders what his friends are up to. Tessar draws with acrylic, graphite and ink, on paper or wood. See more of his absolutely beautiful paintings and drawings in his site. Tessar’s latest works can be found in his blog.

These bunnies known as Tuzki (兔斯基), are the latest to steal the hearts of Chinese netizens.

Simplistic, noseless and mouthless, these bunnies have been hot on Chinese internet, particularly with QQ and MSN users since the beginning of 2007. Wang Momo, a student in animation department of Beijing Broadcasting Institute created this popular lagomorph.

Wang Momo created this character to be able to write her diary in a graphic form. Her friends and classmates always nicknamed her “rabbit” as well. The first Tuzki was very simple, and just waved his arms and shook his head. Then Momo created more pictures and small animations for this character based on her real life experiences. To date, Tuzki has 39 different expressions. And thanks to the 150,000,000 Tecent QQ users and 20 million MSN messenger users in China, the popularity of Tuzki also generates income for this young woman. She is now designing Tuzki posters and postcards, which will take the rabbit beyond the definition of an internet idol.

The use of cartoon icons when chatting with others via MSN Messenger is considered an internet phenomenon started by the younger generations in China. At first it started with Yoyo & Cici (� 嘻猴), a launch by Chinajoy at the beginning of 2006, driven by commercial purposes. Later in 2006, the cartoon Onion replaced the Yoyo & Cici Monkeys to be the most popular internet icon. Currently, Tzuki is the new fad.

[Extracts from Shanghaiist]

Cho Kyoung Min, aka Black eye, is a talented concept artist and illustrator in Korea.

Medieval knights, princesses, warriors, fantasy creatures and mythical landscapes. These are all what you can expect when you enter into Kyoung Min’s world. A place where imagination takes control. Kyoung Min’s works was featured extensively in key market publications such as EXPOSÉ 3.

Genevieve Chua, or Gen in short, is a female artist from Singapore who is becoming rather popular for her highly intricate pencil drawings of female subjects.

At just 22 years old, the openly lesbian artist has recently staged her first solo exhibition, As Brutal As, from June 1-10 at the La Libreria Gallery. Through her pencil drawings, she explores the “themes of psychological horror and sexuality” and wants to “invoke viewers to rethink their perceptions and conjure new experiences.”

Check out Gen’s interview with Fridae here, where she talks more about her background, inspirations, and being a lesbian artist.

[Link courtesy of Agathe Ong]

MAC56, short for machine56, is 22 year old vector artist Yoga, from Bandung, West Java Indonesia.

Yoga started to get involved in experimental alternative vector graphics in 1999. He is currently working in a clothing company as a graphic designer, and is a member of the creative collective Ranger Bastards. 

machine56 draws using CorelDraw X3, together with some rough sketches and photos as references. Like his name, he relish in the delights of drawing robots and machineries.

“I paint with layers and layers of pastels and feel that their profound soft tones and hues are at the core of my creations.” 

Kenji Yuno (油野健二), a freelance illustrator from Japan, is fascinated by the beautiful color of pastels, and his audiences have been captivated by his works as well. Kenji’s illustrated female figures are infused with dignity and they have appeared on numerous posters, brochures, CD covers, calendars, book covers, and national advertising campaigns. His Illustrations for the Japanese movie Chirusoku no Natsu (The Stars Converge, Dir. Kiyoshi Sasabe) has gained him international acclaim.

Kenji draw with pastels as he is fascinated with the beauty and soft tones of pastel colors. His favourite subject is women. Kenji have drawn women through all his career, making the best effort to keep nobility of them, and not just express their beauty.

Jaeran Won is a female artist born in South Korea and currently based in London. 

She has had several group shows in Seoul, London and New York City. Jaeran has been picked to exhibit her work in the London “Underground” (the London subway system), and was featured in a top newspaper in London and also in an issue of Volume Magazine (an arts and culture magazine in the UK). Most recently, Jaeran had her first solo exhibition in New York City. Since then she has been invited to other group exhibitions across the United States, including an upcoming group show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in the Chelsea gallery district of New York City.

“My ultimate goal is to fuse Graphic design and Illustrations harmoniously,” expresses
Thomas J. Nakamura, an artist from Japan.

Nakamura is a versatile artist who has worked in fields ranging from Illustration to Graphic design, Web design, and Digital design for media interface. In his works, big cities in ambivalent phases are revealed with a mix of vitality / weariness, delight / sadness, and clamor / stillness. Born in Tokyo, he started creating his unique artworks in 1977, usually with acrylic and chalk. Till date, Nakamura has received countless awards and held a couple of private exhibitions in Tokyo.

His entire gallery of works can be found here.

Lok Jansen is an architect and illustrator based in Tokyo. Jansen did his Masters in Architecture at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. After doing a lot of concept designs and presentation drawings, he has since switched to doing illustrations.

There is something about the amazing and unique three dimensional space and complex structures of Tokyo that has an impact on artists. Jansen’s response, as both an architect an illustrator, has been multi-fold. His site, which he named Imagineering, features photos, sketches, visual essays on architecture and illustrations. The illustrations show a fascination with the city as complex architectural and sculptural forms, textured with mechanical structures like bark on a tree.

Jansen describes: “The metropolis to me, is like an organism. Growing. The tech seems almost organic. Highways, train lines, fly-overs, aircons, ducts, wires - they’re so wild its almost like greenery.” Through the flowy lines of Lok Jansen, the city do appear to take on a life of its own.

Jansen’s shares many of his latest sketches in this ConceptArt forum thread.

[Extracts from Lines and Colors]

One of Japan’s most gifted illustrators, Terada Katsuya (寺田克也) presents a series of beautiful, sometimes disturbing, painted images of his cover girls, originally created for Wanai-magazine. Temptation and seduction can be most felt when appreciating Terada’s works, this is especially so for the cover girls series. One can also notice the efforts and imagination put into the design of the character’s apparels and ornaments.

Born in December 1963, Terada started his career as an artist cum manga-ka (comic artist). From there, he moved on and excelled in other fields such as theatrics, games and movies.

The beauty of Terada’s works lies in his unique brand of picture composition and characters that are elegant, seductive and wild. He is often cited as a hybrid between hero, beauty and monster.

