When I’m asked to work on something,
I research deeply into it.

I remembered reading a book that
advises;

‘research’ is the ultimate to a masterpiece.

I watches tons of movies and read tons of
material every year.

Back when I was working as a concept writer
for a tv production house, I would watch
atleast 3 movies a day of a particular
genre or theme that I was asked to developed.

Currently I’m reading A DRIFTING LIFE.

I’m so thankful for my early manga reading years.

Back when I was in primary school, I was really
obsessed with Japanese manga and anime.
A close friend who was also into comics made
fun of them, and made various insults on
the Japanese art form. He also tried pushing
American comics to me. Soon other friends
joined along and made fun of me. Due to peer pressure,
I turned to American comics. But secretly,
I would still run down to the video shop and rent
an episode of Dragon Ball, or buy a copy of
translated version Lone Wolf. Years later,
the manga wave came to Malaysia, and everyone
dropped the superhero comics and turned to
Manga. So did all my friends that had laughed
at me.

I used to buy manga obsessively.
Even though I couldn’t read Chinese, which was
the cheapest edition I could find,
I would still buy them, just to study them.
I was able to get the story even though
I couldn’t read the words. Thinking back,
I think by doing that, it had forces myself
to digest the sequential images with in-depth,
and subconsciously I had trained myself
to master the sequential art form.

Those were my early influences.

I guess that was what developed my storytelling skill.

I have more influences, but I would say Japanese
art form shaped me most.

I really love A DRIFTING LIFE.
It talks about the manga art form.
The spirit inside the book reminds
me of my manga reading days.

Can’t wait to share the book around once I’m done.

Posting early today, cause need to go Church
in the morning.

Heading to the studio now to visit the boys
and bring them awesome Malay style wet Char Kuey teow.

Yum Yum.

-chinyew

Met up with some friends last night.

They thought I’ve been feeling depress lately.

Maybe it’s the post that I’ve been posting.
Maybe it’s the vibe that I’ve been spreading.

But no guys, I’m fine.

Guess maybe it’s because I’ve been trying
to get into the pages lately. To be in the
mood of the characters inside my comic.

I have to agree that I See So Many Butterflies
can be a pretty dark and depressive book.

I got commented many times of Vol.1.

But to some who have read ALOT of other
darker and melancholy stuff, my book
will seem pretty pretentious and pansy
to them.

But yeah, I’m trying to be in the character.
Being in a jail lock-up is no funny business.

Even my special someone thought she should
detach from me for awhile after reading yesterday’s post.

The post are meant to be for general.
Most of them are targeted for people
who wants to be an artist.
My post serves as a heads-up of what to
expect if you were one, through my experience
as one.

Detaching is very important after being inside
your story and character for too long.

You want to be in the mood to create the
most authentic work. But you wouldn’t want
it to eat you up till you affect people
around you.

Heh. Guess it already has.

Shall detach for awhile.

Here are pencils for the coming 2 pages.
Got back pretty late last night drinking
with the boys. Shall ink them tonight.

Till then.

I’ve tried to adapt many times in my life.

Entering a new world.

Facing new changes.

Encountering disaster.

Financially.

Relationships.

Adapt; getting used to.

Fixing your mental and physical to suit
the enviroment.

Tell your heart, force your heart
to feel a certain way.

Brainwash yourself.

“What that doesn’t kill you,
only makes you stronger.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

My no.1 quote of all time.

-chinyew

The famous slogan;

Take a break, Take a Kit Kat.

Once in awhile we should detach
from our heavily obsessed art life.

Go grab a beer. Watch a play.
Catch a movie. Laugh at stand-ups.

Or even better, go do something
un-art related.

Too much of something is bad for you.

So is art.

We need the fresh air.

-chinyew

Sorry guys. Had to rush out to work.
Have to head to the production house.

Sigh.

Anyway, apologize for bad grammar
or spelling. Will be fixing the
sentences in the future.

Meanwhile…

The best payoff as an artist is getting
paid for your work.

