Sigit Ezra: Thought Experiments from Sketches to Board Games
The scent of clove cigarettes is Sigit Ezra’s first memory of illustration. “My father used to be a caricature painter,” he recalled. He still remembers his father sitting in front of a homemade easel, a cigarette between his lips, studying a gridded photo before sketching it onto large paper with charcoal. “As a curious kid, I would always hang around when my dad was painting. Sometimes I’d ask for scrap paper or draw on the back pages of my school books.” From that habit, something took root.
Not long after, his father left without a word, leaving only the habit of drawing behind. “That skill eventually took me to where I am today as a storyboard artist, graphic designer, and visual artist,” he said.
In every work, Sigit Ezra merges wild imagination with thought experiments. He calls his creative method “thought experiment.” “I like to look for the other side of an event,” he said. One of the results of this process was a character named Mr. Satan, a demon who decides to retire from his job.
The idea came after reading The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho. “There’s a big question there: are humans inherently good or evil? It says that good and evil share the same face, that humans have the will to choose,” he explained. From that question, he began to wonder, if humans can choose to be good or evil on their own, what then is the role of angels and demons? “From that thought experiment, I created Mr. Satan, a demon who retires after realizing humans already take the initiative to do evil.”
As a fan of classic frame-by-frame animation like Cuphead, Tom and Jerry, and Popeye, Sigit is drawn to the sense of freedom in logic that only cartoons can offer. “I love the rawness and the absurd logic that somehow makes sense in the world of animation,” he said. That spirit carries over into his visual work, often filled with imaginative figures, vintage colors, and a sense of satire that feels playful yet reflective.
Beyond illustration, Sigit is also active in music with the group Irama Pantai Selatan. When asked about the relationship between his musical and visual practices, he offered a simple comparison. “Making music with Irama Pantai Selatan is like group work, combining ideas and instruments into one song. But working visually is more individual, a space I can mess around with based on my own observations,” he said. For him, the two practices move in different thematic dimensions. “With Irama Pantai Selatan, it’s more about love and softness,” he laughed. “In my visual work, it’s raw, distorted, and rough. But it doesn’t mean the two can’t collide someday.”
For Sigit, illustration is a way to simplify complex thoughts. “Through illustration, I try to distill my thought experiments into something simple, to play around with ‘what if’ situations, to let ideas run free with a touch of humor, rough lines, and distinct colors,” he said.
Aside from illustration, Sigit also works on his own animation projects. One of them, Among the Strife, is a looping animation built frame by frame. “I created all the assets myself and then assembled them in a video editor. I even made the sound myself,” he said. For him, the project was a way to translate the essence of a character into motion.
Another challenge came through Mantra, a serialized comic that he later developed into a board game. “The hardest part was finding a vendor who could make a foldable game board,” he said. Two vendors gave up before Sigit took matters into his own hands, simulating the production process himself. “I involved a lot of friends, from developing the story to testing the gameplay.”
The concept of Mantra, he explained, was to merge comics and board games. “The idea was to let readers become part of the story,” he said. Inspired by Jumanji and Zathura, Mantra turns the game board into the core of the narrative. “At first, I thought of a simple hide-and-seek or maze-chase game,” he said. “Whoever finds the way out first wins.”
The next challenge came during the writing process. “I had trouble connecting the story to the gameplay,” he said. He later teamed up with his friend Rangga Dananditya to brainstorm ideas. After the concept was refined, Sigit spent two weeks drawing non-stop. During that time, he received an unexpected mentorship. “By chance, I got mentored by Sweta Kartika,” he said.
They met while both were participating in the GAF Shanghai Illustration Art Fair. “During a break, I asked him to review my Mantra draft. After reading it, he gave me a useful formula for building tension in storytelling,” Sigit recalled. He revised the script accordingly and adjusted several pages.
The gameplay of Mantra is straightforward. “It’s a chase between a possessed player and the rest,” he explained. The possessed player cannot leave the maze unless they transfer their curse to someone else. Meanwhile, the other players must find an exit before becoming the next possessed victim. “There are four exits in the corners of the maze, two of which are dead ends,” he said.
Among his most challenging projects was a design competition for an electric car. “I treated the car’s surface as a canvas,” he said. “As someone who’s not used to competitions, I pushed myself to go beyond that limit.” He spent sleepless nights researching car design, redrawing forms, and crafting the right caption. The project, titled Joy Beyond the Limit of Dreams, won second place out of more than a thousand submissions. “That experience made me realize how flexible my limits could actually be,” he said.
Sigit views his work as an exploration of ideas that can be interpreted freely. Each project, to him, is an exercise in rethinking the boundaries of humor and absurdity. He doesn’t see his works as moral statements, but as open experiments.
When asked about the current state of illustration in Indonesia, Sigit sounded optimistic. “Since social media came along, Indonesian illustrators have started emerging from their hiding places,” he said. He has seen many young creators showing their work in unique mediums, supporting and inspiring each other. “The level of productivity is crazy, it blows my mind,” he said.
He also believes that the rise of art fairs such as Artket, JICAF, and Press Print Party plays a big role in keeping the ecosystem alive. “It’s like a big dining table for everyone to share,” he said. As long as such spaces exist, Sigit believes illustration in Indonesia will continue to evolve—moving from one hand to another, from messy doodles to a living visual language.
