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I’m an independent Children’s Book Author who illustrates his own books, or rather, an Artist who tells stories through his drawings.

I first got the idea of becoming a Children’s Book Author when my first son was born. Reading children’s picture books (esp. books by American Author-Illustrator Virginia Lee Burton- author of ‘The Little House’) to my two sons really inspired me to want to produce my own too! But life has its twists and turns and it wasn’t until 11 years later that I finally managed to produce my very first book ‘A Very Special Cat’. There was no looking back since, and I’ve never enjoyed Art-making and Story-telling like I do right now!

I’m happy to share my books with you in their entirety (and excerpts for new releases), for free! They are best viewed in landscape format (just turn your screen sideways) in full screen mode using an iPad or a tablet. I hope you can find time to read them to/with your little ones. Just click on any of the titles below to begin!

A GREAT DAY OUT WITH MR. WOODS

A New Series! (Mar 2022)

This is the first book in a new series based on characters from my previous book ‘Theodore and The Cat with the Missing Sock’-the little blind girl and her loyal Labrador. It can be considered a spin off from that book, and the two can also seen as companion ‘sister books’, as the ending of one leads to the beginning of the other.

In fact, I’ve long wanted to create a book series based on the character pair of a Little Blind Girl and her loyal Dog. There were many impetuses behind the creation of this series, chief of all a real-life ‘little blind girl’ who lives in the same neighbourhood as me. I’ve ‘known’ her for many years but yet I do not know her name, who she is and what she does for a living. What I know is that she is a courageous, confident, cheerful and independent woman, based on my several chance encounters with her-the kind of strong brave woman whom I wanted to portray in the character of ‘Sophie’. The loyal Labrador ‘Rudolf’ was, on the other hand, inspired by a Japanese Cartoon TV Series based on the novel ‘A Dog of Flanders’ by English novelist Ouida that I watched when I was a kid. In it, there was a young boy who was very artistically talented, but unfortunately perished in the end with his loyal dog due to cold and hunger. It was a cartoon that deeply moved me and stayed in my mind for many decades, so I’m glad it has ‘resurfaced’ in the form of this new series.

THEODORE AND THE CAT WITH THE MISSING SOCK

Winner (Best Illustrations), Best Indie Book Award 2021; Silver, Moonbeam Children’s Book Award 2022; Bronze (Best Children’s Illustrated E-Book), Independent Publisher Book Awards 2022

This is the 8th book I’ve written and illustrated, and the 4th book in my “Theodore the Unfortunate Bear’ series- and probably my proudest work to date. With this book, I feel that I’ve finally come of age (though I’ve only just begun!) both in terms of story-telling and art-making. It is like practicing a piece of music a hundred times and finally the music starts to flow and you feel an extraordinary sense of being at one with it! Unlike most of my previous works where I’m compelled to insert one or two frames in order to ‘complete’ the story and to make the narrative flow, there isn’t a superfluous or unnecessary frame in this newest book of mine. Every frame has a role to play and every turn of the page brings about an exciting twist or unexpected development in the storyline.

Amazingly, this entire story was inspired by a real-life encounter with a little black cat with only three white socks at a neighbourhood car park, as well as two pictures from a set of prints by German Symbolist artist Max Klinger (to whom this book was dedicated) based on a fantasy about an imaginary, elusive glove. The two pictures are of a huge pelican bursting out from a window, with two arms reaching out from a broken window desperately longing for the glove the bird had stolen away; and another with a boatman trying to fish for a glove stranded in the middle of a dark stormy sea. I particularly love the picture with the thieving pelican- which looked neither like a bird nor a deep-sea creature- a most surreal yet mystical scene one can imagine. It just gets stuck in your mind the moment you see it. I was determined to come up with my own versions of these two favourite prints of mine in my own book. So I started the story with the intention of having these three elements to be included, but did not know how… Somehow, strangely but naturally, everything just fell in place very nicely as the story formed up in my mind, as if it should always have been…

In this book, I wanted to convey the well-known idea (which unfortunately we often forget) that what we are searching for (the ideal partner, the best friend, the model parents or adorable children we wished we have) was actually with us all this time. It just takes a lot for us to realise this, and usually only when we come close to, or actually losing it. Recent tragedies in the news of young people dying- a 15-year old boy who died while doing a high element challenge, and 5 young men who died in a horrific car accident- all served to remind us to appreciate and treasure the people around us, those whom we love and who love us.

