Shaun Tan
Illustrator / Director
1/10: Creative process and inspirations for The Lost Thing
films short-films
Shaun Tan
Illustrator / Director
3/10: Unintended references and Australian artists that have influenced Shaun's work
films inspiration critical-moments
Shaun Tan
Illustrator / Director
7/10: People assume picture books are just for kids
films the-business-of
Shaun Tan
Illustrator / Director
8/10: The origin of the idea for The Lost Thing
films process inspiration
Shaun Tan
Illustrator / Director
10/10: Collecting collage material that inspires
films process inspirationShaunTan
Shaun Tan is an artist and author whose illustrated works have received widespread acclaim. His works transcend the ‘picture book’ genre through their meditative exploration of daunting spaces and existential themes.
If his illustrations contain threatening elements, they are rarely found in the characters and dialogue - instead the structuring logic comes from the liminal and transitory spaces through which his characters move. Shrinking the inter-planetary themes of science fiction to fit the suburbs, Shaun has also worked as an author, compiling a number of his short stories for the collection Tales from Outer Suburbia.
In recent years he’s applied his techniques to animation, directing the Oscar winning short film The Lost Thing. Whilst the final product was produced using CGI, all the forms and textures started out as two-dimensional, painted surfaces.