Much respected as one of the leading illustrators in Japan, Terada has defined himself as a “rakugaki” artist, which is more of a philosophy than a style of drawing. In rakugaki, one draws a little everywhere, all the time, without thinking too much.

More on Terada and his works can be viewed at:
Katsuya Terada’s Homepage
Interview with Katsuya Terada at 2001’s San Diego Comic Con
Wikipedia - Terada Katsuya 

Chatchai Puipia, born 1964, received his B.F.A. in painting from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University.

Since 1985 the Thai artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Thailand and has received a number of prizes and awards in national art competitions. Using self-portraits as metaphors for his social critique, his provocative reflections on the modern life-style is a reaction of his inner conscience. His paintings reflect his frustration and anguish towards Thailand’s new materialistic society with its superficial values and demeaning qualities.

Chatchai Puipia currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Read more about the works of Chatchai Puipia here.

Originally born in China, Gary Yuan Gao has immigrated to the US and have since been residing at San Francisco CA.

Currently working as a web designer, Gary creates illustrations during his free time. So far he has been making headway in designing t-shirts and art prints. Gary’s t-shirt designs have been printed by Threadless and published in T-SHIRT 360°, a book collection of t-shirt designs from across the world. Check out the 2 absolutely beautiful new headers that Gary has drawn for startdrawing.org here.

Lorland Chen or lorlandchain, is Wei Chen, a 26yrs old freelance illustrator from Chengdu, China. He is working as a teacher in ChengDu Fine Art Academy.

Lorland graduated in 2004 from Sichuan Fine Art Institute in ChongQing, majoring in animation and visual arts. He specialises in painting girls (using Painter and Photoshop), always depicting them as fairies and elves. His subjects are mainly from the western culture, abeit expressed in an oriental style of painting. Lorland has also published the Lorland Chen Tarot, a majors-only deck of cards from China, with limited print of 300 copies. The art is atmospheric, part anime and part fantasy, and is titled in English.

Lorland Chen is a CGChoice Award Winner. See more of his works in his CGPortfolio and deviantArt.

Born in 1950, Zhang Qikai (张奇开) is a contemporary artist from Beijing, China.

Frequently exploring the theme of animals in various modern settings, Zhang is most famously known for his series of panda-inspired paintings. The artworks reflect a unique blend of Eastern and Western cultures.

Kim Seongjin is facezero, an illustrator from South Korea.

Born in 1981, the young artist is a master in his craft of digital oil painting. Be it monsters or angels, knights or goblins, facezero draws them with equal finesse, and include them all into his dark world of fantasy art.

Check out his gallery of diverse works, which dates back to as early as 1999. His latest drawings can be found on his deviantART page.

Aya Kato is a 25 year old female artist out of Japan, who has made a name for herself in both East and West through her refreshingly original and breathtaking illustrations.

Born in Aichi, Japan, in 1982, Aya Kato studied painting by self-study and graphic design at the Aichi University of Education, graduated in 2004 and started work as an illustrator in 2005. Aya draw inspiration from her Japanese roots and traditions and became interested in the print process, having studied the work of Hokusai and the world of Ukiyoe. Aya often include traditional motifs in her works, changing their shape and appearance as she goes.

Some of her most notable works include artwork for a Microsoft WindowsXP TV Commercial and the music video for Tori Amos’s song “Sleeps with Butterflies”, in which it featured digital recreations of some of Aya’s works merged with Tori as the subject. Her style is an uncanny blend of dark Art Nouveau and Manga/Japanese pop art.

Born in 1966, Tenmyouya Hisashi (天明屋尚) currently works and resides in Saitama, Japan. 

Widely regarded as one of most talented young Asian artists in the international art world, Tenmyouya’s drawings are a skilled blend of traditional Japanese motifs and elements of modern Japan. Utilizing traditional Japanese styles and imagery, merged with modernized references and ideas (eg. American influences like computer games, robots and hip-hop music), Tenmyouya’s beautiful artworks are immediately engaging, and reminds one of images of historical Japanese gangs posing next to American-styled lowriders.

Tenmyouya’s contribution to the FIFA series achieves martial-arts and theatrical effects, presenting the game of football as a battle between warring antagonists. The traditional Ukiyo-e style executed paintings also have a great sense of motion, wit and criticism. 

Tenmyouya calls his work “Neo Nihonga”, a genre that he has developed. “Neo Nihonga” is the concept of taking thematic and technical approaches from traditional Japanese painting and reviving them in the present day. Read more here.

Only 21 years of age, Ika Putranto from Jakarta Indonesia, is already an amazingly talented artist.

Ika recently graduated from art school and is currently working as a designer and freelance illustrator. She is interested in collaboration and wishes to publish her own book… which she already did! Check out her beautifully illustrated book - Alice in Wonderland.

“If that is true, all the vanished dynasties will never re-establish, and all the wizen flowers will never flourish. Here, our splendid dreams revival from the history.”

Enter the website of Weng Ziyang, one of the most extraordinary artist in China, and you will be greeted with this extract which pretty much rounds up Ziyang’s most favored theme – vanished dynasties.

Extremely passionate about the Chinese traditional culture, Ziyang conveys the courage and power of life through traditional Chinese painting combined with modern CG techniques. Most of his works are focused on the aspect of human and history. Ziyang’s works are also published in magazines in Korea, Japan, Malaysia and American.

Artist David Choong Lee was born in 1966 in Seoul, Korea. He moved to the USA in 1993 in pursuit of gaining the skills to be a traditional fine artist. He found that he was very interested in the art of young people after his graduation from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, in 1997.

After seven years of focusing on the figure, he began to explore different concepts, such as mixed media, sculpture and graphic design. He’s been influenced by such diverse sources as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Sukdo, and underground music DJ scenes. He ended up creating his own artistic style that is a combination of graffiti, collage, portrait, and classical realistic skill with bold graphic elements.

David’s work has shown at many galleries in San Francisco such as 111 MINNA GALLERY, BUCHEON gallery, CULTURE CACHE gallery, LEVI’S as well as other places in the US and also in South Korea. He has self-published a number of art books - God Made Dirt and Dirt Don’t Hurt, 4 WORDS and DIRT.

He’s been teaching figurative art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for last 8 years (from 1998), and he lives in downtown San Francisco with his wife, Sori Kim. See more of David’s absolutely beautiful paintings, drawings and also photos of his various artshows. 

