Though Don was born & bred in Singapore, he has never gotten used to the hot & humid climate here. And unlike locals, he has never successfully enjoyed chilly and spicy food without working out a sweat. Therefore he longed to live in the northern part of the earth's hemisphere or the south where he could see a change of seasons and where the weather is not as harsh. Don is basically a self taught artist and an engineer by training.
In 2006 he was awarded a MDA Media Education Scheme scholarship to pursue an overseas graduate studies in animation. On graduation, his thesis film "Cafe Voyeur" was awarded Honorable Mentions among others from around the globe in the Animag 2009 Students' Film Awards. At the same time, he was also one of the 5 teams chosen for his collaborated entry to be one of the Finalists for the Disney Imagineering ImagiNations Design Competition 2008. In addition he interned and worked a year for The Walt Disney Company Imagineer/Parks & Resorts Online as a Visual Development / Concept Artist.
Currently he is working as a fulltime illustrator for books, magazines and advertising agencies. His specialties include: Character design, animation designs, creating storyboards, comic and etc. His favorite traditional media includes watercolor, pen & ink, pencil and acrylics. He works digitally with all Adobe programs, Corel Painter and Autodesk Maya specializing in 3D Modeling, Texture Painting and CG Lighting. He hopes to publish his comic books and work full time on his animated film.
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from Don Low. Make your own badge here.
“I am an animator. I feel like I'm the manager of a animation cinema factory. I am not an executive. I'm rather like a foreman, like the boss of a team of craftsmen. That is the spirit of how I work.”
--- Hayao Miyazaki.
What else can you do in Singapore except to eat and shop? Nothing much but just eating and shopping – the favorite past time activities of Singaporeans. So we brought our parents to Central @ Clarke Quay for a great time of eating and shopping. It wasn’t very crowded so we had plenty of space, no lines and pleasant services wherever we went. Something very unheard of in Singapore.
Kat just couldn’t get enough of McDonald’s chocolate sundae. I love the cone and french fries which are not like anything in other parts of the world. Singapore’s McDonald makes the best french fries, crispy on the outside but soft inside. We took a walk to Parkway Parade this night just to walk off our calories after having a huge dinner prepared by Kat’s mom. No doubt she is a very passionate chef but she would usually overdo it and fed us like Hansel & Gretel would be with the wicked witch. Anyway the walk took about half and hour at brisk pace. After rows and rows of 2-storey shop houses, we finally arrived at the glittery shopping mall that towers over all the other dwarf pre-war shop houses. We headed straight to McDonald to get our desert. We sat and I watched how efficient the services are over at the counter, unlike what we have seen in some parts of the US, where you basically have to wait over 10 mins for your fries to come. Even so, the french fries were soggy and greasy…. hmmm….
Commissioned work for Hard Ware Magazine February Issue 2010. These were pretty fun to do, especially painting the Gaming Devices, Game & Watch, Game Gear and the all time favorite, PSPGo!!
Finally I managed to compile the sketches with ISSUU.
My trip to Hong Kong was between Jan 29 to Feb 7. It was my wife’s business trip but I decided to tag along. I took a week off from my work so I could accompany my wife for this little holiday, just about 2 months after we came back from the US. We weren’t expecting to travel so soon but we did. Anyway I took a long time to post my sketches because I wanted to try using ISSUU to put everything together so we can all view the sketches a page at a time like thumbing through a sketchbook. I added some drawings, scrap pages and a cover to complete the compilations. Do take your time to look through it and be part of my memories and experience. Thanks.
What do I think about the Lunar New Year? Well, I think it sucks… but maybe not for 2010. This year would be great not because it is the year of the Tiger or Tigger, but just because it is the year of 2010, a new decade. Every other lunar new year sucks but not this year.
1995 was the year I arrived in Hong Kong for the first time. The company that I worked for sent me on a training trip to the US for like 3 weeks but my colleague and I wanted to see Hong Kong at the same time before 1997 when she would be “returned” to China. It was the hot topic during the late 90s and everyone reckoned that Hong Kong wouldn’t be the same anymore under communist rule. To our big surprise upon our arrival today in the new millennium, Hong Kong is definitely not the same after more than 10 years governed by China that adopted a different policy in managing the country. I thought Hong Kong has flourished tremendously albeit all the negativity. Though there is still much to do to “clean up the streets”, for the past years, we have seen increasing influx of tourists from all over the world especially from China. Everyone wants to see Hong Kong — the shopping and food paradise!
I have never thought I would come back to Hong Kong (香港 – the fragrant harbor). It’s congestion has repelled me for many years, but I came back nevertheless accompanying my wife who’s coming here for work. I know it is going to be a great trip just because I could sketch and indeed I have. After a week in Hong Kong island and Kowloon city we decided to take a one-hour ferry there to see the iconic St Paul’s historical ruin of Macau (which is also known as 大山巴) and experience shopping as well. We too were surprised to see Macau such a vibrant city despite their fame for being an Asian Las Vegas and harboring triads at the same time.
The pic below was done in Macau (奥門) yesterday. We found a nice little temple that sits right beside 大山巴 at the foot of the hill. We decided to take a break and I would sketch. It took about 30 mins to finish the piece. I took a pic of the location and the finished sketch to post it here. We would be leaving Hong Kong tomorrow, but at the meantime, more shopping!!
I basically need a character that represents me well, and that is easy and quick to draw. Here’s the process and a page of the doodle. I would keep doing it until I find one that works well and when I could simply draw one without looking at any reference — like committing to memory sort of thing.
One of the things I look forward to doing with my wife is going for breakfast on a weekend. We would suggest and explore different ideas and locations to where we would have it. One of the most important consideration would be the quality of food. The next would be the environment. We would prefer to go to a place where it is quiet and peaceful without too huge a crowd since we would sort of talk over coffee. That Saturday, we chose to go Jago Close because we wanted to have the “Chai Tao Kuey” so badly. We ordered a “black” and a “white” on top of a plate of fried bee hoon with an additional fried egg. After a good meal, I decided to remember the experience this place has brought us by doing a quick sketch of it. That’s a good Saturday well spent.
What an exciting month!
