Check out Champ Panupong Techawongthawon’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Champ Panupong Techawongthawon.

Champ Panupong, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Hi, I’m Champ. My full name is Panupong Techawongthawon. My name is quite long haha I’m half Thai and half Chinese. I’m from Thailand. In 2009, I went to the school of Communication Art. I focused on VFX/animation. After I graduated in 2012, I worked for broadcast TV for less than a year. I was burned out. I hated my job. The job wasn’t inspiring. After working in Bangkok, I decided to go back to my hometown and became a monk for one month. While I was a monk, I started drawing again because the only thing that entertained me was to draw. After the period of becoming a monk, I got myself ready to study aboard. In 2014, I came to the USA for a language school. I spent about one year and a half prepping for getting into art school. At first, I was thinking of study business and then started a small business as my family did and then my girlfriend (now, wife) asked me that “Are you sure? You hate Math and you are not good with numbers.” So, I listened to her. My wife also suggested to me why don’t I study art again. In 2017, we found out that SCAD is offering motion media design so I decided to go there for a year for my master’s degree. SCAD totally changed my life. I met so many talented people from around the world. I learned so much from them. Everyone is so inspired. I learn what motion graphic is. I enjoy it more than VFX/Animation. Motion Graphic totally changed my life. In 2018, I moved to Boston to stay with my wife and I work with an awesome motion studio called “Black Math”. I spend time there like a year. In 2019, My wife and I decided to move to LA to pursue our dream jobs. I had an opportunity to intern at Buck. After my internship with awesome folks at Buck, I decided to start freelancing in LA since then.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The first thing that I know in my heart is that I love art but I can’t draw awesome character design. I can’t draw hands or human figures. I can only doodle. For this reason, I tend to do more abstract art because abstract is uninformed and I have more freedom to create any art pieces. But wait….if I love abstract art how can I apply to the motion graphic world? Okay let’s go back in 2017 when I was in school, I had a chance to meet the co-owner of Black Math studio, a motion graphic studio based in Boston, his name is Jeremy. I show my reel to him and he suggested me to follow some artists if I want to make this type of work. He gave me these names; Jorge R. Canedo E. and Sander Van Dijk. To me, they are the legends of the motion graphic design industry and my inspiration.

After I got some advice from Jeremy. I decide to apply my abstract art into basic shapes, strong color, simple design and integrating my artwork with some textures. I love to use basic ideas to create storytelling in my art, such as the idea of yin-yang, the spectrum or the color of light and the concept of anaglyph 3D glasses. In my motion pieces, I love to surprise people with a simple design and unexpected animation.

To be honest with you all, for seeing my artwork, I just want people to get inspired. I just want them to make awesome artworks to inspire others or artists to create awesome work. Some projects, I had some story back up, like Look Up project; if you are unaware of what happens in the world, you are gonna get hit by a train.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
For me, I think it’s quite easier for artists today. There’re so many platforms for artists to share their work with the world and because there are new stars shining every day. I mean that’s a good thing, right? When stars are shining, we seemingly learn from one another. We learn from each other. We are pushing the industry to move forward instead of going backward. One of my favorite artist meetups that I love to go to is called “R&D”. You just go there and meet other artists and get inspired by their stories and works.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Most of my updated work is on my website (Pleasecallmechamp.com) and Behance. They also can check out my work on Vimeo as well. The upcoming project is going to be shown on my Instagram called” Pleasecallmechamp” as well. It is coming very soon.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1360 S.Figueroa, Los Angeles, CA 90015
• Website: www.pleasecallmechamp.com
• Phone: 6179590647
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/pleasecallmechamp
• Facebook: facebook.com/pleasecallmechamp

Image Credit:
Sabrina Johnson

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