Result of April Sketchwalk

Result of April sketchwalk at Kampong Glam area. This is at Bussorah Street looking directly at the biggest mosque in Singapore. The place has become very commercialised with too many cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops flanking the streets. However, there are equally many locals coming to this place for food and drink.

Size : 240 x 680mm watercolour on Noodler's ink "spirit of bamboo".

Here is a video by Parka.

April Sketchwalk

For this month's sketchwalk, we will be meeting at Kampong Glam Cafe at 930am. You may have your breakfast and teh halia there or at neighbouring cafes. You may spread out in any direction you like but return to the Kampong Glam Cafe at 12.30pm for show and tell. To get there, you could get off at Bugis MRT station, walk up towards Raffles hospital, cross the road diagonally toward the Arab Street/Kampong Glam area. Some highlights are the Sultan Mosque, textile shops, Haji lane, and laid-back coffeeshops. More on Arab street here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g294265-d324757-Reviews-Arab_Street-Singapore.html



See you there!
(poster art by Tia)

at the clinic

Went to Polyclinic for a general checkup on a Saturday morning. Very crowded but everyone is so patient and peaceful. My number is 2085 and this man walked to the consultation room when the number flashed at 2071.

Starbucks at Siglap

This Chinese gentleman with an American accent on the left was added last. He was at the cafe earlier when I stepped in and queued up behind an Australian lady. As I was patiently waiting for my turn to order, he suddenly appeared behind me and openly commented "it is way to long" and left the cafe angrily. When I was almost done with this sketch, he walked in again and talked to the waiter at the counter and then went on and on about how the lady took such a long time to order and the staff should not entertain her and blah blah blah. The staff handled him very well by listening attentively and asked him about how he wanted his order to be served. I left the cafe and commended the counter staff and they thanked me with a big smile. That's the spirit!

two articles on Urban Sketchers Singapore

USKSG on local online magazine Going Places

"Going Places Singapore is an online magazine about appreciating our city anew. We give you an insider look into familiar neighbourhoods, favourite spaces, and lesser known places. We find out what makes our city tick, what matters most to us and how some of you have been re-shaping the environment around you so that everyone else can enjoy it a little better. We share your personal stories and future dreams to keep us going in transforming our home.

Going Places Singapore is published by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). All opinions expressed in this magazine are not representative of URA’s views. URA is the national planning and conservation authority of Singapore." - by Going Places.



USKSG on another local online magazine POSKOD.SG

orientation week

This week is orientation week for School of Design. Today we were introduced to the new students in the big auditorium and these existing students sitting on floor were their guides.

Spinelli at Kings Albert Park

Spinelli at Kings Albert Park. The building has been sold and will be demolished and made way for future development.

The Intan

We had an unique experience last Saturday at The Intan, a private Peranakan Museum in Joo Chiat Terrace. Intan is Malay word for "rose-cut-diamond". Alvin Mark Yapp, the owner gave us a very animated brief history of Peranakan culture and heritage. He is an avid collector for all things Peranakan, so he has so many pairs of Nonya slippers, tassels, jewelry, bowls, teacups on display. There are also big furniture items such as alters, cabinets, big candle stands, tables and chairs. When I entered the house, first thing that caught my eyes was that every step of the staircase was adorned with a 3-tier tiffin and a spittoon decorated with Peranakan motifs such as flowers, leaves, animals and bright colours which are often complimentary and loud.

If you are interested to find out more, click The Intan. Below are some photos taken at The Intan.

coffee club, my favourite garlic prawn olio pasta

This Coffee Club at Marina Square is just opposite the Muji Store. I picked up a few new sketchbook from Muji and had my favourite galic prawn olio pasta, a coffee and a sketch. The sketch is free but I paid for the others. HA!

dinner tonight

Using black ink for a change. This guy with a nice facial feature is the young director of some plays. He spoke so loud that I could hear him. He was so engrossed in the conversation with his two friends that he did not notice I was sketching him? May be he did but pretended that he didn't know. After all he is an actor too.

Result of ad-hoc Sketchwalk at Vivo City

Architect for Vivo City is Toyo Ito. The building is basically a square box, so with the cladding outside, I feel that it is too decorative and heavy in its building typology. Interior with his signature linear curves features in bright green is comparatively more elegant that the exterior. The sky light cast a nice shadow to the otherwise white floor. Our design graduation show is right in the middle here in the sketch from 5 to 7 April, 2012.

sketching with friends

Sketching with friends at Vivo City, we had lots of fun. The sketch below was done at the crowded food court called Banquet in the basement floor, may be it was Good Friday holiday too. There were two ladies at this table then it came another two more senior ladies with their food. I added the lady on the left so you see lines on her head. Banquet is a halal food court so there are many Muslim women wearing hijab, or the headscarf. We later moved to Pacific Coffee at the upper floor of Vivo city. The European man with the beard was nice to let us share the sofa seat with him. I sketched him while he was reading the newspaper. He left his newspaper behind and our friend, Ban Pang said it's the sign to say "I will be back!" Benedick was sitting next to him so I sketched him to give the sketch a foreground.

Sunday breakfast and dinner

Sunday breakfast at a coffee shop, corner of Telok Kurau and Changi Road. There was a long queue at the tim sum stall so we decided to park our car nearby and tried it out. The group of middle-age men were chatting loudly and one of them was with a Hong Kong accent. They were still chatting when we left. The coffee shop is Kopitalk but the tim sum was just next door called Hong Ho Phang Hong Kong Pau, what a long name


This stall owner uses charcoal to fry his Hokkien Mee. The charcoal fire heats up the entire big wok and even the noodles taste 'charcoal fried'. On Sunday evening, there is a very long queue at the stall. I waited for almost half and hour for my turn but I had time to sketch this while my husband stood in the waiting line. HA!

result of March 2012 sketchwalk

These sketches are the result of March sketchwalk. What a fun day sketching with like-minded people at the National Library. The first sketch was done outside Hanis, the cafe on the first storey. The second one I did the St. Joseph Church from 11th storey of National Library. The third one was at Purvis Street after lunch.

Size : 250 X 250mm Daler Rowney watercolour papers.