Kelantan: A young artist from Kelantan, Muhammad Darwisy Mustafani, 25, did not dream that his artistic talents would open the door for him to do a portrait of the Crown Prince of Brunei, Pengiran Muda Mahkota Al-Muhtadee Billah Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Muhammad Darwisy, who hails from Kampung Pulau Panjang, said the opportunity given was very meaningful considering that his work was personally presented by him to the Crown Prince during his birthday celebration on February 17 at Istana Brunei.
Muhammad Darwisy explained that he received a message request on his Instagram in November last year from the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (ABDB), commissioning him to do a portrait of the Crown Prince of Brunei, to be set with pure gold and 1,000 Swarovski stones. He began creating nearly 10 draft sketches and working papers, which took quite a long time before achieving results that were satisfying and approved by the palace.
The young artist, the fifth of eight siblings, usually takes one-and-a-half months to complete a portrait like this, but this time he only had about 20 days. He noted that once an agreement was reached, the Silubang Bangsi woven fabric was sent to him to sketch the Crown Prince's portrait using acrylic paint. Due to the short time frame, he only slept for one hour a day for the past three days before completion.
For the final touches, 1,000 black Swarovski stones were glued on and adorned with 20 pieces of 999 gold wafers worth RM180 each. The artist recounted that applying these gold pieces was challenging, as he needed to cut them into 52 smaller pieces, symbolizing the Crown Prince's 52nd birthday.
When presenting the portrait, Muhammad Darwisy initially thought an ABDB officer would do so, but the palace entrusted him to personally present it at a banquet held at the Ministry of Defence Building. After the banquet, he was invited to the palace, where he nervously but successfully met the Crown Prince, who engaged with him about the painting.
The portrait, which was initially planned to be placed at Istana Brunei, was directed to be moved to the Office of the Crown Prince at the Prime Minister's Department, much to Muhammad Darwisy's surprise and delight.
Meanwhile, his sharing of the Brunei Crown Prince's portrait on his TikTok account 'wisyilukis' has garnered up to 1.6 million views, along with more than 100,000 likes from other account users.