Tim Lee – Illustrated Tales of Love, Sex & Death

Tim Lee is a Leeds Met graduate with a Degree in Fine Art. Currently, he lives in Leicester, UK while his parents continue to call Hong Kong their base. However, Tim still spends time with his parents in Hong Kong every year… and we dare say that his spending time there, being a part of the very Chinese-based culture, is a source of inspiration for him.

As with all Oriental artists, rhythm, balance and composition are of utmost importance. There’s only so much you can do to bring forth the imagery of violence against the backdrop of beauty so, it’s important for an artist like Lee to find equilibrium between the purpose and direction. “Rhythm, balance and composition are the elements that I focus on. My work carries a heavy eastern influence - probably due to my Chinese heritage. I like images that portray a sense of beauty and sadness and that work on a poetic level’.

Tim Lee’s studio is basically his bedroom. The ways in which he works vary depending on how he feels that day. “Some days I can’t draw, and other days it will just happen. I generally get my ideas late at night and start the pieces then.” Tim never begins a drawing in the daytime, but once he has started, he works non-stop until it’s done. “Usually a drawing can take about a week to complete, depending on scale of course, but my largest piece to date took well over a month of constant work.”

Despite Tim Lee’s apparent fascination with death, morbidity, mortality, violence… Tim Lee’s the kind of artist who is can use his work to reflect the fact that there’s beauty within. We were mortified to see a skeleton with a stem of a flower hanging out of its teeth! Case in point…the picture below. Look, it’s got roses in its sockets!!

But take a look at the details… they’re fascinatingly beautiful. Tim Lee’s illustrations and vector art often draw you into the details. When you look at the artwork, you no longer see a skeleton or violence; you see the beauty in the artwork instead.

It’s not uncommon for artists, especially one as young as Tim who is only twenty-six, to use violence and sex as their backdrop – it’s how they wound their minds around these topics to come up with an illustration or vector artwork that speak volumes.

Because of his Chinese heritage, he looks to the culture for inspiration. We have to admit that his illustrations are sensual, moody, intriguing… Much better than kangaroos as culture, actually.

Tim Lee has said this himself that he’s never really looking for perfection in his work. The danger of leaping off a tall building excites the testosterone in him… and I’m just saying’, of course. So, for this artist, he prefers the near-misses. And I would agree with him because it sooooo works for him.

We don’t think there will be a day when we will find him sinking to the level of drawing about a beautiful flower-strewn field somewhere in countryside. But Tim Lee’s just wonderful with intricate details and precision.

What you see above is a naked woman lying on some roses. What art lovers see are the number of painful hours spent on detailing the backdrop! Sleepless nights must have been a part of this painting… along with pots and pots of coffee.

It’s clear that Tim Lee draws inspiration from Chinese scroll paintings, Kimono and Ukiyo-e prints.

Actually, Tim Lee did not intend to become an illustrator, he fell into illustration by chance: “I wanted to be an artist. I sent my work off to countless people and it was an illustration agency that responded. Today, I think I’m somewhere in the middle between art and illustration. Art works on a myriad of levels, while illustration operates more on an direct, aesthetic and narrative level”.

What drives Lee in the fist place is that this is what he loves doing and he gets a good feeling out of it. “I’m very passionate about what I do, I don’t have a choice in the matter, and I’ll always make images”.

Website: www.timleeart.com

Blog: www.timmyleeartworks.blogspot.com

Video of Tim Lee explaining his art: Youtube Video