Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan | |
|---|---|
 Tan in 2011 | |
| Born | January 15, 1974 Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia |
| Notable work | The Red Tree The Lost Thing The Arrival Cicada |
| Website | shauntan.net thebirdking.blogspot.com.au |
Shaun Tan (born 15 January 1974) is an Australian artist, writer, and filmmaker. He is known for his graphic novel The Arrival (2006), which won several awards, and for his 2010 animated short film adaptation of the 2000 picture book he wrote and illustrated, The Lost Thing, for which he won an Academy Award. He has also written and illustrated many other books, including Tales From Outer Suburbia (2008) and The Red Tree (2001). Many of his works have won awards, including in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, and many have been adapted for screen and stage.
Early life and education
[edit]Shaun Tan was born on 15 January 1974[1] in Fremantle, Western Australia,[2] to a Chinese Malaysian father and an Australian mother. He grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth.[3]
As a boy, Tan spent time illustrating poems and stories and drawing dinosaurs, robots and spaceships. At school he was known as a talented artist.[4] At the age of eleven, he became a fan of The Twilight Zone television series as well as books that bore similar themes. Tan cites Ray Bradbury as a favourite at this time. These stories led to Tan writing his own short stories. Of his effort at writing as a youth, Tan tells, "I have a small pile of rejection letters as testament to this ambition!"[5] At the age of sixteen, Tan's first illustration appeared in the Australian magazine Aurealis in 1990.[5]
Tan almost studied to become a geneticist, and enjoyed chemistry, physics, history and English while in high school as well as art and claimed that he did not really know what he wanted to do.[5] During his university studies, Tan decided to move from academic studies to working as an artist.[6]
Tan continued his education at the University of Western Australia where he studied Fine Arts, English Literature and History. While this was of interest to him, there was little practical work involved.[6] In 1995, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.[7][1]
Career
[edit]Work process
[edit]Initially, Tan worked in black and white because the final reproductions would be printed that way. Some black and white mediums he used include pens, inks, acrylics, charcoal,