I walked to the front door and opened it. Silence filled the house. I dropped my school bags, turned on the TV and sat down on the couch, waiting for my parents to return from work.
As I watched Japanese 'Yokai' monsters tricking people, a girl transforming into animals to navigate life challenges, and a boy who lost his parents travelling across the galaxy on a train, I began drawing these characters. Most of them were human-like figures but quite realistic.
One day, our teacher instructed us to make a woodblock print of a classmate's portrait. While other students paired up and started sketching each other, I decided to make a woodblock print of the tree outside the classroom. The teacher gave up on trying to persuade me otherwise, and I started drawing the tree.
A few years later in art class, the teacher told us to make a screenprint of human figures. However, I wasn't in the mood to make a print of human figures. At that time, I was intrigued by the photo of Stonehenge in England, not knowing that I would live in the UK later in my life. So, I made a screenprint of Stonehenge instead.
I discovered my passion for photography while working in IT, capturing nature, street scenes and underwater shots, but never humans.
In 2020, I replaced my daily commute with drawing. I filled my sketchbook with trees, flowers, birds, bees, and the sky. However, when my friend asked me why I didn't draw humans, I couldn't come up with an answer.
That's when my friend showed me her portrait drawings. Although I didn't know the people she had drawn, the portraits spoke to me about their lives and characters. I felt a budding desire to draw human faces and figures.
I decided to draw my elderly neighbour for his 92nd birthday gift, and to this day, I still see my drawing on his desk every time I visit him.
Last year, I quit my corporate job to pursue a life in art. I took up a life drawing class for the first time. On my first day in the studio, I saw a mattress, a few fabrics, and a chair in the centre of the room. The easels were set up around the mattress. As the model walked onto the mattress, I picked up a charcoal for the first time and ran it on the blank paper.
Five minutes later, I saw an image of the standing female figure on the paper. My face was warm, and a ray of sunshine beamed in the studio. This was the start of a new chapter in my life journey.