colouring after sketching

a successful wood firing

The wood firing at Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln went smoothly. The firing for the last and 4th stoke hole finished at about 6pm on 8 Aug 2009 - earlier than expected. Thanks to the help rendered by friends that I could go up to the wooden link bridge above the dragon kiln at about 5.30pm to sketch. It was a lively and beautiful sight up there.

More photos and day to day accounts at Thow Kwang Clay Artists.

inside the dragon kiln

I have done quite a few sketches on the dragon kiln. Here is one sketch I did right inside the kiln showing final stage of packing. I spent my last weekends preparing for the up coming wood firing event on 7, 8 & 9 Aug. We need to finish the packing by this weekend before the owner of the wood kiln seals the entrance on Wednesday. You can find wood firing details here.

I am exhausted but happy!

lonely sketchcrawl

I only knew about sketchcrawl after joining USk. #23 sketchcrawl was last Saturday when I had to work on my clay pieces to prepare for the upcoming 3-day & 2-night woodfiring in early August. I still managed to find time to do one sketch at the dragon kiln. Another earlier piece of the dragon kiln was here.

Another drawing on dragon kiln

I posted a few drawings on dragon kiln. Here is another sketch on the same place with the dragon kiln at the back in colour wash. My sister bought a bottle of Noodler's waterproof ink from New York for me that I am able to experiment with colour wash with my Lamy fountain pen. However, I do find it less fluid but I guess it is something I may need to get used to.

Dragon Kiln

This is the very first set of drawings I sent to Urban Sketcher flickr group. It is also timely for me to do this post before our group exhibition 'flashpoint#01' on Sunday, 14 Dec. The 64-year-old Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln is one of the two surviving dragon kilns in Singapore. Much of the knowledge about our local traditional wood-firing has been lost with the decline of Singapore's pottery industry in the early 1980s. The wood firing was first revived by a group of clay artists in 2001 and I joined the group for the third firing in 2003. I spent many hours at the place playing with the clay and one day, I decided to draw trying to capture the rustic charm of the place. These drawings show the exterior views before and after renovation to the place. The kicking wheel in one of the drawings is probably the only one you can find locally and the entrance to the dragon kiln is shown in another drawing. To know more about the dragon kiln, click thow kwang clay artists