More info about David Choong Lee can be found here:
Interview with AsianWeek
Interview with GUU
Feature on Boonika.com

Howie Tsui Ho Yan was born in HongKong in the late 70’s. Shortly after, his family moved to Nigeria for 5 years, and eventually emigrated to Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada, in 1984. Howie is now based in Ottawa making art and doing music stuff.

This is how Howie describes his art - ”…smells like pickled foreskins ..feels like 20 farts in the face …sounds like a Chinese zither played through a Mooger Fooger pedal …tastes like leper bandages”.
We say that’s a pretty close description.

Read more of Howie Tsui’s extremely candid interviews on The eXTra finGer and FeelMeCoolShit.

GREAT is the nickname of Korean designer / illustrator, Eom Seung Ho.

His works ranges from web designs to fun cutesy character illustrations, and they are all collected in his portfolio site, aptly titled GREATSTYLE.

Zhang Jing, a.k.a. Mazakii, 22 years old, is a student, illustrator, graphic designer, writer, translater, and fashion designer, based in Guangzhou, China, with her outrageous ambition to be the chief designer of Coco Chanel, replacing Karl Lagerfeld. 

Mazakii is currently a fashion design student of Guangdong University of Technology, and will graduate in June of 2007. She has travelled to more than 14 countries, from altitude -10m to 4900m, Europe and Asia, and still loves China the most.

Zhang Jing draws using Coreldraw, Photoshop, Illustrator, and a wacom tablet. More of her works can be seen on her deviantART gallery.

Vincent Di Nguyen is a Vietnamese artist who is currently based in New Jersey, USA.

A member of the art department of Blue Sky Studios, the makers of Ice Age and Robots, Vincent was most recently involved in Ice Age 2. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Vincent studied in the School of Visual Arts in New York. Also an illustrator for children books, Vincent’s clients include Barron’s Publising, Simon & Schuster and Sterling Publishing, amongst many others. He has released books like “Louis and the Dodo“, “A Sky Full of Praise”, and “Not Another Tea Party”.

Vincent now lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with his wife Katherine and their cat Chapeau. Check out all the beautiful illustrations and sketches in his site. 

See Outer Space is the portfolio site of Korean artist Yeji Yun. Born in Seoul, Korea in 1983, she is currently living in Seoul-City.

Yeji Yun’s unique drawings have been exhibited many times and published on countless publications. She was twice featured in the prestigious 601 Bisang Art Book Project in 2004 and 2007, and was also a winner in the Society of Korea Illusart (SOKI) illustration competition.

See more of Yeji Yun’s drawings in her studio website and here.

Based in Kyoto, Japan, artist Kosuke Ikeda (池田孝友) draws intricate everyday scenes using only his gel ink ball point pen.       

This 25 year old started drawing in 1999 and had a solo show in 2004 at Kyoto Neutron. By using simple lines, he draws people and cityscapes with lively atmosphere. His background paintings are　painted with settle tone and details which creates new sensibility. More of Kosuke Ikeda’s work can be seen on his portfolio website.

[Extracts from Juxtapoz and digmeout.net]

Ann Wang (王子麵) loves cats, and that is definitely no secret.

Ann draw cats swimming, cats in the farm, cats having tea, cats in any possible and impossible scenario. A lady with bright and graceful mien, likewise Ann’s artworks are positive and delightful.

ALFUNSETY, standing for “All I Want is Fun, Sexy and Sweety”, is the brand name started by female Taiwanese illustrator - PiA.

More of ALFUNSETY’s beautiful fashion illustrations can be seen here.

Born and educated in Bangkok, Pomme Chan completed a BA in Interior Design and joined DY&R and Grey before relocating to the UK to focus on her interest in graphic design.

After studying graphic design at the London College of Communication Advertising, she worked in the magazine industry and later became a freelance illustrator.

In the span of just 3 years, Pomme has developed campaigns for a diverse list of clients including Mercedes-Benz, Freya Lingerie and Southern Comfort, with works featured in the Telegraph Newspaper, IDN Magazine, Fashion Inc. - among others, and on websites for VV magazine, Flip and You He She.

Using her unique felt-tip style and line drawing Pomme draws inspiration from architecture, nature, fashion and the curve of the female form. She exhibits her work in rare moments of free time.

Thunderlittle is Hong Kong comic artist Xiao Lei (門小雷). Born in 1984, the 23yr old female artist is popular among young readers, due to her fresh drawing style and alternative story contents.

Since the tender age of 14, Xiao Lei has been contributing her short stories in comics compilations and magazine columns. Currently a professional comic artist, Thunderlittle has published a number of comics through Storm-E Comic Workshop.

Shown above is a collection of sketches by Thunderlittle titled “No Hugging Is So Hard” where she drew many people hugging many people. See Thunderlittle’s range of comics in this video montage.

Ussa Methawittayakul is a digital artist from Hatyai, Thailand. 

Through a step-by-step approach, Ussa creates her photo-realistic images as vector drawings with the use of Gradient Mesh in Adobe Illustrator. Check out Ussa’s gallery and see her super-detailed vectorized renderings of characters from The Lord of the Rings.

Ippei Gyobu was born in 1974, and lives in Osaka, Japan. An illustrator and comic book artist, Gyobu mainly works on illustrations for magazines and ads.

At first glance, Ippei Gyobu’s long-legged, doe-eyed characters dominate majority of his drawings. Gyobu have a knack for capturing movement, cuteness and color. The artist’s style is heavily based on his smooth use of line and attention to minute details like the hem of a shirt or the exact style and color of a character’s hair. The characters all seem to have their own distinct personalities, emotions, and attitude.

Gyobu’s cool and fantasy like art gets offers, not only from Japan, but from all over the world. Gyobu has collaborated with several large companies like Adidas on press materials and advertisements, and can even spice up an everyday sodapop company like Dr. Pepper. He also submits comics to magazines such as Mammoth and Error.

Read more about Ippei Gyobu in his interview with COMPOUND.

Motoda Hisaharu (元田久治) is regarded by many as one of the rising stars in the world of printmaking, having won several major prizes since obtaining a Masters of Fine Arts and Music. Motoda now works as a teacher. His fame is spreading not only in his native Japan, but also overseas, where he has taken part in exhibitions in countries as Egypt, Canada, Hungary, and Thailand.

