Shaun Tan would have to be one of my most favourite artists/illustrators of all time, fitting right in with the likes of Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Audrey Kawasaki, Stella im Hultberg and Frieda Kahlo. His imagination never ceases to astound and amaze me, as I find myself holding my breath to see what the next page will hold. Unlike most other books, I find myself relishing going back and re-reading his books because I discover new things, clues and arrows all the time, leading to the home of the Lost Thing or similar. Whether its the great buffalo pointing the way to an unknown surprise, or the mysterious appearance of a dugong-like creature on one's front lawn, Shaun's work can always make me smile, laugh out loud or be on the brink of tears due simply to his astounding connection to the viewer and his understanding and manipulation of each and every brush stroke, and word.
I'm currently working on my own website (for my art/artistic profile) which has been a lot of fun. I'm thinking of doing a "journal/sketches" section, where I will scan in a bunch of doodles and spontaneous scribbles from the past few years and my Eurotrip journal of 07/08 aswell. There was a lot of good times to be had as I spent a bit of time on trains and planes and in classes in countries where I didn't really understand the language, therefore retreated to my lovely little journal to the amusement of the students sitting near me.
This old habit is kicking back again of course with the start of a new semester, as I have almost equal amounts of sketching to match the writing. Take this snippet here for example:
In other news, I picked up a pencil for the first time in (no kidding) 2 years, mostly due to necessity not pleasure when I just could NOT fall asleep last night and felt the need to just get out the pent up energy in a creative rush, where I switched the lights back on, rubbed my eyes, grabbed the first thing that had a plain and empty surface, sketched then painted. WITH A PENCIL! I don't think I can explain how surreal the whole experience was. And how different it is to work with graphite. Insane. Anyhow, this is the first illustration besides a badge I made to illustrate a little story I've been working on called "The Tenant" which tells the tale of a shy girl who one day discovers a lonely little bird nesting in her big buffy hair. This little bird is very reluctant to leave and the little girl is also reluctant to send it away, so a strange bond evolves between the two of them, as the little girl finds herself growing stronger and more self assured in her whimsical weirdness as she begins to accept herself, and the little bird finds its first home and feeling of security and love. Thats basically it. Here is the 20 minute 3 am sketch/painting which is very different to the original prototype and created on unprimed weird wood which I am fairly certain is not made, and certainly not ideal for painting.
I think that is all for tonight, and stay tuned because next time I will be introducing you to my new beloved eco-friendly fair trade independent Indian artist made bag in all its glory!
Goodnight and goodluck.
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