This Artist Captures Incredible Moods With His Illustrations Of Singapore

I’m waiting at Long John Silver’s when a lean figure approaches me.

It’s Jon, an artist whose paintings of Singapore I’ve seen on Facebook recently. Jon introduces himself shyly, and begins telling me about his journey.

Getting To Know Jon

Jon has been working as a freelance graphic designer for 6 years, and graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) last year. While he has always been into art, he counts his first piece as the oil on canvas one he did during the Art Elective Programme in Secondary 3.

“I picked up digital painting later on. I was dabbling with the Wacom tablet but I only got serious about it last year. I’m currently working on a comic and I wanted a faster way to colour my comic.”

I then ask if he thinks that digital painting is easier, and he laughs.

“Yeah, it’s definitely a lot easier. The obvious reason is that you can ‘Ctrl+Z’; the less obvious one is that when you work in layers, you can rearrange things and test out options.”

“Colour wise you get a lot more flexibility,” he says and then pauses to ask me, “you use Photoshop sometimes, right?”

I nod my head and he gets back to explaining: “So there’s the hue and saturation slider – there are so many things! What I hope to do eventually, even when I go back to traditional pieces is to use digital as a tool to draft out ideas, so that I know exactly what I want.”

Capturing Singaporean Moments

If you take a look at Jon’s Instagram, you’ll notice it’s filled with his paintings of Singapore. He tells me he began this project approximately a year back when he was doing his Final Year Project (FYP) and was looking for a way to de-stress.

“But also, why I wanted to do it was because there’s a lot of unrecognised beauty in Singapore. There are often simple things that people miss, and painting them is a way of shining light on them so people see it.”

Jon has been doing one digital painting a week – while it’s easier now that he’s graduated, I can’t imagine having to balance freelance projects, school and his own paintings.

“I may have been complaining back then, but in hindsight – somehow you’ll manage to squeeze everything in. In many ways, it was fun to do things that you enjoy doing.”

He reveals that he focused mainly on freelance projects during school, but started doing his own paintings again during his FYP – his way of relieving stress.

I then probe into how his paintings came about – did he look out for a particular subject that day? Was it from memory or did he take a photo for reference?

He nods, “almost all the photos were taken by me. Only one was taken by my friend – the girl holding the flag on the bus.”

As for his paintings, he says that he goes “by feel”.

“The image has to be moving to me, because only then it might be moving to other people as well.”

He does this by keeping an eye open for things he would normally miss when he’s going about his daily travels.

“It’s pretty interesting because sometimes you can see that there’s a story going on. Then I just quickly snap a picture of it.”

Given his choice of personal project, I view Jon to be rather patriotic – perhaps more so than the average Singaporean. Surprisingly, he’s like most of us.

“You could say I’m patriotic although there a lot of things that go on that I don’t agree with as well.”

He goes on to tell me about how many of us lack self-assurance in our culture and identity.

“People often say Singapore has no culture, but I feel that if Singapore doesn’t have a culture – why do people feel homesick when they are away for extended periods of time?”

Jon cites an example of how many might think the Eiffel tower is impressive but “there’s so much that is really beautiful about Singapore as well.” However, he acknowledges that we’re desensitized because we see it every day.

Picking Favourites

When it comes to a favourite painting, as expected – Jon can’t single out one. He says he likes all of them in different ways. Then his face lights up as he goes, “there’s one!”

“I always take my photos secretly; they’re reference photos. But there was once I saw this couple, or maybe they were friends, seated on some stairs.”

“So I asked them, “Hey I paint Singaporean scenes, do you think I could take a picture of you?” and surprisingly they were like “Yeah, cool”. So this one’s a bit special.”

Even so, he insists that the rest of his paintings hold different meanings for him.

Apart from painting scenes of Singapore, Jon has a few graphic design projects that he holds close to his heart.

The first is the Twenty-Something Theatre Festival in 2016, which was produced by Tan Kheng Hua. Jon was the designer for this event.

“It was a festival, so there was a flea market, live music – that was memorable for me because graphic design doesn’t just have to be a marketing or advertising tool. It can also be used to tell stories.”

The second is a book called Second Beginnings, which is commissioned by Lien Foundation for various architectural spaces. The book contained ideas for alternative senior living. Jon was the assistant for the book design – and says that he’s fond of this project as his role enabled him to contribute to helping the elderly in Singapore.

Overcoming Obstacles

Despite such opportunities, Jon faces various difficulties.

“The pragmatic side is financial stability – being a freelancer, there’s no guarantee that I’m going to get a fixed income every month.”

“Although it could be a lot worse, it could also be a lot better. But so far people have been really nice and supportive, so I just hope that things will be alright.”

On a personal end, he worries about the response he may get whenever he’s painting. Even so, he admits quickly that it’s only natural to do so.

“To a certain extent it’s also healthy because your work stays grounded, but sometimes it holds you back.”

“I think the best work I’ve done so far were times when I wasn’t afraid of what people would think and I was just being genuine and sincere about the work.”

When I ask him if there are any misconceptions he’s faced so far, he says that things are improving since there has been heightened interest towards design.

Even so, a misunderstanding of the role of a graphic designer is common in the corporate environment.

“I think ideally when you hire a designer you’re not just hiring someone to use the software for you. You should get someone whose taste and voice you trust, and someone who can help you realize your vision better than you could’ve envisioned it yourself.”

He adds, “on that note, a lot of my clients have been really trusting.”

Finally, I conclude our conversation by asking about his future plans.

“There are a lot of crazy ideas, I have no idea whether I have the time to do them.”

Of these, the first to be completed would be his graphic novel, Walking Like Trees, which will be released together with local singer Inch Chua’s next single.

He ponders for a bit more, then adds: “So far the paintings have been small, so I hope to do bigger pieces and maybe have a solo show if I like the work enough.”