a sketch on my birthday

It was my birthday yesterday. I received a bundle of joy bouquet from my 14-year-old son who is very good with wires and papers. We went to "Casa do Churrasco Brazil" - a Brazilian restaurant for my birthday dinner. I did a sketch after the fantastic dinner and it was done directly on the dinner paper that already filled with some drops of oil and sauce. The waiters and waitress were very surprised when I showed them the sketch as we made our exit.

noodle stall

<

132 noodle stall at this coffee shop along Upper East Coast Road is just outside my house. It used to be very famous and the wait could be from 30 mins to an hour. However, their opening days and hours are unpredictable nowadays. There are people who drive all the way from the west to eat and find that the shop is closed. Some comments on the food blog also affect the business a little. I will still eat the dried meepok noodle when I feel like it since it is just at my door step. I like the soup a lot.

first page

The first sketch on my new Moleskine sketchbook. I am a new Moleskine user although I bought two of them many years ago and kept them in the drawer. I was using the common black A6 sketchbooks all these years.

"dr Cafe Coffee" the cafe in this sketch is located at the latest big shopping mall in town called ION. The shopping mall is so big that I needed a rest and ended up with a sketch. Sketch is like medicine for fatigue in a big mall at a clinic called dr Cafe Coffee, Ha!

last page

Last page of my sketchbook, I sketched the Nissan GTR at the showroom when I took a day off and sent my car for servicing. Mix feeling about saying goodbye to the old sketchbook.

pens and pencils

Last week, before I could find time to do more sketches, I took a few pictures on the pencil holders that I collected. The latest acquisition was the most expensive of all - Mont Blanc Leonardo Sketch Pen shown here on the far right. I always wanted to buy it but hestitated. Last week, I went to a very nice pen shop to buy the ink catridges for my fountain pen, Jimmy, the shop owner told me the sketch pen will be discontinued soon and I was visibly upset. I went back to the shop to buy it after thinking through over a cup of coffee at the near-by coffee shop.

From left to right - Lamy Safari, Hero M86 Calligraphy Pen, AA Waterman c.1910, Architect Pencil, Lamy Clutch Pencil, Broker Pencil, Faber Castell E Motion Pencil, Cretacolor Lead Holder, Polumbus, Wecle Japan, Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth chalk /lead holder and Mont Blanc Leonardo Pencil.

Some details on my flickr site.

at the studio

Students are drawing twigs in the studio.

Oleh Oleh - my favourite cafe at Parkway Parade

"Oleh Oleh" means "present" in Malay. it is the name of the small open cafe known for its local Malay pastries and deserts especially my favourite "lopez". Lopez is a glutinous rice topped with grated coconut and sweet syrup. Together with black coffee, the combination is just heavenly. The two couples were discussing on an interior project over the laptop directly in front of my table. The near-by HSBC bank was still open when I left at about 8pm.

ball point pen sketch

click to enlarge

A sketch done with the ball pen and paper provided by Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel, the venue for our company retreat. First day we were out in a group of 8 visiting a small company producing herbal drinks and second day we had a fabulous time at the seminar room of the hotel. Great food, fine wine and fantastic company. There were a few presentations like this one by the top management team.

company visit

As part of the activities for our company retreat, we visited a very small firm set up by two young brothers. One of the brothers was on the phone in the middle of the discussion. The other brother was standing on the right behind the ladies. They were explaining to us the process of tranforming the traditional herbs into bottled herbal drinks you see here on the table. Today, there are 19 flavours compared to the humble 5 flavours of herbal drinks when they first set-up during the SARS epidemic in 2003.

a very hot afternoon

091011_syedalwiroad, originally uploaded by tiastudio.

Done with my new Hero M86 Calligraphy Pen.

The afternoon heat was unbearable so I sat in the air-cond car and sketched the street - Syed Alwi Road. I had a sketch done for the row of shophouse with oval windows on the left early this year. This was the second car that blocked my view for the whole period I was sketching. The first one drove away. This one also parked for like 5 minutes and I had to scramble with the outline of the car when I saw the driver came back from nowhere with lunch packages. A big van very quickly filled in the parking lot and blocked my view totally. I moved my car a little in order to finish the sketch. That was the situation a sketcher has to deal with when you are sketching 'moving targets'.

national monument

The heat was still unbearable although I sat under the big shade on a Sunday afternoon.

I sketched the famous clock tower building of the Chinese High School on one Sunday. The Chinese High School, also the first Chinese secondary school in Singapore was constructed in 1919 and completed in 1925. The clock tower building was gazetted as a national monument on 19 Mar 1999. This year the School celebrates its 90th anniversary.

