Sketchcrawl Results

The top is my sketch at the 5th location at the corner of Rowell Road and Kampong Kapor Road. Next are sketches at Norris Road (6th location) and Verdun Road (2nd location) near Mustafa. The pictures above were taken at the first location and the last location.

We had a great turn out on our very first 'organised' sketchscrawl on Saturday, 27 Feb 2010 to coincide with the 26th world sketchcrawl day. I had done sketch walk, sketch weekend, sketch trip, sketch tour but never sketch crawl. I was happy to see so many new faces. We started around 9am from a relatively new shopping complex called City Square Mall for breakfast and ended at around 1pm for a laksa lunch. We braved the extremely hot and humid weather, armed with sketchbooks and pens, combed the busy streets in Little India area. I did seven sketches and you can visit them on my flickr site here.

More sketch results from Singapore sketchers here.

Here are more pictures, enjoy!

Sketchscrawl 27th feb 2010 Saturday, 9AM-2PM

In conjuction with the 26th world wide sketchcrawl, and together with organisation of illustrators council, we will be doing a sketchwalk around little india area. Moving off time is at 9am (sharp!). Location is City Square Mall’s toastbox (just outside Farrer Park MRT). People who want to join us for breakfast can meet us at 8.30am at toastbox. Travel light and breezy. There will be walking, sketching, sweating, chatting, and lots of fun. We will conclude the sketchwalk with lunch. Just show up if attending. invitation open to everyone with an interest in outdoor sketching.

memories

Almost forgot, I taught a class at the High School of Art and Design at NYC in 2002, this picture was prepared for a sharing session cum talk that never took place when I came back to work in 2003.

I wonder how are Ms Mary Ann Denino, the Assistant Principal and Mr Paul Chinelli, the art teacher?

Sultan Mosque on a hot day

I did a black and white sketch on Sultan Mosque last Jan here. Last Saturday I did another quick postcard size watercolour piece as I arrived late at the Mosque. When the bird shit landed on the top left corner of the watercolour piece, we had to leave and find a place to rest as the weather was unbearably hot and humid. We went to chill at the near-by cafe called FIKA, a halal Swedish cafe. We were eating, chatting, drinking and sketching for another 2 to 3 hours. Oh yes, let me introduce the new sketching team formed by the ex-students of mine - from the left in the picture outside the Mosque - Zaihan, Nori, Ridwan, and Lawrence. Shu Shen, also an ex-student, joined later. Gus, a friend of the group was seen here in blue T-shirt also joined in the fun. We were very proud of the last photo with all the sketchbooks placed on the table and we called them 'fruits of labour'.

Card Games during Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (CNY) or Lunar New Year this year starts with a reunion dinner on the eve of CNY. This is when family members return home from cities all over the world and get together for dinner. After dinner, family members will chat, play cards and mahjong. In the old days, firecrackers and fireworks would mark the official beginning of CNY at 12am sharp. However nowadays, firecrackers and fireworks are banned in many countries because of fire hazards.

On the first and second days of Chinese New Year, we visited relatives and friends especially the elders. The married adults will give children the red packets or 'ang bao'. Inside the red packets, they will be money to symbolize wealth and abundance for the children. Friendly gambling sessions are common during CNY and this sketch depicts one of these sessions among my relatives after some good foods and drinks including free flow of wines, beers and sake. After my last attempt on coffee ink which appeared as brown stains here, I used red wine for the patterns on the walls. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Last CNY, I did a sketch on lion dance.

Happy Lunar New Year 2010

coffee, china and noodler's ink

I enjoy pouring coffee on paper and observe how it flows. It dries very fast under our hot and humid weather. I did two outdoor pieces on Temasek Polytechnic yesterday. The top piece was coffee and china ink on normal A3 size catridge paper while the bottom piece was noodler's ink on moleskine. Which one do you like?

East Coast Food Center

The stall owners were all so excited about the sketch, the zi cha (cooked food) uncle first called out to a young man (he might be Jacky!) with tatoo all over his arms and legs and said "look, look, she is sketching your beer counter!" and other stall owners and the helpers came and pointed here and there....

Conclusion : sketching is a social activity!

HELP HAITI

We encourage you to download, print and share this poster with others where you live. Share it on your blog and social networks and put it up in your local school, community center or coffee shop so more people are reminded of the need for donations to help the people of Haiti after the recent devastating earthquake.

Thanks to Don Low, urban sketcher in Singapore, for editing the poster to include local Red Cross information.

musicians at the art museum

On 28 Jan, several modern and classic music groups were performing at the opening of the exhibition "Classic Contemporary" Contemporary Southeast Asian Art from the Singapore Art Museum Collection. The exhibition will end on 2 May.

another sketch at Steven's studio

I first sketched Steven Low's studio here. I visited his studio again last Saturday and did another sketch. Three of his students were working on the potter's wheels while others working on the banding wheels. The vegetation and pots from Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle in the background provide a sense of place and a conducive environment for the aspiring potters-to-be. Steven's studio is located within Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle - the rustic and charming place I hang out with my potter friends over most of the Saturdays.

the famous nasi lemark stall

Nasi Lemak, another national dish for Sunday breakfast! Nasi means rice and Lemak means cream. It is a dish of coconut cream rice served with hot chilly sauce, fried anchovies, fried peanuts, sliced cucumber or tomato. Some even served with fried fish, hard-boiled egg or fried chicken wing. These two stalls at Adam Road Food Center were probably the top nasi lemak stalls in the country judging from the continuous long lines at their respective stalls side by side. People including the bikers in the photo at the table next to me came and went after finishing plates after plates of nasi lemak. Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak, the second stall seemed to be the winner as the line was longer.

a small temple and a small world

I found this small temple at Moonstone Lane near Serangoon / Macpherson area. The caretaker old uncle said it was built in 1957 and 福德祠 meant 大伯公庙 in Teochew, one of dialects spoken among Chinese people in South East Asia. This small temple was characterised by the huge ornaments on the roof top. They were very detailed and well maintained especially the two dragons which were decorated with very clean and colourful mosaics. I was told they were fabricated by the Chinese artisans from Malaysia in the 50s.

