The Anime Blog Artist Interview: Kidchan

Often times when a great anime artist comes to my attention, they’re almost strictly digital media artists. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a digital media artist (most of my fave artists are strictly digital) but there’s also something that can be said about an artist that uses traditional media as well. Specifically, that they have a wider range of experience in their art. That said, a combination of both media, and their unique, individual techniques, can result in some truly deep work.

Tan Kit Mun, aka Kidchan, has a blended style of art she first developed using traditional materials. After discovering digital media, she started incorporating it more and more into her style. Kidchan’s work is evocative of the surreal moments we experience on the threshold of waking and dreaming. Her color palette, while deep and saturated, tends to throw my own color sense off if I examine it for too long. It’s very effective in creating a surreal experience, I must say.

What spurred me to interview Kidchan is her piece titled “From A to B +work progress+“. It details her first foray into the digital art world and chronicles her successes and evolution. It’s a truly fantastic thing to watch an artist evolve and a truly brave act to show something that personal. Kidchan told me about the road she’s now traveling as an artist:

Rachel: When did you decide you wanted to draw?
Kidchan: When I listen to songs, or when there is any event that inspired me to draw.

If it’s about age then I started to draw when I was very young, because my elder sister can draw very well, so I decided to follow her.

Rachel: What prompted you to start down the path of an artist and why?
Kidchan: Erm…It started ever since I was in high school. I am interested in science but my calculation is very bad. And I noticed that I pay attention to doodling on my textbooks more than I pay attention to the teacher in the class. I can express myself in art but I can’t express myself in science. So I decided “Yeah!! I think I should become an artist!!”. Though I have to sacrifice my childhood dream as a scientist haha ^^;

Rachel: What kind of formal training do you have if you have any? If yes, where did you get formal training?
Kidchan: I am currently studying at The One Academy of Communication Design, located in Malaysia, under the major Illustration. I did have some basic art training when I was in primary school at an art center along with my sister bu I just managed to learn how to draw an apple and how to make stuff with paper clay at that center.

Rachel: Your work has a very free flowing watercolor look What traditional media do use, if any, to make your prints?
Kidchan: I usually use 2B pencil, most of my traditional mediums is used on my assignments, such as acrylics, airbrush, pastel, colour pencils.

Rachel: I was reading your journal on deviantArt and noticed that you had a entry titled “kidChan’s Tale of CGing“. What can you say about your progression from traditional to digital media?
Kidchan: Actually I find that I can colour better with digital media rather than traditional ^^;;;. But after learning digital media and experiment a lot with it, I can relate traditional media with it, and I start to apply what I learned thru digital media on traditional media and vice versa. I still prefer drawing using a pencil tho .

Rachel: When you worked with traditional media, what type did you prefer to work with?
Kidchan: I prefer to work with pencils, and water colours.

Rachel: Which do you prefer to work with now that you’re more familiar with CG: digital or traditional media and why?
Kidchan: I like both mediums so it is very hard to choose which one I prefer. I would like to combine both, because, there is something that traditional medium can’t create, and there is something that digital medium can’t achieve. By combining both media, it’ll be great for me.

Rachel: How much time do you usually invest into a drawing from the time you get an idea, research it, sketch it, tweak it, and color it?
Kidchan: Usually it’ll take me three days or more. I get the idea in my mind, and I will sit down and draw it out, and colour it. I take some breaks, and continue the drawing again.

Rachel: Do you make a sketch first and then scan it in or do you the whole process on the computer?

kidchan: Depends, I prefer to sketch on a paper and colour it on the computer. Sometimes I need to draw it quick, so I will draw everything on the computer.

Rachel: What’s your favorite reason for working with the computer?
Kidchan: The CTRL+Z / undo button! And also the colour palette XD. I can also experiment with more textures and more experiments with the computer.

Rachel: What strikes me most about your art is two things: The first is the wispy dream-like quality in your style and the second is your color palette. Your colors make me feel that I’m not quite dreaming not quite awake but in a state in between the two where everything and nothing is real. They’re very saturated as well. What do think of your color palette and why did you choose the colors you work with now?
Kidchan: Thanks thanks thanks a lot for the comments TToTT

I actually don’t really like to work with solid black. I don’t like the shadows to be completely black. That’s why I tends to choose other colours than black to colour darker area. I guess that’s how I developed my colour palette. I also like to add bright red colours on some certain area in my drawings.

I don’t really find my colour palette that interesting ^^; .I mean, there are still many things that I need to explore.

Rachel: Can you comment on the surreal feel of your work?
Kidchan: I like to day dream a lot XD. All the things that I see, I find it boring to see them in the state they are at the moment. I think, they want to have another form too. I think, they want to be something else, sometimes.

