Book Review: Of Happiness by William Sim

Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on

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Of Happiness is the companion artbook of William Sim's 2018 Exhibition "Happiness Private Limited #10".

This huge 288-page paperback artbook collects 10 years worth of artworks from William, a freelance illustrator based in Singapore. He's also my friend from Urban Sketchers Singapore.

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The cover has a hole that lets you see through to a print, one of thirteen, behind.

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These prints are interchangeable and can be swapped to change the cover design. Each Chinese word shares a common character below which means wood. Together with other strokes, they make up different words.

Those prints are printed on high quality matte surface paper and they look great.

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The binding is the type that exposes the stitching and allows the pages to be opened flat.

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The artworks featured are from commissioned illustrations, personal sketches and paintings created for gallery sales.

In some of his illustrations, you may notice a little boy with a watermelon hat. The watermelon boy is always hiding somewhere waiting to be found.

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Some of the illustrations actually reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's movies because of the elements of fantasy and creativity.

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This is a huge painting on a single sheet of watercolour paper. There's actually a deeper meaning behind each artwork but unfortunately there are no captions explaining them.

You can learn more about the symbolism behind the works in this recent interview I had with him at his exhibition.

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Also in the book are pictures of hand-painting sculptures or models created by Lush Tan and William. I was told these delicate models are not easy to create and paint. The tiny areas behind are difficult to access and paint.

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That's Watermelon Boy again.

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This is a wonderful artbook with lots of beautiful watercolour illustrations and sketches.

The artbook is priced at SGD $99 not inclusive of shipping. It's currently only sold at selected places, one of which is at Utterly Art.

These are the shipping cost to various countries:
US/Europe/Australia/Middle East - SGD $54 (air), $27 (ship)
Asia - SGD $39 (air), $18 (ship)
Malaysia/Brunei - SGD $16.50 (air)

If you're interested to get the book, you can contact William at his Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/merchantofhappiness/

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