While I was about to finish my sketch, 6 to 8 young people came up to me. I was a little wary when two of them started waving their hands. As they removed their dark glasses, I immediately recognised them - my ex-students! Together with their friends, they were at the near-by warehouse checking out the big bikes. What a small world!

dinner at sentosa

Last Friday, my family spent a night at one of the hotels developed by Sentosa Resort World. We visited the latest facilities although most of shops were still not ready for business. We were ushered into the Chihuly gallery shop to see his impressive glass work. There is about S$6 million worth of Chihuly glass works and his chandeliers displayed at the casino and hotels. The guest can now buy the affordable items but the cheapest sculpture was retailed at S$7,000 to $8,000! Michael Graves shop was just opposite so my hubby bought a Graves watch for himself and a leather bound sketchbook for me. It was time for dinner but the two restaurants - an Italian restaurant and the Hard Rock Restaurant were fully booked!

At the end, we drove out of our hotel and had our dinner at Cassia, the fine Chinese restaurant at the near-by hotel Capella. The place was so tastefully designed with finest details by Andre Fu. Chef Lok and the service staff team were visibly happy when I showed them the finished sketch. We received top-class service and complimentary desert.

What’s Our Sputnik? - by Tom Friedmen

To start another new week I like to share an article from NYTimes for us to ponder before I post some sketches I did last weekend.

admission 2010

My first sketch in this new year. 'O' level result was released last Monday. JAE, or Joint admission exercise for entry into the local polytechnics was held from Tuesday to Friday. The teaching staff seen here was having a quick discussion with a fashion senior student in between the course advisements. Last year, I also did a sketch during the JAE period, it is here.

at a Korean restaurant

This is the place we had our lunch before going to Korea University where my daughter was studying under the Singapore-Korea varsity exchange programme. My daughter recommended the pork belly - one of the signature dishes of this restaurant. As usual, there were various types of kimchi, bean pastes and vegetables. We were following the local custom and wrapped the meat, kimchi or bean paste with the green leaves. It was really yummy!

People in this sketch were having steamboat and beer directly opposite our table. I remember asking myself when I was sketching : "Why are the couple still wearing winter jackets while having steamboat?". Looking at the sketch now, I could have added some steam to the steamboat.

Here are some photos of Korea University. It is a very big campus with huge plazas and neo-classical buildings. I thought I was in an European campus.

experience nature within the city

"Experience Nature Within The City" is the tagline for COEX Aquarium.

These are the last set of pencil sketches from my recent trip to Korea. A sketch subject that I was not familiar with when the prolific Korean sketchers brought me to a large shopping mall across the Bongeunsa Temple on 22 Dec 2009. COEX MALL, is the largest shopping mall in Seoul, Korea. They brought me to the aquarium on the upper level of the mall and it was interesting to me that such a huge aquarium could be housed inside a big mall. As I started sketching and exploring the fishes, I was so impressed with the scale of the aquarium! It was huge! We walked through a seeminly frameless curved tunnel that passed through 2,000 tons of seawater. The automatic walkway in the tunnel took the visitors through big sharks, large turtles and other marine creatures. My favourite of all was the feeding session at the end of our visit. My Korean sketcher friends captured the act very well here and here.

Growing up in Singapore, my memory of an aquarium is so remote after my favourite Van Kleef Aquarium was closed in 1996 and demolished in 1998 at the foot of Fort Canning, River Valley Road opposite the current Novotal Hotel at Clark Quay.

no more ink!

The day I visited Biwon Garden, there was not a single drop of ink in my fountain pen. I did the sketch under the cold weather with the ball point pen I bought from a local gift shop.

Biwon Garden aka Secret Garden was created in 1463 by King Sejo as part of the expansion for Changdeok Palace which was completed in 1412. The garden had been rebuilt several times. Thirteen of Korea's kings lived here for a total of over 270 years, a longer period than at Gyeongbok Palace. The palace grounds cover over 110 acres. 13 of the original buildings remain, with an additional 28 in Biwon Garden.

Biwon is typical of palace backyards where kings and other members of the royal family would go to relax and entertain. In 1997, it was listed as a World Heritage Site as an outstanding example of Far Eastern Palace architecture and garden design. To be able to take a look inside the palace, we had to take part in a guided tour so I had very little time to do the sketch. The best time to visit the garden should be in Spring. However, I was satisfied when I finished sketching the trees without leaves!

Bongeunsa Temple, Seoul, Korea

Here is the sketch I did with my son and the wonderful Korean sketchers on 22 Dec 2009 when we witnessed the celebration of first day of winter (冬至). We saw very big crowd and fortune wishes tied to a tree like structure. This 1200-year-old Bongeunsa Temple (奉恩寺) was built in the year 794 and was reconstructed in 1498.

quick pencil sketches

I have been back from Korea for about two weeks but could not find time earlier to post my travel sketches. First, three very quick pencil sketches of the folk drumers and the Bongeunsa Temple, Seoul, Korea.

Happy New Year 2010!

My 100th post at USk on this new year day! Here is the view of the beautiful city of Seoul, Korea with two historical palaces and a shirne sprouting out from the mountains. May year 2010 be as spectacular as the view from Seoul tower.