Rachel: How did you develop your current style?
Kidchan: When I am in my foundation year at my current college, there is a subject called DESIGN 2. My lecturer, Denise, encouraged us to develop our own style. I did a lot of research on patterns, and I stumbled upon on a lot of artists, who focus more on style rather than technique. I started to add patterns in my drawings. Later on, I focused more on concept and meanings. I want to portray feelings, rather than just technique alone.

Rachel: What kind of feelings do you want to portray?
Kidchan: I want to portray feelings that people will wonder, “Is there something behind that smile?” “Is there a reason for those blank eyes?” Sometimes a blank expression holds a feeling that no one knows. I want to capture that kind of feeling.

Rachel: Where do you find your ideas and how do you make them your own?
Kidchan: Usually, I find ideas thru lyrics, and also the things that surround me. Ceiling fan, window, water, paper, spider webs, plants, stars…all these things, they don’t belong to me. I just give them life on the paper.

Rachel: When you draw, what do you do to concentrate on your work and inspire your style? For example: some people listen to music, other people draw in the park, some people head down to a coffee shop, etc.
Kidchan: I just need to play the music that inspired me and put it on loop . It’ll be good if I am in a messy room…because some of the stuff in that room can inspire me as well…hence my room is super messy!! XD;;;

Rachel: What or who is the biggest influence on your work?
Kidchan: There are a lot of people and things that influence me a lot. Japanese artists Sumomo Yumeka, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takaya Miou, Ayumi Kasai, Mamiya Oki, Thailand artist Meisan and China artist RAIN influenced me a lot. Elements like water, flowers, plants; they play important roles in my art.

Rachel: I read something in your deviantArt journal I wanted to ask about…what is Genesis and what is RAWR?
Kidchan: GENESIS is an artbook by my fellow artist friend Toounit.

The book features his drawings, and I am the guest artist in his artbook. RAWR stands for Rolling Along With Rojaks, its actually a group of artists in Malaysia, and I am one of them. We have two artbooks released so far. More information is available at our DA site.

Rachel: Could you describe your work in five words?
Kidchan: That’s a very hard question to answer…haha ^^;;;; I can only say…
“I draw very girly men” *hide self*

Rachel: My favorite drawing of yours is “Artificial Maiden“. I like it because of all the contrasts in the image. One of the main ones being her sweet smile contrasted with her mechanical and bleeding arm. How did you develop this idea and what are your feelings on the picture?
Kidchan: Thanks a lot!! I am glad you like it *O*

Erm…I had a very hard time deciding on the background haha ^^;;;.

The drawing actually made my dad’s computer jammed a few times since the size is huge ;__;. I found the word online; I find it very interesting. In an era, which we have digital models, I want to create something that is created by human, and reflects their nature. She smiles, because we ask her to smile. We always create things that resemble nature. One day the machine will be rusty, and we’ll have to create more. It’s a very complicated feeling, I only hope that, a person who view the picture, has their own interpretation of it.

Rachel: What’s your favorite style of art and why is it your fave?
Kidchan: Surrealism! I like the feeling of “Oh my god! I didn’t think of this!” when I view a surrealist picture. It is fantastic and magical; I like it.

Rachel: What kind of routine do you have when you draw? What kind of schedule do you have if you have any?
Kidchan: First, I will imagine the picture, then I draw it out on the paper or the computer, depend. When the line art is done I will proceed to colour, and do any final editings and tadah~!

Rachel: Can you describe your work station at your computer or drawing board?
Kidchan: It is very messy XD;;;. When I am working on the computer, there will be a few chocolate bars, a mini mannequin I bought recently, my winamp player is on, a folder contains some of my references. On the floor there’s some of my comic books and art books. My table is very small, so I place my scanner on the floor, while I put my tablet right after my monitor and my keyboard. It’s a Graphire 2 so it doesn’t require a lot of space.

When I work on papers I place a drawing board on top of my old CPU casing and everything will be either on the board or on the floor. Sometimes I put the drawing board on my table so that I can be online at the same time.

Rachel: Hypothetical question: You have access to a time machine and can meet any artist you want to; past, present future. Who would you like to meet and if you could ask them one question, what would it be?
Kidchan: I want to meet myself in the future and ask her “Are you happy with what are you doing now?”

Rachel: What do you do if you ever get “writer’s block” or in this case “drawer’s block”?
Kidchan: I will be very depressed haha ^^;;;. I will lie on the bed, gift my self a rest, eat lotsa chocolates, and start another day. A walk at the shopping mall will brighten me a bit, since I stay quite near to it.

Rachel: If you had to label yourself, what kind of artist would label yourself as?
Kidchan: Very lazy artist. I tends to draw what I like instead of what I should ^^;;;

An anime-fantasy/surreal artist perhaps?

Rachel: What are some of the things you like that you draw?
Kidchan:Faces, eyes, human, topics that involve relationship between two people.

Rachel: How do you use your drawing talents outside of deviantArt?
Kidchan: I usually do freelances and demonstrations. I used to draw illustrations for a local event called Comic Fiesta. My last contribution was a cover art for their event catalog.

