Turine Tran - Children's Illustrator, Singapore

Vietnamese artist Turine Tran’s imaginative children’s illustrations are inspired by some of the Victorian greats like Arthur Rackham, yet she’s established her own unique style which is charming, elegant and popular with clients who love her nostaligic, painterly approach.

Though she grew up in the hot, busy and crowded city of Saigon, Turine loves escaping to the countryside, particularly when the weather is dark and moody, and nature and the environment are important in her work. As her career has progressed, she has enhanced the fantastical and dreamlike qualities of her work, becoming a skilled visual storyteller. Turine studied design in Vietnam, before going to the School of Art, Design and Media in Singapore and then the Edinburgh College of Art for an MA in Illustration.

Approach

Working both traditionally and using digital media, Turine includes hand rendered and digitally painted elements in her works. She enjoys exploring new techniques, creating rich textures to help set the mood in her artworks.

Style

Soft, enchanting, nostaligic – Turine’s work feels like it’s been rediscovered in a dusty attic. Her illustrations are full of whimsical lines and forms, given life by paper textures. She goes beyond cute and cuddly to create characters that are also vulnerable and unpredictable, not behaving how adult viewers would expect them to.

Client list

Turine’s clients include Saatchi & Saatchi, Harper Collins, Calisto Publishing, Scholastic, Oxford University Press, National Geographic, Leo Burnett, Samsung, Zizzi and more.