As children we doodle for our parents’ attention.
Their praises of our efforts brightens our day.

Getting paid for you work justify how good you are.
People want your stuff. Your stuff is in demand.

It matters not how famous you are really,
at the end of the day is whether your art
brings the bread onto the table.

Most artists lack of accounting skill.

Not very good debt collector either.

Be mean as an ass, knowing that if you
don’t get paid soon, you won’t have
the opportunity to return to your drawing
table and do what you love best.

So try ways to get paid for your humble
doodles.

Or not, I’m sorry,

you’ve to change job.

Good luck and Godspeed.

-chinyew

Communication is the only way you
can understand another one better.

Detecting their rhythms and accent,
you can learn their attitude and
their origins.

Hearing out their views,
you can judge their character and philosophy.

Special bond and chemistry relates
both of you as one stream of thought.

With mixing and matching, you’ll find
both of you discovering new views.

Ones laughter triggers another one.

And so we laughed together.

Laughter concludes happiness.

What else can you ask for more?

Happiness.

So go talk and discover.

-chinyew

Wait and wait and wait and wait.

Waiting is always the hardest.

But if you could master it,
you’ll be divine.

But don’t wait too long,
chances and opportunities don’t come everyday.

So I guess, it’s really like fishing.

You wait for the bait. And when you get a bite,
pull it.

Passion don’t wait.

Go get your passion. But be smart with
the timing. Know when to strike it,
and when to withdraw it.

Do not frustrate if it hasn’t come.
It will. I always forgets, and frustrates.
It feels like shit.
But it always come.

It’s only the matter of time,
how long you are willing to wait for it,
and finally, how good and fast you can grab it.

Although, most of us knows of this,
but many times we forget.

I forget quite often.

-chinyew

Yep. Got back at 6am yesterday.

The last episode I directed had an over-run duration.
Had to trim a 33 minute into a 24 minute.

Since it was the last episode, I invested heavily on the story
and shots. Most shots were either moving or
carefully planned-framed. Every dialogue, every beat
in the script was very compact.

So you can imagine, it took me a very hard
time to wanna trim it.

But eventually, I did. But it wasn’t easy.

I had to throw away scenes, dialogues, shots.

Imagine throwing away every carefully drawn
panels in a comic.

That’s how painful it was.

But in film, that has to be done.

Feeling grouchy waking up this morning.

My body alarm clock woke up itself at 9am.
So that’s like 3 hours sleep.
I had to force my body to continue sleeping.
It was like telling my blur body,

“Dude, get back to sleep..”
“But it’s 9am..”
“Trust me, dude.. get back to sleep…”
“Okayyyyy…..”

And that entire conversation kept
repeating itself till 12pm.
That’s how my body feels now.

I turned on my table light and my pc music
to prepare myself as I continued lay my
body back on the bed.

Eventually, I didn’t get up. Still felt
tired, and no pages done.

So to compensate, as a back-up,
(Chin Yew always have a backup),

Here’s a book flip video which I shot of
a recent picture book I did for a gallery.

The Boy Who Loved Durians from chinyew on Vimeo.

-chinyew

I’ve got 2 lives.

One as an artist,
the other as a director.

As an artist, I’m a nice guy.
As a director, I’m a mean guy.

As an artist, the end result is under my control.
As a director, the end result is a collaborative of various people.

As an artist, I execute as an individual.
As a director, the execution is as a team.

As an artist, I’ve got all the time in the world.
As a director, time is money.

As an artist, I choose when to work.
As a director, I’ve to wait for work to come.

As an artist, I’m my own censorship.
As a director, I’ve got a long line of people who censors.

As an artist, my energy burns slowly and randomly.
As a director, my energy burns gradually and in a huge amount .

I love my 2 life.

And I don’t think I can ever drop any one of them.

Maybe in different years, I’ll concentrate more
over the other. But never letting anyone of them go.

I’m too much of a greedy and ambitious prick.

Here are the pencils of the coming pages:

-chinyew