Kenn Yap - kenn@chromoma.com

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Mint Museum of Toys

A series of animated posters I did for the Mint Museum of Toys. The idea was to portray the toys of that era through the table setting. I tried to link the toys with their place in culture and the events that happened during their time.

Logo copyright belongs to the Singapore Mint Museum of Toys.
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2 Hacks to make your Painting Cooler

Sorry for the clickbait title. No, really, I feel bad.

In any case, here are some cool little things you can do to your paintings. Okay, I know, they're super gimmicky. I'm not advocating doing this to every piece in your portfolio. It's just - you know - cute. Used in moderation, it can be very effective, like the F-word - or salt. Cue, Buzzfeed writing.

1. Depthy

Everybody loves a good Depthy. All you need is a flat .jpeg and a depth map of it. Those are really easy to make especially for paintings since you already have all your layers in place. 

2. After Effects Parallax

This one's a bit harder to pull off but the pay off is much more satisfying, I feel. However, you need access to After Effects and need to spend a little more time learning the basics of the program. Having said that, it really is all you need to know about After Effects. The basics. Five minutes on Youtube and you're good. Once again, its much easier for paintings since all your objects have already been isolated into layers.

Keep it simple, keep it subtle.

-Kenn

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On Influences

Recently, I made an influence map. You might've seen things of this sort floating around. What it is is basically a collection of artist that have influenced me during my development as an artist. It's good to analyse oneself's art. Often, I fall into a trap of just painting with my brain off. In this case, the mindless painting is that delicious, delicious cupcake under the box. Its ok to make friends with that cupcake once in a while, but like most things, painting is a mental game. So yes, this is my influence map.

But wait, there's more.

The upside of having your influences in mind while painting is that you're constantly reminded of why you love them in to begin with. And you start to focus on those things and it gives you a road map to improving. 

Speaking of road maps, it's an easy way to KNOW what to study. It's easy to get overwhelmed with subjects to study. World, meet Oyster. Studying your influences distills exactly what you want to showcase in your own paintings. 

Now, I've gone one further.

This here's an influence "Family Tree". Now we take it up to eleven. Who has influenced the person who's influenced me. This is obviously speculation on my part. Having said that, it's possible to deduce. Try looking at artists who came before with similar techniques or of a similar art movement. Perhaps you may now fall in love with your "influence grandparents". Now study them. Happy arting.

-Kenn

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Style Exploration

I like to explore styles other than my own sometimes. It's fun seeing how your design sense ports into a different style. It started when working on a project for the Dota International tournament. They tend be the the polar opposite of my style, minimalist, simple, flat.  Now and then, it's a breath of fresh air changing it up a little bit.

Set of villains from the DC Universe

 

Merchandising for The International

League of Legends art

 

Design for a bar.

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