Motoda Hisaharu’s Neo-Ruins series of lithographs depicts a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where familiar landscapes in the central districts of Ginza, Shibuya, and Asakusa are reduced to ruins and the streets eerily devoid of humans. The weeds that have sprouted from the fissures in the ground seem to be the only living organisms. “In ‘Neo-Ruins’, I wanted to capture both a sense of the world’s past and of the world’s future,” he explains.

Motoda’s view of the future at first seems nihilistic, but the proliferation of plant life in the ruined streets seems to suggest that there are other ways for the plant to survive even after our great cities have fallen. See more of Motoda’s amazing lithographs here, here and here.

Our friends at FARM.sg, along with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and SingPost, is stamping some colour and art onto Singapore’s cityscape.

STAMP is a nation-wide project that celebrates the city, city-life and the city-dweller. The public art project has given 40 postboxes across Singapore a spanking new makeover!

40 individuals and teams have competed to paint post-boxes around the island. An exhibition showcasing both the winning STAMPs and the 1000 entries is now opened at the A.UDE Space, until 30th May 2007. So where did the idea to paint on post-boxes came from?

Torrence Goh, President of FARM, said: “(We made) a trip to Brisbane about two years ago and saw that some of the traffic junction boxes were painted and I thought it was very interesting and there were about 900 over boxes painted in Brisbane. And that’s why we got very inspired, came back and had the idea that somehow all of us are connected to mailboxes because we all know one that’s near to us.”

Ng Lye Hock, Director, URA, said: “We’re glad that private organisations like SingPost and FARM are with us together to promote architectural and urban design excellence. What we wanted to do is to raise the appreciation of good design in the built environment.”

Vice-President of SingPost, Tay Kok Cheng, said, “It was pretty exciting because post-boxes are just boxes and if we can impart some art on it, that’ll be wonderful.”

Check out all the 40 beautifully dressed post-boxes here.

“I like to paint people in black and white because people are temporary - they will eventually leave the world and become the past. However, some buildings live longer than people; they continue to exist in the world. This is why I paint people in black and white and the background in colour. The contrast with colour is to highlight this dichotomy.”  - Zhong Biao

Zhong Biao is one of the most unusual and modern figures among the Chinese contemporary artists today. Born in 1968 in Chong Qing, he studied art at the fine arts academy in Hangzhou, then became a professor at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. At 35, Zhong Biao has already established an internationally recognized portfolio not only in China but also all around the world.

Extremely avant-garde, Zhong’s works questioned the notions of time in China today, and focuses on the country’s rapidly advancing transformation, whether economical, architectural, esthetical, or emotional. As a sensitive artist, Zhong Biao has captured the pulse of China’s social reforms through the visual symbols Chinese people are familiar with. He takes the visual experiences of an era as the image source of his works, including sculpture and china representing China’s past glories, the labour models of the Cultural Revolution, and such symbols of modern life as McDonalds and Boeing aircrafts.

The pictorial technique that defines his work is the juxtaposition of black and white with colour. He uses this contrast to enhance visual impact, associating this visual shock with the contrast in Asian and Occidental cultures, and the difficulty for the contemporary Chinese population to assimilate this brutal intrusion. View more of Zhong Biao’s works at Art Scene China and Art Scene Warehouse ASW.

[Extracts from Art Scene China]

Hoang Nguyen has just released his new book - Hard Boiled to the Max Sketchbook, a collection of his original arts, including concept and character designs, pin-ups and an original comic in the making. From rough pencils to full illustrations, depicting monsters, warriors and amazons in epic battle.

Hoang Nguyen is a Vietnamese illustrator, currently residing in Santa Clara, USA, working as an art director for Namco Bandai Games. A celebrated artist with years of experiences in the gaming industry, Hoang Nguyen has contributed to various award winning games. No stranger to comics, Hoang has also worked on various titles for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image Comics and many more.

Hoang is a CG Choice Award Winner and he also keeps a blog where he shares his latest updates.

Andrew Hem, a painter and sculptor, was born in Cambodia. At 4 months his parents fled Cambodia from the genocide and ended up in Los Angeles.

By age 12 Andrew started getting into graffiti. He studied under writers like dzeas, rek2, lifer, and zoueh. He continued graffiti for about 9 years getting into nothing but trouble. He got introduce to figure drawing in his last semester in Santa Monica College and knew right away what he was meant to do. At that moment he changed his major and pursued the life of an illustrator.

Andrew’s artworks have a unique yet slightly disturbing style. He recently took home the top honour of the 2006 Society of Illustrators Student Show.

[Link courtesy of Josh Kao]

Rikki Kasso is a self titled “Aesthetic Engineer” whose works as an artist include photography, painting, drawing, film and music. Currently, Rikki Kasso is based both in New York and Tokyo.

Rikki draws using traditional Sumi Ink and his artworks records his observation with the Japanese and their everyday life. The drawings present a wonderful look at the rich cultures from the Land of the Rising Sun, though the eyes of a blue-eyed foreigner.

Rikki Kasso keeps another site - Tokyo Undressed, where he observes Japan in yet another way, through his camera lens. Beautiful images of women in various states of undress. Definitely not suitable for work!

Check out more works by the well-rounded and extremely talented artist here:
Samaritan Studios
Kasso for Kasso Collection
Rikki Kasso Photography
Somewhere in the Middle

Mall is the nickname that May Ann Licudine, a visual artist / freelance illustrator, gave herself since Grade 4.

Mall lives in La Union, Philippines. She was born with a hearing deficiency in 1981. However, she has overcome that through hard work and prayers, and now communicates like any ordinary person. Mall’s beautiful artworks, drawn using acrylics and colour pencils, have been aptly used in many children’s story and picture books.

Check out more of May Ann’s drawings from her blog, Flickr, and deviantART.

[Link via Drawn!]

Michael C. Hsiung is Chia Ling Hsiung, an American-born-Chinese artist, based in Koreatown, LA.

Born in Chinatown, USA, Michael’s father was from Beijing China and mother from Kaohsiung Taiwan. His sister, Pearl C. Hsiung is also an artist. Michael has a full-time job at a musuem in Los Angeles, and he does his drawings after work, 3-4 hours a day.

Michael Hsiung will tell you he has never taken a drawing class, which is not really a lie. He took a drawing class in Pasadena once, which then led him to a nude drawing seminar where he encountered the beauty of fat, sweaty men. After a brief stint knitting scarves in northern Canada and chasing an un-artistic career, Michael was back in Los Angeles where he beset upon his friends drawings and sketches reminiscent to those of a common eight year old.

