Wow, it's been ages since my last blog and much has changed. Most of the projects I have been working on have been completed successfully and they have led to many more projects.

I am, however, no longer conducting art lessons in schools since I'm totally up to my neck with drawing projects and running Happy Hands at Downtown East (darn, there's still that outstanding icon design for SingHealth...).

Recently, I've improved somewhat on my drawing and Photoshop techniques and many of the finished works can be seen at my online gallery and the one at Happy Hands. Do drop by if you can find time to do so.

My cartoons and illustrations thus far have travelled as faraway as Florida, Maine and Belgium, thanks to Scott Marlowe (the Indy Jones looking guy pictured above), Loren Coleman and my JC friend, Reynold. Not that this is the first time that this has happened, as sometime ago, back in my poly days, I did have some drawings published in the Netherlands. although I never got to see the finished products, unfortunately.

Well, anyway, as the old saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill. I think I'm better recognised in the US than in my own country (maybe with the exception of people living near Downtown East!)... how sad and tragic! But that's the way it is here. I get the feeling we are not ready to explore further what our home-grown cartoonists can offer. There are just not enough avenues through which we can expand our horizons. Unless your drawings are already commercially viable, you can forget about getting it used, much less promoted, here. When money can't be made from it, this form of art doesn't go down well with the local palette...er, I mean palate! You'd end up like van Gogh ~ die a poor artist.

Perhaps, if I had been wealthier, I could use my money to promote my own cartoons and comic books. It's the old chicken or the egg causality dilemma. That's the sad state of our cartoons/comics scene here. We say we want a more artistic culture, but overlooked are the cartoonists, like myself, who haven't quite made it big. We don't seem to get the support we need. What you see on TV or read in the news might suggest a kind of support, but how is it that we "small-time" artists don't seem to be at the receiving end? Where did this support get channelled to and end up? Well, maybe to those artists who show potential by already profiteering from their works or winning award after award. But is that what art is all about? Not in my book!

Well, so much for the bad stuff. Now, back to some good stuff...

Cisco Serret from CZ.com has worked out a T-shirt idea using my logo for the website. I'm getting royalties for sales of course. He intends to sell the T-shirts in the US, Canada and internationally, which would mean my logo will be going places! I don't know about you, but I'm excited and really looking forward to this :).

Looking forward to many more drawings..... oh, and check out my new signature in the above artwork ;-) Thought I'd come up with one for all my art which at least reflects my name instead of having to explain the previous one. You'll see this new one for a long time to come! Until next time, cheerio!