Stampede Design
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- Time-consuming: A scene from Shanghai, which took Ms Lee six weeks to complete. ‘It’s the most complex and challenging piece I’ve done so far,’ she reveals
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- Beautif-owl: This image, entitled Night Beauty, is a drawing from last year, and is one of Ms Lee’s earlier forays into graphite drawing
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- Vivid: This is one of the artist’s rare color drawings, and depicts an exotic Great Hornbill
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- Feathery friend: Macaw parrots are one of Ms Lee’s favorite subjects to draw
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- Thirsty work: This drawing was copied from a photograph taken by the artist’s father, Melvin Lee, and took her four weeks to complete (pictured)
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- Elegant: An artichoke, one of Ms Lee’s unusual departures from the humans and birds she mainly works on
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- Minute detail: The artist copies from the photographs using a grid system, filling in her page square by square
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- Quizzical: This portrait, entitled Sebastian, is of a random Instagram user, who Ms Lee approached and was then given permission to use
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- Searing: Ms Lee, who is Malaysian, draws her images from photographs, and says she wanted to capture the ‘intensity of her gaze’ for this portrait
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- Captivating: Artist Monica Lee uses graphite pencils and smudging tools to produce complex, photorealist drawings, including this one (pictured) entitled Alisa
Monica Lee
From afar, these images look like black and white photographs, and up close, they might appear to be the work of digital enhancement.
In fact, these exquisite portraits and still lifes are simply the work of graphite pencils, smudging tools, and the steady hand of artist Monica Lee.