After gaining slight admiration and approval from his peers, Michael continued his illustrative pursuits concentrating heavily on dejected animals, hedonistic culture and oppressive leaders of past. Though it is tough to say where he gets his inspiration, there is a heavy D&D undertone; dungeon masters, centaurs and unicorns grace the pages of his sketch pad, intermixed with history- Hitler, Adolescent Hitler and Baby Hitler, to name a few. Winter Olympics and mens figure skating are also rampant themes. Michael keeps a blog where he regularly updates with his latest happenings. Watch him in action here.

Read more about Michael C. Hsiung from his very entertaining interviews with Fecal Face and Spymart. 

Jinyoung Shin (신진영) is a pretty 24yr old Korean artist, based in New York.

Shin graduated from the School of Visual Arts (New York, USA) in 2006, with a Masters degree in Computer Art. She moved to the United States from Korea when she was seven years old, and although Shin grew up in America, Korean culture has always been a definitive part of her. Her drawings are heavily based on the style of eastern comics (manhwa/manga), which are a vital part of mainstream Korean and Japanese cultures.

Jinyoung Shin’s work is bizarre: spindly Burton-like skeletons with strange flesh-mechanics and wide Manga eyes cavort on Steadman-esque horizons full of inky flourishes and bisecting lines. Motifs seemed to have double-jointed limbs, thick lidded eyes, butterflies, razor blades and blood.

Read more of how Shin creates her drawings, in her interview with Art & Design Magazine, No.15.

TaeYoung Choi creates realistic digital oil paintings of men and women, portraits, Civil War soldiers, landscapes and robots.

Choi is a Korean artist currrently based in Des Plaines, USA. He is now working as a concept artist for Midway Games Inc, and have created the environmental concept artworks for Stranglehold. More of Choi’s works, and his comments on them can be found here.

Choi’s sketches are equally impressive. Check out his series of “speed paintings” which are are hand-painted using Photoshop and Painter. Choi also shares a couple of tutorials for those who are keen to learn how to draw like him.

It’s bathing time! One might find it difficult to resist the temptation of taking a refreshing dip after going through Song Yonghong’s ‘Shower of Consolation’ series. That is of course a superficial perspective, given the fact that Song is one the forerunners in contemporary Chinese avant-garde art.

Song Yonghong (宋永红) was born in Quyangxian, Hebei province of China in 1966. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the department of prints and lithography at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. He was teaching in Beijing Craft and Arts School prior to becoming a professional artist.

Song had already gained broad recognition in his artistic activities back in the 80s. His painting exhibits tension amidst the silent background. It reflects the meaningless and irony of life. Quoting from an article, “Song’s works lacks the ‘grand background of time’ and ‘political ambience’, his paintings are comparatively ‘smaller’, more fragmented and filled with the unique flavors of daily life.”

As featured, in the bath of consolation 2001, the elements of sexuality as seen in his previous works have disappeared. Men and women are nothing but props and decorations. His focus is completely set on the drizzles of the shower. The colors are rich and the force of the water gushing onto the body is sensual and exciting.

Born in 1982, Hajime Yoshio (吉尾一) lives in Nara, Japan.

Graduated from Kyoto Creative Design College, Hajime provided illustrations for the school’s flyers and postcards. His illustrations focuses on fashionable female figures with playful eyes. His characters, with their well researched hair styles and costumes, are sure to create hype instantly.

In 2005, Carrie Chau held a solo exhibition with Wun Ying Collection’s Gallery where she showcased her paintings, hand made 3D works and an array of accessories (badges, t-shirts, bag etc). Some of her works are collected in her book, a 94 page full-coloured publication titled ‘Work In Progress’. Check out more of Carrie’s works here.

[Extracts from Carrie Chau’s interview with Jolipunk]

Contemporary Chinese Art is currently one of the most sought after genres by both collectors and galleries, and that trend is usually accredited to artists like Wang Niandong.

Wang Niandong (王念东) captures the young and the restless in urban China in his paintings. He is on the forefront of reflecting the urbanization and westernization that are taking place in China. With impeccable attention to details, his paintings are stunningly beautiful as well as thought provoking.

Born in Sichuan, China in 1978, Wang learned to paint as a child. He attended the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, and was awarded his master’s degree from Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Oil Painting Department. Wang is currently an Associate Professor in Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing, China. Frequently described as young, talented, and incredibly handsome, Wang’s works display his fascination with unattainable women.

At first sight, Wang Niandong’s works deliver aesthetic features, because he always portraits pretty ladies of gorgeous faces and charming bodies in bright colors. He gives delicate depictions of the very feminist movements and gestures. However, instead of opposing the aesthetic preferences shown among the populace, Wang has pushed the aesthetic female images to the extremes, delivering them into affected images. Under his paint brush, the young girls are posing like models for show, with stylish hair cuts, delicate faces, stable and mature expressions, and stretched bodies, whether the works are intended to express depression or happiness. Wang has a set of strict procedures for his paintings, from the sketches, to coloring, to the finished product. The whole process is classical and academic. It is fair to say that he is a painter of high skills for realistic presentations.

Read more of the “Analysis of the Oil Painting of Wang Niandong” by Tom.com

Yin Kun (尹坤) is recognized as one of China’s most talented artists. Born in 1969, Sichuan Province,Yin graduated from the Sichuan ARBA Normal College with a degree in oil painting.

From 1999 to 2003 his oil works have been exhibited in Beijing, Singapore and Germany. In his art, Yin Kun deals with a wider variety of issues, such as prostitution, the aimless pleasure seeking of the elite youth, and the general apathy or turning a blind eye to these accepted ‘social evils’. Yin Kun’s art focuses on issues particular to modern people’s experience of reality and survival. He draws distortion, color, and surrealism and brings them together in images that convey straightforward and very poignant messages.

Yin currently lives and works in Beijing. His works can be found in corporate and private collections internationally.

Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa (福娃) will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace, and good wishes from China to children all over the world.

Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China’s most popular animals - the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow, and the Olympic Flame.

Each Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name, a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. When you put their names together - Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni, they say “Welcome to Beijing,” offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.