This was the only book I produced in 2020, a somewhat unproductive year in terms of writing as I was focussing much of my time building my website. However, for me, it was my biggest achievement so far to have won the Gold Medal (Children’s Illustrated e-books) in the Moonbeam Awards 2020! I never imagined I would ever win a gold medal, not to mention in a such a prestigious international competition! This was indeed a much needed affirmation for me in this difficult and arduous journey of independent publishing.

Technically in terms of the art, I guessed I really went very far (perhaps a bit too far) to explore the limits of layer blending- those familiar with Photoshop will know what I mean. The possibilities are simply endless! And sometimes, I just let the accidents happen- and what beautiful accidents…. I hope you like it too!

THEODORE THE UNFORTUNATE BEAR

Shortlisted for the prestigious International Rubery Book Award (UK) 2020; Winner (Honorable Mention), Story Monsters Royal Dragonfly Awards 2019; Book of the Month (November 2019), Manybooks.net

This is one of the favourite children’s picture books I have written, for it marked the beginning of what I feel is my own unique illustration style that combines the style of vintage children’s book illustrations with something more contemporary and abstract. In this book, I started to experiment with my favourite repeated patterns, the dynamic play between positive and negative spaces (see page 22), as well as 3-D vs 2-D objects and spaces, something which I have yet to fully explore.

In terms of the story, it is also one that is very personal and real. Theodore is not your typical cute little teddy bear like those you find in fairy tales. In fact, he is rude, conceited and ignorant. In short, he is imperfect, like all of us. He was dissatisfied with those around him and blamed them for his unhappy life. However, it was when he learned to appreciate what he has that he begun to find true happiness. I hope you like it too!

A FAMILY DINNER

Winner (Honorable Mention), Story Monsters Royal Dragonfly Awards 2019 (USA)

This is a very special book to me as it was a ‘remake’ of the very first book that I attempted 3 years ago, which sadly was rejected by no less than 5 publishers. Fortunately, today writers are no longer at the mercy of a select few known as publishers, thanks to the many self-publishing platforms available out there… and thanks to the advent of the internet that we can even share our books with the world via our website!

In many ways, this book is like a ‘self-portrait’ to me, or rather, a portrait of my family (as you can see in page 35- that’s almost how we look like in real life!) In a way, it is also a portrait of all the families in the world, in that parents would always go to great extent just to provide for the family, including sometimes (or most of the time), doing things they dread or fear. I also tried to inject some humour and a lot of twists in this book- hope it will bring you and your family, especially the little ones, some fun and laughter!

A DREAM

Winner (Best Illustrations), New Generation Indie Book Awards 2020, Winner (Honorable Mention), Story Monsters Royal Dragonfly Awards 2019 (USA)

If the books on this page were to be arranged chronologically, this book should rightfully be right on top, for it was the very first book that I made using Procreate- yes, all my drawings were done using an iPad! To me, this book was very significant as it was the first time I was able to make use of up to 19 layers. However, being new to Procreate, it was created with much difficulty and struggle. Subsequently (the next book being ‘A Family Dinner’), I was much more comfortable with the software and was able to use it more confidently. So to me, this book will always remain very special.

As for the story, it was very much inspired by real life characters- namely, my wife. In my first 2 books ‘A Very Special Cat’ and ‘A Hero’s Cape’, the protagonists were my younger and elder sons respectively. So it followed that the third book should be about my wife- this ‘cycle’ was completed with the fourth book in this ‘Family’ series where the main character was the father. ‘A Dream’ is like a portrait of my wife, and in many ways, a portrait of all the mothers in this world, who want nothing but the best for and from their children, only to discover in the end that nothing brings greater happiness than being contented with what we have.