Inside The Curious Animal World of @christyyeee’s Sketchbook
To keep up with Christie Tan Jia Wen’s year of #FoodNAnimals illustrations, follow @christyyeee on Instagram.
Inside the sketchbook of Christie Tan Jia Wen (@christyyeee), an alternative universe of animals and food lovingly live together. Beluga whales swim through ladles of pumpkin soup. Ocelots sharpen their claws on cappuccino stirrers. Red Crowned Cranes defend their nest of soba noodles against invading chopsticks. Even dachshunds wag their tales for mustard on a hot dog.
“Mom always said she gave me too many children’s books when I was little, and I guess it’s part of me now,” says Christie, an architecture student in Malaysia. “I like to give my characters a glint of something that they might portray when they find themselves in situations like, well, like when they sneak in your mojito or something.”
For her prolific sketching, Christie lets her imagination free associate. “I usually start with a food and think what animal suits it best,” she says. “For example, the noodles have lots of seafood, and kingfishers eat fish, so there it goes. And hedgehogs roll up into a ball like Swiss rolls. Just whatever that links those two together.”
Christie’s #FoodNAnimals project began when she was sketching ideas for a tote bag design competition about climate change. “Climate change made me think of polar bears, and polar bears made me think of icebergs, and icebergs made me think of warm climate, and warm climate made me think of watermelons and watermelons actually quite resemble ice bergs,” explains Christie. “After submission I went like, why not?”
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