Sign up now at PepsiSingapore.com and you can create personalised Pepsi avatars to best reflect your personality!

This set of guys and girls avatars are illustrated by Singapore-based artists - Kuanth and Sokkuan. Check out the site now to mix-and-match for an avatar that best reflect who you are.

Yao Junzhong (姚俊忠) is born in Tangshan, Hebei province of China in 1961. He graduated from the Hebei Light Industry School in 1982, and the Department of Fine Arts in Central University for Nationalities in 1992. During the course of his studies, Yao majored in fine arts and oil paintings.

Yao’s works have participated in various exhibitions such as ‘Contemporary Century’ in 1997, ‘Norway Contemporary Arts’ in 1998, and ‘The Pop Icons of the Nineties’ in 1999.

Yao’s works takes the form of a critical social commentary. He is best known for articulating how the numeric society has influenced the children from the nineties in China.

Armand Serrano is a Visual Development Artist at Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City, California. He completed Surf’s Up and currently working on Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs slated for 2009.

Born and raised in Manila, Philipppines, Armand studied engineering at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. He worked as an apprentice engineer only to give up that career after six months of practice to go back to his first love - drawing.

Armand got his break in animation in May, 1990 as an inbetweener for FilCartoons, Inc., a subsidiary studio of Hanna-Barbera Studios California. After a few months as an inbetweener, he moved on to layout department and that was the start of his career as a layout artist up to the present time. While working for Filcartoons, he was involved in the production of Captain Planet & the Planeteers, The New Adventures of Johnny Quest, Addams Family, Pirates of Dark Water, Tom & Jerry Kids, Young Robin Hood, Greatest Stories from the Bible, Droopy, Police Academy, Yogi Bear, Fender Bender, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures and Dreamstone.

In 1994, he joined Philippine Animation Studio, an independently owned studio working on Marvel television series and supervised layout for overseas production of X-Men, Fantastic Four, Biker Mice From Mars and an animated music video for Prince.

In the spring of 1996, Armand moved to the US to work for 7th Level, Inc., a multimedia company developing video games, in Glendale, California and finished Layout Visualization and Background Design course at Associates in Art in Sherman Oaks, California. Armand made a major step in his career by moving to Walt Disney Feature Animation Studio in 1997. He and his family were relocated to Orlando, Florida to work on their then-ongoing project Mulan. His film credits for Disney include Mulan (1998), Tarzan (1999), Lilo & Stitch (2002), Brother Bear (2003) and the cancelled A Few Good Ghosts (a.k.a. My Peoples). Spring of 2004, he joined Sony Pictures Animation.

Go get lost in the wide range of works in his portfolio, including illustrations, concept designs, comics, matte paintings and visual development. Armand also keeps a blog. 

What do you get when you combine the best from the East, with the best from the West? We’ll say it’s the western cowboy art by Xiang Zhang.

Born in the year of the Horse, Xiang Zhang grew up in China. After graduating from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he was strongly influenced by the 19th century Russian masters, he received his Masters Degree in Fine Art from Tulane University in New Orleans. While at Tulane, he developed his special style of portraiture work and increasingly cowboy art.

Well known for capturing the drama in Western life, Xiang Zhang combines impressionistic, as well as realistic techniques in his paintings. The excellent, consistent quality of Zhang’s work has made him one of the most collectible artists in the world.

In 2002, he moved to a ranch in Sherman, Texas. Immersed in the local ranching lifestyle, his work reflects the symbiotic relationship between the cowboy and his horse. Using scintillating colors and bravura brushwork to capture the drama of ranching life, his definitive style has catapulted him to new heights in the art world. Xiang Zhang’s paintings hang in private and corporate collections in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.

See more of Xiang Zhang’s works here and here. 

The themes in Audrey Kawasaki’s work are contradictions within themselves. Her work is both innocent and erotic. Each subject is attractive yet disturbing.

Audrey,a 24yr old illustrator, is a second-generation Japanese from Los Angeles. Born in L.A., she went to Japanese school every Saturday throughout her school years, and grew up reading manga and watching Japanese TV shows, fully immersed in the culture.

Audrey’s style, influenced by both manga comics and Art Nouveau, combined sharp graphic imagery with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on, bringing an unexpected warmth to enigmatic subject matter. The figures she paints are seductive and contain an air of melancholy.

Audrey updates her online journal frequently with new work, pieces in progress, information about shows and more. Find out more about Audrey’s through her interviews with these various media.

[Link courtesy of Ana Garcia] 

Min Yum (short for Min Hyuk Yum, and also known as Bumskee), is a Korean concept artist and freelance illustrator, currently based in Sydney, Australia.

Only 27yrs old, Min Yum already has an impressive collection of works. He clearly draws ALOT, and that is evident in his gallery of works which includes illustrations, sketches, and life drawing studies.

See more of Bumskee’s drawings in his CGPortfolio and his ConceptArt.org Sketchbook.

“…when i’m drawing, i forget everything and set myself really into the work and do it. And of course the moment a piece is completed, it’s always one of the happiest moments.“

Kuang Hong (匡宏), or better known as Noah-KH, is an amazingly talented illustrator based in Beijing, China. A strong believer in the traditional way of drawing, Noah feels that digital software such as Painter and Photoshop only serve to complement the hand painting.

One of Noah’s key strength lies in his ability to create marvelous backgrounds that enhances the overall picture composition. Very often there is a feeling of timelessness and grim when appreciating Noah’s art.

See more of Kuang’s drawings in his deviantART gallery.

Chkuyomi’s Crossworld is the portfolio site and blog of Korean illustrator Choi Yoon Jung.

For 3 years since 2004, Chkuyomi has been creating artworks for the Mucha Museum (MM)’s annual Progressive Artnouveau Illustration Calendar, which explains the strong presence of Art Nouveau styles in many of the drawings.

“Let me draw all my life, no matter how poor I might end up. I just wanted to do what I like doing, and I didn’t think much more about it.”

Born in the Hei Long Jiang province of China, Yue Minjun (岳敏君) is undisputably China’s top guy in the modern art scene.

The paintings, sculptures and installations of Yue Minjun always feature uniform laughing faces. Observing these laughing faces carefully, one will notice that the faces are the face of Yue Minjun. Yue’s work manifested the emptiness of the present spiritual world through the repeated use of his own image as model. His paintings offer a light-hearted approach to philosophical enquiry and contemplation of existence.

