Journaling through art

 

Journaling through art 

Caricature is a specialized form of art that often brings humour and satire by capturing the “essence” of a person by exaggerating or magnifying their most distinct traits or physical features. In my secondary school days, I was often fascinated by these hilarious caricatures published in newspapers and magazines. I kept wondering how these artists were able to use just simple forms, shapes and few strokes of the pen to create “representations” of a person’s face that were easily recognizable by others. In the old days before the internet and social media, I would often cut out these caricature drawings and keep them as drawing references. In my spare time after school work, I would doodle on scrap papers and emulate these artists’ drawing styles.

Re-staring the ‘old engine’

After my secondary school, full-time study at the Polytechnic followed quickly by enlistment into full-time national service and into full-time jobs took all my waking hours. For many years, I could not find any spare time to develop and improve on my drawing skills. In 2011, I decided to slow down and quit my full-time job for contract work. With more time on hand, I decided to pick up my drawing tools and paint brushes again to revive my interest in caricatures. I believed I could draw better if I could invest regular amount of my time on improving my drawing skills. I believe many craftsmen and artisans today are able to excel in their crafts due to their commitment and years of accumulated practices.

After a hiatus of more than 30 years, my hands felt like an old rusty “engine” that needed some ‘cranking-up’ to improve their dexterity to draw again. So I sought out and attended a 24-hours workshop by Singapore’s master caricature artist Kamal Dollah to get some guidance. After the workshop, I devoted myself some hours each week to draw and aimed to create at least one caricature a week, a habit that has continued till today. At that time, Malcolm Gladwell ‘told’ me in his book I needed to accumulate at least 10,000 hours (now largely debunked as a scientific rule) of practice to master any skill. I have since stopped counting the hours.  

Challenging oneself

Each week, I would look for a famous people’s face to draw. While most faces are easy targets, few are real challenges to get their likeness. When I hit a roadblock, I would just pause, stop drawing for days and then re-start again. But when my artwork turns out right, there is always a sense of joy, a moment of accomplishment and internal satisfaction.

Many who have seen my artworks tell me my caricatures are easily recognisable and look like the real person. This defines and cements the quality standard for my caricatures. Sometimes, I draw friends for fun, and I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing their faces light up in surprise and their lower jaws drop to the floor when I hand a caricature to them. There are times they complain that my drawings look too realistic and exaggerate their imperfections or flaws. But I tell them jokingly, “I’m just an artist, not a plastic surgeon”. 

Now, with the advent of artificial intelligent and cheap applications, anyone can produce caricatures (though their quality is debatable) easily and fast without even learning how to draw. However, I still prefer the traditional and old-fashioned way of creating art by hand. It always thrills me to see the artwork emerge gradually from a blank canvas, layer by layer, stroke by stroke from a paint brush. Perhaps, this preference of creating art by hand had been greatly influenced by my late dad who for more than 30 years hand-painted countless cinema giant billboard posters for Cathay Organization.  

Finding peace and calmness

My artworks don’t sell. My caricatures have never won any award. It does not matter to me. I am just a hobbyist who enjoys creating art by hand and have no ambition to be a professional artist. Drawing and painting help to distract my mind from work, keep me away from the chaotic outside environment and forget temporarily about my own personal problems. It is a cheap therapeutic process to focus my mind on doing something the old-fashioned way. I get to spend quiet moments away from my mobile devices and to have peace with myself.

Each caricature is taken as a personal challenge. Completing each challenge is a joy felt within, like getting a dose of dopamine from finishing a marathon race. Such ‘feel-good’ effect re-fills the motivating fuel and drives me to look forward to the next challenge. Creating caricatures keeps my mind busy, my hands nimble and to feel alive. The legendary American country music singer, Willie Nelson once said, “I think I need to keep being creative, not to prove anything but because it makes me happy just to do it…I think trying to be creative, keeping busy, has a lot to do with keeping you alive.” I think he is probably right.