Meet Malaysia's Doodling Foodie | iPick
Have you ever been to a café and out of boredom, you start doodling on a piece of serviette? And not long after, it becomes a hobby and now, you can’t stop doodling every time you’re at a café?
That’s the life story of DuDu, a local artist with mad doodling skills as well as a craving for good food and caffeine. A normal white-collar worker by day, he brings his artistic talent to every eatery he visits by doodling on serviettes, coffee cups, tables, or pretty much anything that he could lay his hands on.
According to DuDu, he started drawing when he was just 9-years-old, and he hasn’t stopped since.
“I vividly recalled the day when my mother decided to send me to art class after she realised I scribbled on the walls,” said DuDu. “After that, I was fully committed to art.”
But it wasn’t until October 2013 when cafés started popping up in the Klang Valley like wild mushrooms that he discovered a passion for doodling in coffee houses.
According to the self-confessed caffeine addict, he draws inspiration from a good cup of coffee as well as his surroundings.
“I have obsessive coffee disorder (OCD) and I don't mind having a few cups of coffee every day,” he laughed. “The caffeine-rush and the cosy ambience of a café have sparked me to play with puns and relate my artworks to a café's name.”
A look at DuDu’s Instagram account and one would notice that his artworks are heavily inspired by characters from popular pop culture such as Star Wars and more recently, Deadpool.
But if you look closely, his works usually don’t stray too far away from his favourite anime character: No-Face from ‘Spirited Away’.
“The strong messages from Mr. Hayao Miyazaki's animations have deeply inspired my artwork,” he said.
Another role model of DuDu’s is popular sketch artist Kim Jung Gi.
“It’s very fascinating to watch him draw using an ink brush and his wild imagination,” DuDu gushed. “[With Miyazaki and Jung Gi] I can feel their passion towards traditional hand-drawn art just by their art strokes.”
While he views doodling a cute piece of art as some sort of therapy (“I could de-stress while cheering people up”), DuDu – who has kept his real identity a secret because he wants people to “appreciate my art rather than judging who I am” – hopes his work would represent something more.
“In this day and age, digital artwork can be found anywhere whereas hand-drawn art is getting lesser. I hope I could contribute in raising awareness so that more people would appreciate the traditional hand-drawn art, especially local artists.”