Yue has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including the 5th Shanghai Biennale, “Mahjong” at Kunstmuseum Bern and “Xianfeng!” at Museum Beelden aan Zee in the Netherlands.

Filipino artist Arnaldo Mirasol was born in Tondo, Manila, where he still lives with his wife and two sons. 

Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol has been drawing ever since he can remember, and, even though his father wanted him to become a lawyer, he insisted on studying art. He has been a political cartoonist, a ’social-realist with a surreal-twist’ painter, and finally a children’s books illustrator.

He has illustrated Tamales Day, First Around the Globe: The Story of Enrique, The Origin of the Frog (a runner up in the 2000 Noma International Concours for Picture Book Illustrations), The Brothers Wu and the Good-luck Eel and Once Upon a Time, published by Rex Printing and Tahanan Books.

Read more about Arnaldo Mirasol in this article.

[Link courtesy of May Ann Licudine]

Born in Hong Kong in 1970, Wilson Shieh Ka-Ho (石家豪) graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a Master of Fine Arts in 2001.

Adopting the traditional fine-line painting (工笔画) as his favourite medium but investing it with modern motifs drawn from pop culture, all the while maintaining decorative features in his works, he has created his own unique and eye-catching style.

Wilson Shieh is a popular young artist with a waiting list of buyers in Hong Kong. A witty 2005 drawing of pensive nude bald men is expected to sell for more than $8,000. He draws using chinese ink and watercolour on golden cardboard.

Dragon is an illustrator / painter from Japan, whose works are deeply inspired by the black culture.

Dragon creates artworks for CD / record jackets, fliers and posters. He started his own brand of street wear Dragon76 in 2004. Dragon has held various exhibitions of his works and frequently does live painting where he creates large scale paintings using the same unique style. Check out photos of Dragon at his live painting events on his blog.

Saeki’s paintings often feature men and women as well as demons, animals, corpses, and other creatures in various erotic or violent settings. His work has received warnings from the Japanese government, though it has never been officially banned. His works are collected avidly by erotic art fans in Japan, America, France, and other parts of the world. Saeki has said that he enjoys using his art to shock people and he doesn’t really involve himself in the extreme activity of his best known works. For decades, he has been hailed as a psychosexual dream weaver who traverses all taboos with oozing, bloody scenes of insatiable carnality. Think of Saeki’s work as a gaping, red maw consuming all women and men, salivating over their bodies and licking them into a sexual frenzy before swallowing them whole. Japanese schoolgirls in uniforms, elderly matrons with wrinkled skin, attractive young women in kimonos and the occasional horny businessman or samurai, are all are sucked into Saeki’s imaginary world.

Sexual incontinence is Saeki’s overriding theme. In collections of his drawings such as “Chimushi I & II” and “Toshio Saeki: The Early Works” (both published in Japan by Treville Co.), he has navigated the outer limits of sexual obsession with a monomaniacal intensity. In France, his monographs have sold more than 20,000 copies. And Last Gasp, Saeki’s distributor in the United States, has difficulty keeping his books in stock. “Chimushi,” a two-volume set issued in the mid-1990s, completely sold out its first run here and is now a collector’s item.

[Extracts from Salon.com]

Feng Zhengjie (俸正桀), a contemporary China artist, is born in the countryside of Sichuan Province in 1968. Feng is also a lecturer in the Fine Arts Dept of the Beijing Institute of Education, and he has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in China, France, Australia, Singapore etc.

Feng Zhengjie paints striking contemporary women. With their coloured hair, richly hued clothes and luscious, expressive lips, the women appear irresistibly dazzling. And yet, the wandering expressions in their eyes render them elusive and enigmatic. These strange, unknowable eyes have become Feng’s signature style. In response to the explosive development of China’s entertainment industry, Feng creates works that serve as a commentary on the new glamour and fashion of today’s society. His works also reflect a personal ambivalent fascination with and an aversion to Chinese pop culture.

More of Feng’s works and details of his profile can be found here, here, here, and at Wikipedia.

Kuan TeckHarn, or Kuanth as he is more commonly known, is a designer, image-maker, and a self-professed daydreamer who is interested in all things beautiful.

Kuanth counts art and design as his absolute passion. Having worked as a senior graphic designer in the publishing industry for 5 years and then a year in advertising, he has gained exposure to all aspects of design work. In 2002, Kuanth left the agency to become a freelance illustrator, after he got his first big break from an assignment with Hong Kong pop magazine Amoeba.

Having graduated from The One Academy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a major in Graphic Design and Advertising, the 30yr old artist is a veteran globetrotter with his freelance and personal projects. Kuanth has done editorial drawings for Amoeba, Cleo, Elle, Upload, Her World and Female. On the commercial side, he’s worked with big league names like Nokia, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sony and Heineken.

See Kuanth’s diverse drawing styles in his wide collection of works and also Mistake by Kuanth, a blog where Kuanth shares his latest works.

Charlene Chua is an award winning Singapore illustrator whose work has appeared in magazines, CD covers, advertisements, brochures and billboards. Before taking the plunge to do illustration Charlene worked as a graphic designer, a web producer and an interactive project manager.

Charlene’s favourite subject is the female form, particularly vampy, powerful and sexy women. She says “I try to tell a story with my illustrations. It’s always easier and more rewarding for me to have the illustration accompany a story.” Coupled with a very slick vector style of drawing, Charlene’s drawings are aptly used by various men magazines like FHM and Maxim.

Charlene currently resides in Toronto, Canada with her husband and two cats. She also keeps a blog which is regularly updated with her works-in-progress and unpublished sketches.

Pose Maniacs is a wonderful Japanese resource site with a huge collection of poses at various angles, extremely useful for figure drawing.

The gallery has more than a hundred poses of both men and women, and still increasing. Click to enter each individual pose and the interactive flash file enables you to drag your cursor and turn the figure 360 degrees around, to whichever angle you fancy. Sweet!

Interested to hone your speed drawing skills? Try the 30 seconds drawing exercise where random poses are flashed every 30secs. There are definitely enough poses to draw to your heart’s content.

Yoshitaka Amano (天野喜孝), is one of the most influential Japanese illustrator the world has ever known. Widely acclaimed for his brilliant inspirational contribution to the Final Fantasy series and his illustrations for Vampire Hunter D, Amano’s works emphasizes on expressiveness. His art takes on a life of its own.

