SG CARICATURE & PORTRAIT ARTIST REGGIE WAN'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Due to some copyright issue with Singapore Press, we've taken out all our publicity articles from this page. However,in order not to waste it, we've decided to used this page to introduce to you our talented artist who painstakingly responsible for every stroke of all the artworks you see on this website.

Hi, my name is Reggie Wan, a self-taught portrait & caricature artist as well as the founder of Portrait Studio Singapore,established since 1998. Born in Ipoh, Malaysia in 1963, now a Singaporean. I have been drawing portrait as hobby since 10 years old. During the 70's,I've won many prizes drawing portraits of movie stars as well as famous singers in magazines such as Movie News,Fanfare,etc.

Working as an Interior Designer for 16 years before trying my luck in doing what I like most,the so-called portrait art.It has given me self satisfaction of being able to capture human features to near perfection.The most challenging part is the level of resemblance I can achieved, all by my bare hand. A rare hand indeed.
From the beginning,I started using pencil to sketch my portraits using grid lines & gradually learning the how to sketch with free hand before upgrading to using charcoal & soft-pastel mediums. After I set up my studio in Far East Plaza, I realised that I didn't have enough variety to offer my customers.In order to be more versatile,I explored into more mediums such as acrylic & oil paint on canvass & recently watercolor. Along the way,I've also explored into another form of art call 'Caricature' or 'Cartoonistic Portrait' which is very popular among people from the corporate world in Singapore.

Although my main interest is all about human features, I'm able to paint scenery & other stuff like hand-drawn illustrations upon request.

During my career as a portrait & caricature artist in Singapore, I've been featured many times in the local newspapers & magazines such as The Strait Times,The Newpaper,etc. Recently,some of my works even appeared on local Channel-8 TV mandarin drama such as 'Like Father Like Daughter' & so on. In 2005,I was being invited to appear on TV under 'Arts Central' channel for a Christmas programme call 'X'mas Mambo'.

About Portrait

I've been drawing portrait since I was 10 years old. With more than 3 decades of experience,I believe my portrait art has reached a standard that is high enough to be one of Singapore's best.The resemblance level I guaranteed my customers is at least 80% although sometimes I can achieve more than that.As always, I will try my best to get as high as possible in the resemblance element.Please don't expect 100%.

I can use numerous medium namely 1. Pencil,2. Charcoal,3. Water-color,4. Soft-pastel,5. Acrylic paint on canvas & 6. Oil paint on canvas.
Apart from drawing portrait & caricature, I can also paint scenery as well as illustration.All these art pieces are painstakingly hand drawn. Usually I draw or paint from photograph given by my customers.To date, as a professional artist since 1998, I've drawn at least 4000 masterpieces at my studio in Far East Plaza, not to mention thousands of 'live' models on the streets of Orchard Road & various art fair islandwide.
I'm very happy to have this opportunity to show you guys what I've got to offer.
I hope you will enjoy viewing my masterpieces & continue to pay me a visit whenever you are free as I will constantly post my recent works on this blog.

About Caricature

Caricature art or cartoonistic portrait is the latest trend in Singapore, especially people in the cooperate world use it as a gift on various occassions such as farewell, birthday, promotion, long-service award & etc.They bring photographs of their colleagues to be drawn base on their request. Before I take on the job, I would normally check the resolution of the subject's photo. This initial part is very important as the result or the resemblance level of the caricature will be affected.
Caricature is a form of art which is extremely difficult to master. The artist not only need to know how to blow up certain prominent features of the subject but also has to make sure that the subject can be recognised immediately.Unfortunately, in Singapore or rather this region, people do not know how to appreciate it. Probably, they do not understand what actually caricature actually is. When I first started drawing caricature,I came across many of my customers especially ladies who tend to be very unhappy with the way I exaggerated their features. Although I personally think that there is a high resemblance, they would disagree & not paying for the artwork done. It really affected my livelihood then. In order to play safe, I've got no choice but to come up with what I call cartoonistic portrait. With minimal exaggeration of my customers' feature, I've successfully created my own version of caricature. It has been very popular ever since & has kept me going for a decade now.
Apart from drawing from customer's photographs, I can also draw people 'live' especially during company D&D,function,party,etc. To get a reasonably high resemblance, I spent around 5 t0 6 minutes per head.Meaning, in an hour, approvimately 10 persons can be drawn.To me, this is considered fast but surprisingly some event companys that hire my service do not think so.
They say somebody in the market can do 2 to 3 times faster. Although I tried to convince them to compare the standard of artwork, they still maintain that they want speedy artist,doesn't matter whether the work is good or not.This is a matter of principle, I don't feel good to give a substandard work to their guests just to see a dustbin full of my artwork at the end of the event.Eventually, it will affect my reputation as a caricature artist from Portrait Studio. It really gave me a lot of preassure in order to meet their demand. Practice was the only way for me to achieve what I can do now with minimal detail,20 persons per hour upon special request, phew!

Here are some of my works done recently for my customers from photos given by them. I've a total of 4 mediums for you to choose from, namely 1. Black & White (outline), 2. Black & White (Shaded),3. Color Pencil & 4. Color Marker. The rate will depend on the complication of your artwork.You can check it out from my website.

I'll be posting my favourite works as well as events related to it from time to time & please feel free to drop by my blog www.sg-caricature.blogspot.com to view them.

Cheers!