Artist Spotlight: Tang Yau Hoong

I saw a link to Tang Yau Hoong's work on Smrvl, one of my favorite design blogs. He does both graphic design and illustration, but I love his illustration the most, so that's what I want to feature today. What's so cool about his illustration is that it looks good but it also reveals some pretty ingenious concepts and ideas.

In this piece, I really like the contrast between dark and light. The dark, looming black buildings compared with the bright, cheerful sky, is interesting. The texture is also really nice. I think it gives the illustration a little bit of a retro style.

This piece is just so cheerful. I love the colors (gray!) and the use of white space is good as well. Having everything "float" in the middle is interesting composition-wise, but it works really nicely in this illustration.

The detail and use of light in this one is amazing. The style reminds me of engraving art (where you scrape away black covering to show a silver or colored background). All the tiny marks look meticulous but really neat. I like how the light gradually radiates from the middle, and how the circular shape and the light draw your eye into the middle of the illustration.

This one is just amusing to me. It's called "Moustacheville." What a creative idea to draw just about everything in moustache shapes! The texture is nice in this one as well, and the black and white makes for good contrast.

I love this one. It's so beautiful but not in a prissy, flowery kind of way. The focus on one shape (the feather) makes it look very cohesive, and I like the image within an image. This is in Tang Yau Hoong's negative space category, and the way the birds are "cut out" of the feather using negative space is really cool.

I like the contrast in this piece. It's similar in color scheme and contrast to the first image, and I like how the silhouettes make such a nice contrast with the blue sky. The eye shape with blinds drawn over it is neat visually and an interesting idea.

This is another ingenious illustration—it's called "Hourglasses." Love it! The colors and texture are very cheerful, and I like the way the colors and the style of the glasses gives it a bit of a vintage look.

This is one in a series of playing cards. I would never have thought of illustrating playing cards (not that I could do it if I tried), but I love the idea. The texture is really nice, and I like the way the clubs descend in size as they go farther back.

This is the final image I want to feature, and it's from Tang Yau Hoong's series "Surreal Light." Again, this concept of illustrating light is a very creative concept. I like how joyful this seems even though it's a scene taking place at night. The little boy looks so happy to be on his light-swing!

I'd love to know what you think of Tang Yau Hoong's illustration! Do you like it too? Great illustration is always amazing to me. I have no idea how to do things like Tang Yau Hoong does, but I sure appreciate his work.

Update: Thanks to Jalynn, I looked on Threadless and found some Tang Yau Hoong t-shirts. Check them out!

tang yau hoong's:
illusion & surrealism
negative space
pop & fun
playing cards
surreal light