He was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As a young adolescent, Amano was fascinated with drawing and he started his professional career at the age of 15 as a trainee at Tatsunoko Productions. His collaboration with Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunter was a success and they are planning on another collaborative project called HERO.

Throughout his 35 years of career, Amano has created vast variety of works in different mediums (paintings, animations, video games, theatre design, kimono design, ceramic works etc) and it is almost impossible to archive all of them. Some samples of the major works of each period or medium can be found here. Other terrific sites where you can catch a glimpse of Amano’s masterpiece includes:
Amano’s World
Flights of Fancy
Yoshitaka Amano: Biography
The Art of Yoshitaka Amano

Feimo (非墨) is an extremely talented 23yr old illustrator from China.

Beautiful things, especially good looking men are her favourite drawing subjects. She is happy just being able to draw and paint, and believes that one day, the illustration industry of China will be known to many more people from around the world.

Feimo keeps a blog where she regularly updates with her new works.

Read Feimo’s interview on the latest issue of Artzmania. For those of you who are in the unknown, ArtzMania E-zine is an independent venture showcasing outstanding international creativity and culture. With blazing passion for design, it is the latest platform for Designer’s Territory to inspire, express and share with fellow art enthusiast profiling diversified design.

Download Artzmania Vol.1 here.
Download Artzmania Vol.2 here.

Born in 1979, Fuco Ueda (上田風子) is an artist from Japan who paints beautiful images of women in various states of surrealism.

Fuco paints with acrylic and powdered mineral pigments on paper, or on cloth on wood. Her gallery of paintings dates back to as early as 1998, yet surprising, the style and quality of works remain consistent. The heroines of Fuco Ueda’s paintings are often on the brink of danger. These beauties are at once victioms and agents. But whether the threats are self-inflicted or not, they make for fierce and beautiful narratives.

[Link courtesy of May Ann Licudine]

Provoked by the ironies of the world, Malaysian artist Munkao’s approach to art combines elements of awkward fantasy and social commentary to depict his sardonic outlook on life in an oddball, humorous fashion.

Influenced more by pop culture than by fine art, Munkao has been drawing since he was a kid, influenced by his brother Billy Tan - now US-based comic artist. Born Tan Mung Kao, the 25yr old artist was educated in Singapore until returning to Kuala Lumpur to attend a local art college. In less than a year, he dropped out. “It made me hate drawing,” he says. Munkao has since returned to school, currently majoring in business studies. After stepping away from art as an academic subject, Munkao has rediscovered his passion for drawing and painting, creating work that better reflect his personality. Check out more about Munkao and his obsession with drawing penises on his frequently updated blog.

Munkao likes funny stuff. This is clearly evident in his latest exhibition of artworks - SuperNatural.
We almost died laughing.

[Link courtesy of Gary Gao]

Tatsuro Kiuchi (木内達朗), originally a biology graduate from the International Christian University in Tokyo, made the defining decision to pursue his dream – an art career. He was awarded a scholarship at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, graduating with distinction in 1991 and returning to Japan the following year.

The traditional art of Ukiyo-e has always been close to the heart for Tatsuro. As displayed in his various works, he applies this very traditional craft to contemporary needs by harnessing new technology.
 
Some of the famous books he illustrated includes; The Lotus Seed, The Seasons and Someone, Tsubu the Little Snail, and the Mysterious Tales of Japan.

Moira Hahn was born in Boston, MA, in 1956 and earned her BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and participated in additional studies in animation at CalArts. After completing her graduate work in animation at CalArts, she studied traditional Japanese art in both Hawaii and Japan, and worked as a studio assistant for Masami Teraoka for five years.

Since these initial studies, Moira has continued to look east for inspiration. She has found it in Persian miniatures, Tibetan Thanka paintings, Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, Indian animal drawings and Chinese guardian figures. Her visual statements which often deal with social and policital issues, seamlessly converge traditional Asian art subjects and genres with iconography from contemporary popular culture including manga, anime and tattoo art.

Moira has exhibited her fine art throughout the US and Japan for two decades. Read more of Moira Hahn from these various interviews, and also take a closer look at her profile here.

This is an outstanding collection of newspaper masthead clip art of Cultural-Revolution era imagery and propaganda, made available with thanks to Webster University (for use of their scanning station) and Flickr.

An incredible archive of communist imageries. Great inspirations from our Chinese comrades!

See more clip art from the Cultural Revolution era:
Cultural Revolution Clip Art, Circa 1971
Cultural Revolution-Era 10″Records

[Link via MONO NO AWARE]

In 2000, Shunya worked at Square Enix as a character designer for Final Fantasy X as an NPC and weapons designer. He later worked as a character designer on the online game Depth Fantasia, and was an event illustrator for the game Phantom Kingdom. He also worked on the other titles such as Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria and Xanadu: Next. He is also working with various toy companies to release a line-up of PVC figures, garage kits and statues based on his character designs.

His art draws on many different influences and can be described as a blend of Heavy Metal and Anime, and is particularly known for the beautiful expressions and entrancing eyes of his subjects. Usually his artworks ranges from classic fantasy to post apocalyptic futures, always binded together with the stylized beauty of his women. Yamashita is knowledgeable in the way of human anatomy, proportion and weight, which he applies to most of his works.

Read more about Shunya Yamashita from Wikipedia and Lucid Skin. Check out his interesting blog if you understand the japanese language.

[Link courtesy of Hock]

Hebei, China artist Zhang Lin Hai recently held his much anticipated 4th solo exhibition entitled “Purple and Reminiscence”.

Pre-eminent in his field, Zhang Lin Hai’s collection of new works shows how he is evolving stylistically as an artist as he further develops his scope of imagination, and his motif of bald young boys against a backdrop of a post-industrial arid wasteland. Zhang Lin Hai’s almost surrealist oil paintings explicitly articulating feelings such as sadness, fear, a need for escape, bemusement, and even more disconcerting, the vapid glare of shock or even possession.

See more of Zhang’s past works here.

[Information from Schoeni Art Gallery]

Yanyan Ye is an illustrator from Beijing, China who truly fuses the art of traditional Chinese painting with modern technology.

Yanyan, a CG Choice Award Winner, paints using Photoshop and her works are heavily inspired by Chinese brush paintings and oriental elements.