Happy Monkey Year

February 10, 2016 12:38 PM

Who is the artist behind this picture?
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Found this version of the pic with some Chinese characters on the bottom right that may list the artist but I don't know Chinese so I can't help out more than this at the moment.
posted by I-baLL at 12:44 PM on February 10, 2016

Higher res version.
posted by I-baLL at 12:47 PM on February 10, 2016

I don't read Chinese all that well, but the caption in the OP reads something like "Farewell to the old, welcome and best wishes for good fortune （大吉）to the new year of the monkey."
posted by My Dad at 12:52 PM on February 10, 2016

Response by poster: Last year was the year of the ram (羊), this year is the year of the monkey (猴 or 申). It's New Year's so they're just bumping fists as they change shifts.

I'm asking for the name of the artist.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 1:00 PM on February 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Google translate says that the characters (in the high res one) after the @ are 阿马台 and has decided that means "Armagh Station."
posted by General Malaise at 1:10 PM on February 10, 2016

The higher res versions list weibo.com/realcd on the bottom. Weibo is a Chinese social networking site, and while I can't load the realcd profile without logging in, Google has it cached. If you have Google translate the cached page, the header image has a caption reading

Illustrator, "super nice" contract illustrator

So it's possible that's the profile of the original artist.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 1:11 PM on February 10, 2016

Ah! It must be that person.


(FWIW, the URL is realcd, but the name on the profile is 阿骀 . Google translates that as "A tired", which is directly above the "Illustrator, "super nice" contract illustrator" line, so that might not be an actual name.

But what do I know, I'm using a computer to translate)

Anyway, I ended up signing up for Weibo, and found this close up of the monkey, along with this alternate version of your picture.

Google translates the caption on those two pictures as

"Shift" (adult version than the fist touch comes with children clap Edition)

posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 1:26 PM on February 10, 2016

阿骀 is a nickname, the practice sometimes being to put the word 阿 in front of part of a person's name or nickname. It's the weibo handle of the illustrator and likely does not have any part of their actual name in it as that is not the practice.

Their Weibo page says they are a contract illustrator for 超好看 magazine, which is translated in English as "Super Nice Magazine". You can try searching the weibo handle, 阿骀， along with the magazine title, "超好看", to see more of their work or possible get a name of the illustrator.
posted by bearette at 4:09 PM on February 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all for your input. I asked a Chinese-reading friend for more information based on the answers I got here. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to find out who the individual artist is!
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 1:00 AM on March 1, 2016