"My work carries a heavy eastern influence. I think this is probably due to my Chinese heritage. Composition, rhythm and balance are the elements that I focus on. I like images that portray a sense of beauty and sadness and that work on a poetic level."

Born in 1983, Tim Lee (Lee Hon Hung) have lived and grown up in the U.K. Currently based in London, Tim graduated from Leeds Met with a Fine Art Degree in the summer of 2006.

Tim visits HongKong annually, where his parents came from, and he attributes that to where the eastern undercurrent in his works arises. Chinese scroll paintings, Kimono and Ukiyo-e prints heavily influence his work and he try to craft his work to reference them in some way. Like oriental art; composition and rhythm are paramount in his images. He is always looking for balance within each piece. Tim's illustrations are wonderfully intricate and precise, a tangled world of escapism and realism mixed into one.

Tim Lee's work has been featured in Illusive 2 (by Die Gestalten Verlag) and he is represented by Private View in UK. He was also recently featured on Lost At E Minor.

Pat Lee has been a professional artist for over thirteen years. Currently based in HongKong, Pat was engaged at the age of 16 to work in the professional comic book industry. He was hired by Extreme Studios at Image Comics and worked on titles such as BloodPool, Extreme Sacrifice, Black Flag, Glory, DarkChylde, Avengeblade, Extreme Prelude and Prophet. Soon after, he was hired by Wildstorm Productions and worked on comic book titles such as Allegra, Wetworks, and Jim Lee’s Wildcats. Following that, Pat worked with Marvel comics on Iron Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spiderman.

A year later, Pat formed his own company with his brother named Dreamwave Productions Inc. which launched popular titles such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Devil May Cry and Transformers - which ranked the #1 top selling comic book six months in a row and was acknowledged as one of the first indy publishers to reach this goal. He has created many successful properties such as Darkminds, Warlands, Garden of Blades, NecroWar, Sandscape and Banished Knights and has worked on hundreds of covers ranging from novels, comic books, trade paperbacks and magazines.

Most recently in comics, Pat’s work can be seen in Batman, Superman, Metal Men, X-Men, Cyberforce. He is also known for bringing an anime influenced hybrid style to the North American comic market and has hit the #1 artist on the top ten hottest artist list in Wizard Magazine. He has also worked with multiple toy companies such as Hasbro, Mattel, Spin Master Pro, and Cookie Jar, assisting them in conceptualizing and developing their brands and was a lead designer for the music video by Janet Jackson – “It Doesn’t Really Matter”. Currently at the age of 32, Pat’s primary initiatives is to be the most well rounded artist moving in the direction of film and game production, IP development, Photography, Concept Design and is currently in development of his own clothing label. Check out his works via his new studio - Pat Lee Productions, or through his deviantART page or MySpace page.

Harvey Chan was born in Hong Kong, China.

He has established himself as an illustrator since graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design. An experienced and well-rounded Hong Kong illustrator working out of Toronto, Harvey's works are definitely worth the look if you love free-form and sophisticated colour.

For many years, Harvey's diversified approach in commercial assignments has also greatly reflected on his personal works. Human figure has always been a primary interest in his drawings, paintings and sculptures.

Harvey has received numerous awards through his career as illustrator. He has also created 2 series of coin design for the Royal Canadian Mint and most recently, the Year of the Rat stamp design for Canada Post.

In recent years, spiritual and natural forms has slowly emerged and taking central stage. Fantastical and hybrid forms are also found their place in Harvey's most recent exploration.

Between personal works and commercial commissions, Harvey also found time to teach drawing, painting and illustration at Ontario College of Art and Design, and Sheridan College. Harvey has taught figure sculpture at The Toronto School of Art.

Harvey lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  

*note: make sure to check out the archive section of his site. 

startdrawing.org pays our respect to Mr Tsang Tsou-Chio (曾灶财), also known as the King of Kowloon, who died of a heart attack in July 15, 2007 at the age of 86. He had been writing graffiti in Hong Kong since he was 35 years old (a total of 51 years, since 1956).

Tsang Tsou-choi, dubbed “The King of Kowloon” after the district he lived in, was a Hong Kong original, who never saw himself as an artist but was hailed internationally as one. A grubby man who looked like a tramp and who many thought barking mad, Tsang spent five decades roaming the metropolis, often shirtless and on crutches, scrawling his idiosyncratic calligraphy on lamp-posts, walls, phone boxes, pedestrian underpasses and electrical boxes. Tsang became a cultural icon for his unique Chinese-style street graffiti, and his death sparked nostalgic calls to preserve his vanishing legacy.

Tsang claimed much of the land in Kowloon belonged to his family but the government had annexed it without compensation. When he failed to get official recognition of his claims, Tsang published them on the walls of Hong Kong. His work typically consisted of a list of his ancestors. Also included were places that his forebears owned. Tsang became famous around the globe after some of his works were displayed at the Venice Biennale international art exhibition in 2003. In 2004, one of his pieces sold at a Sotheby’s auction for 55,000 Hong Kong dollars ($7,000 USD). Tsang’s work has inspired fashion designers and interior decorators. Louis Vuitton also featured him in a handbag advertisement.

Read more about Tsang and see more of his works in the following sources:
> Graffiti.org
> Reuters.com
> Wikipedia.com
> PBase.com 
> Flickr.com

Raised in the US, Saiman Chow’s work dances happily between the not so fine line of Japanese Sci Fi and Milton Glaser / Yellow Submarine - era psychedelia. His paintings are comic-oriented yet serious in nature and a colorful fusion of Eastern and Western images. Chow successfully interlaces American and Asian pop culture with a high level of craft and complexity of story. Image-robots, Sumo wrestlers, and skate boarding extraterrestrials inhabit his canvases.

A quick list of clients would include MTV, Fuel TV, Shift Magazine (Japan) and his most famous, a full length animation for Nike’s Art of Speed called Oggo.

Read more of Saiman’s interview with Shift.