The building was used by the Allied defenders during the Battle of Singapore, as well as during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945. It was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army for the purpose of surveillance. The building's history is synonym to the history of our country.

There are four clocks on the clock tower. This historical building is a powerful landmark along a major road in a low rise, high class residential area.

at burger king

The day I spent the morning at Burger King while waiting for my husband who is attending a meeting in the same building. The man was reading a Chinese book on face reading (physiognomy or personology) and he sat so still that I could draw him without much difficulty. The lady must be studying for some kind of examination that she was highlighting the English texts with a highlighter. If you think they are a couple preparing for examination you are wrong. They were studying their books and papers intensely next to each other but they left separately.

These are things you notice when you draw.

two cars

Found this sketch under a pile of files in my office. It was done with ball point pen not with my usual fountain pen. I don't sketch cars that often, may be it is a guy's thing. Inspired by Stephen's post on Urbansketchers, I decided to post this sketch of cars. I was at a carpark at the Fort Canning Park waiting for my son's art class to end. I guess it was waiting time well spent looking at a Volvo and a Suzuki Swift.

at Haagen Dazs

After filling up the car with petrol at around 10pm, Lip Jiang - my son and I went to the nearby Haagen Dazs - his favourite ice cream cafe. The table next to us were having ice cream fondue. Before I could finish the sketch, a waitress took the fondue set away. By then, I had already done with the people and moved on to the ice cream counter. I added the waiter with the mask and he was moving all the times. My son reminded me we had the same ice cream fondue some years back at the same cafe but I had no recollection at all! This sketch will definitely help me to remember that in the future, I hope.

family karaoke session

090929_karaoke_grey, originally uploaded by tiastudio.

My brother was the national talentime winner for a Chinese TV singing competition in 1990. We were listening to him singing most of the time at a family karaoke session last sunday.

Pinkie, by Lip Jiang

Pinkie, by Lip Jiang, originally uploaded by lipjin.

This is done by Lee Lip Jiang, my 14-year old son. Acrylic on 1m canvas. I now have paints on his bedroom floor and sofa set. Pinkie is the name of our pet dog.

on sketchcrawl day

Busy with work in the past two weeks and I felt really guilty for not able to arrange or go out for a sketchcrawl. So, I decided to sketch at home on 24th world sketchcrawl day. Yes, I have a grand piano at home but I can't play. It's for my talented children. I like the zip light on the left, it can be tranformed into two flat sheets of plastic and leather after unzipping the zips at the back. They can be kept in a A2 folio. Great design. While sketching, I can also remove the cluttered items which cannot be done if I were to take a photograph.

Plus, I have a horseshoe on the main door on the right so my home is blessed and happy.

a different potter's studio

I spend most of my Saturdays at Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle to work on my clay pieces and meet other potter friends. I did this sketch while waiting for my friends to leave together in my car. The pool side shed in this sketch used to be a big aviary cage in the past and it is now Steven Low's pottery studio which is complete with a kitchen, sleeping quarter and lots of interesting new and old fixed and loose furniture.

Let me know if you are interested to visit Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle. Steven Low, the famed potter will also be more than happy to give you a tour of his studio that is built entirely by him and his workers. It is going to be a great place to hang out in the future!

campus food

I was so busy with end of semester assessment that I was unable to organise a sketchcrawl activity last Saturday. It was marking, marking and more marking. However, we still need to eat and drink so I did a quick sketch during the lunch break today. Mensa - one of the many canteens on the campus was so crowded. There was a great satisfaction when I managed to sketch these people before they finished their food and drink. The noodle stall was very popular with a constant stream of customers.

shamisen

It is public holiday here in Singapore and salamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends.

I did not go out and sketch as I needed to spend my long weekend doing assessment at home. I also spent some time listening to shamisen on the Youtube. All the memories from the good old days kept surfacing in my thoughts. I was part of the Chinese Orchestra playing sanxian in the group of about 20 players.

Japanese shamisen derived from sanshin which has its roots in the Chinese sanxian. I was astonished how shamisen has modernised and flourished in Japan as compared to sanxian in China. Pipa, the instrument I am picking up now is definitely more popular than sanxian. Another significant difference is that cat or dog skin is used to cover its resonator in shamisen whilst snakeskin is used to cover its resonator in sanxian.

If you watch the performance by the Yoshida Brothers, you may think shamisen is way cooler than the electric guitar which is one of the most popular dream musical instruments of every modern youth. However, Hiromitsu Agatsuma is still my favourite.