Rachel: What would you like to use your drawing skills for overall?
Kidchan: I want to learn more. If I can make a cover for a book, that’ll be good!

Rachel: What kind of books would you like to illustrate?
Kidchan: Fantasy with a bit of futuristic elements kind of novels. Romance is alright too.

Rachel: What kind of art do you do besides drawing if you do other art?
Kidchan: I draw realism/commercial art, such as drawing human figures and products, since it is a requirement in my college.

Rachel: How do you like doing drawings like the ones you described?
Kidchan: It was fun in the beginning, but…everything gets repetitive after 2 years. I am a person who prefers to draw concept art rather than plain posing figures, commercial product drawings, almost everything is formatted. I did learn a lot of techniques.
I really want to do drawings like a fighting scene between two fish warriors, but it’s not under my major.

But by learning how to draw realism and all the techniques, I can apply them in my style, which is good, I guess.

Rachel: Where do you see yourself at 15 years in the future with your art?
Kidchan: Working for graphics for boy’s love simulation game. I hope XD;;;

Rachel: What do your friends and loved ones think of your art?
Kidchan: My mom like the way I draw eyes. She said there’s something about it. Friends like my drawings too. I also get comments like “Draw different perspective!” ”I don’t see you draw animals.” ”Try draw something more different!!” “Weird proportion!” As you can see I have a long way to go ^^;;;.

Rachel: Where are you from originally and where are you working from now?
Kidchan: I am from Malaysia. My hometown is Ipoh located at Perak state. I am currently staying at Kuala Lumpur (Bandar Sunway, Selangor to be precise ^^;; ). I am going to work for DramaQueen’s RUSH after I graduate, which is August 2007.

Rachel: Why did you choose the name kidchan for your deviantArt name?
Kidchan: It’s an alternative pronunciation for my actual name, which is Tan Kit Mun.

kiD stands for Kit while Chan is the Cantonese pronunciation of my surname.

Rachel: What kind of anime and manga do you like? What titles?
Kidchan: I love to read any kind of anime or manga. Comedy, dark, romance, action. I take any of them. But when it gets too generic or the plots are way to similar, I will stop to follow them. My all time favourites are Neon Genesis Evangelion, Honey and Clover, Chibimaruko, DOGS, Get Backers and…Doraemon!!

Rachel: It’s a fight between anime and manga; which would you choose?
Kidchan: Tough question!! TT^TT I guess I will choose manga. It is amazing how the artists can portray everything without colours, everything is black and white, the arrangements of panels…It’s very artistic.

Rachel: If you’re a video gamer, what are your favorite games and why?
Kidchan: Fighting games…like King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown. I can only play games like this since I just need to press the buttons XD;;;. I know nothing about RPGs!! TT___TT And I also like ParaPara Paradise

Rachel: What type of music do you listen to?
Kidchan: Mostly rock and trance. I like traditional instruments too, things that is tribal and has some oriental feel in it. Any good music will do ^^

Rachel: Who’s your favorite band or musician?
Kidchan: Plastic Tree, Kagrra, Ryohei Yamamoto, Robert Miles, The Beatles, Taku Iwasaki, Kawai Kenji, GRANRODEO, S.E.N.S, Wang Lee Hom, TOKYO JIHEN,
The Offspring, ASIAN KUNGFU GENERATION, Sheila on 7, etc.

Rachel: What’s your favorite food?
Kidchan: Anything with soup! Chinese herbal soup, Korean kimchii soup, Bak Kut Teh ( a local Chinese soup dish, made of pork and herbs) are my favourites.

Rachel: Name some of your hobbies for us.
Kidchan: Listen to music, walking in the art store, browsing books in bookstores, going online, looking for pretty pictures…and sleep non-stop haha. And of couse, drawing!

Rachel: Which season of the year of the year is your favorite as an artist?
Kidchan: We don’t really have seasons in Malaysia It’s summer all year round!

Rachel: What do you do when you aren’t drawing?
Kidchan: I will be caught reading some boy’s love manga haha XD;;; And sleeping…

Rachel: What would you say is the most interesting thing about you that people might not know about?
Kidchan: I used to draw girls more than I draw guys. Now everyone thinks that, “OMG kidChan you drew a girl!! The world is ending!!! I must buy lottery now!!!” haha ^^;;;; But yeah, if I count the number of girls that I drew and the numbers of guys that I drew, the girls are definitely more than the guys. hehe.And also, I am very shy. Especially when it’s about my art. I don’t think anyone will believe me when I say that TT^TT;;;

Rachel: How old are you?
Kidchan: 20 years old

Thank you Kidchan for an excellent interview! You can view all of Kidchan’s work at her gallery here.

*Note: All pictures used on this post are used with permission of the artist. All artwork in this post is property of Kidchan.