Congratulations to Yvonne Chong Shu Qi, a Graphic Design student at ALFA College, for winning the Grand Prize for Digital Art Category at Nando’s Art Initiative 2014!
Yvonne and family at the prize giving ceremony at Publika, right after announcement of result.
Yvonne’s winning was definitely a historical moment for ALFA and herself for many reasons. It was the first time for ALFA to work with the organizer of the 7-year-old competition, to send all Visual Drawing students for the competition. It was also the first time for Yvonne to join any art competition! Her family tagged along for the event to help calm her nerves because even though she did not expect to win, the fact that she was named one of the finalists was enough to keep her very excited that special day. Imagine the thrill at the prize giving ceremony when she was announced the winner!
Yvonne waiting anxiously for the result announcement on stage.
Look at her wide smile when the result was revealed!
Yvonne receiving her mock cheque and certificate from Ian Cruddas, the CEO of Nando’s Malaysia.
Yvonne alongside her winning artwork that is displayed at Publika until 15 June 2014.
The theme for this competition was ALIVE. To Yvonne, because of her interest in Greek mythology, her interpretation of ALIVE was a Greek goddess that brings spring. With this idea in mind, she compiled her inspiration into an initial sketch that featured the face of the goddess and minimal embellishment.
This first sketch was shown to Mr. John Dep, her lecturer for Visual Drawing course. Even though it was only a first sketch, Mr. John Dep saw the strong interpretation of the assignment and approved the concept with constructive critics on the work. He advised Yvonne to work on the facial expression of the goddess, the colour concept and the intensity of the embellishments. To the lecturer’s pleasant surprise, Yvonne returned two days later with a new sketch that nailed the revisions expected.
With that, Yvonne started doing magic on her computer and within 5 days, the final artwork was completed. According to Yvonne, she completed the artwork quickly because she had a lot of assignments to work on. However, her lecturer on the other hand said that Yvonne worked pretty fast because she was very proactive. He also humbly added that his guidance only contributed 5% of the final output. It was Yvonne’s good attitude and ideas that propelled this project.
Regardless, it was great that her talent was recognized by Nando’s Art Initiative. She won herself RM5,000, a mentorship and a solo exhibition with this title. She’s only a second semester student whom the lecturer recognizes as possessing the standard of a third semester student so the extra guidance and exposure from this competition will definitely make this budding artist flourish further.
Yvonne and the Grand Prize winners from other categories, namely Fine Art and Graffiti Mural/Street Art.
Yvonne enjoying good sportsmanship from the first runner-up of Digital Art.
Yvonne humbly photographing with the 2nd runner-up of Digital Art, whose artwork was displayed next to hers at Publika.
If you like Yvonne’s artwork, you can actually bid for it at Publika from now until 15 June 2014. Even better, several ALFA students’ artwork were also recognized by the organizer and thus they are also available for public exhibition and bidding at the same location! Don’t miss out.