diners at eating house

I had my late dinner at this place near to my house. When I was doing the sketch, the cleaner who was a Chinese national and other food stall helpers stopped work and talked among themselves about my sketch. The food stall helpers went back to work soon after but the cleaner just stood next to me and watched. The drink stall helper came and asked him to continue to work and to leave me alone. I was grateful for that. The photos depicted that it was too late for a picture of the family in my sketch and the man sat down at the same table soon after the family left.

an empty cafe

I have been extremely busy lately with book project, family issues, office workload and old classmates reunion. I normally don't talk about my office but I will be taking over two departments on 1 Sept. I felt excited, anxiuos but at the same time worried.

I felt really lousy these day so today after my music session, I went to this empty cafe for my very late lunch. I had the entire cafe to myself and I read, ate, drank and finally sketched. I felt slightly better after that.

Gloria Jean's Coffees

The ladies were so engrossed in their conversation that I could take my time to sketch them while enjoying my meccademia cake and coffee. I sat on a sofa so I was looking up to them and I liked the angle for the sketch.

Gloria Jean's Coffees at Suntec City Mall is cozy and spacious. The coffee chain was sold for US$40 million in 1993 so it began its offshore journey out of America! They claim to "select the highest quality Arabica beans, lovingly roasted in our state of the art roasting facilities in Sydney and handcraft each drink in every store".

The coffee was very nice and I like it just as my sketch.

Sketchwalk August

Dear sketchwalkers, the upcoming sketchwalk for this month will be at Geylang Serai, this saturday. Some of us did an adhoc sketchwalk there recently, but they didn't cover everything. And some of us could not make it. So now you have one more chance to capture the preparations for the upcoming Hari Raya Puasa.

The sketchwalk leader for this event will be Paul. Please look out for him at the main PAYA LEBAR MRT control station (not the circle line) at 10AM sharp.  We will start later as this will give us time to vote (polling day) before or after the sketchwalk. From there, we will make our way to the area of the malay village and Joo Chiat Shopping Complex. (See map.) We will meet again at 1PM for lunch and "show and tell" (lunch location to be revealed at event) If you can't find us or have any questions, please call Paul 97923622

roti prata no more!

My favourite roti prata from Bismilla Indian Muslim stall located at Hin Hollywood Canteen, Lion City Hotel which is due for demolition for another modern and bigger commercial development. The canteen within the premises with so many good food will be gone by 1 Sep, 2011.

Roti Prata is a fried flour based pancake in South East Asia. Roti means "bread" in Malay. Most of the food stalls in this place will continue their business somewhere. But the prata man said he has no intention to set up any stall anywhere. We are all going to miss the cheap and really good crispy roti prata.

Oh yes, the car park charge has increased since last Friday from S$2.00 to S$2.50 per entry on Sunday for a place that is going to be gone in another two weeks? This is really ridiculous in my view.

For this sketch, the queue at prata stall was really long but I had to make it shorter as I was in a hurry. I had to meet someone in the city plus I left my phone at home! I decided to just use simple lines and shapes and I did it in 5 to 10 minutes I think.

dome at parkway parade

This is Cafe Dome next to Borders at Parkway Parade, one of the biggest shopping malls in the east. When I was there in the morning, the timber framed glass doors connecting Borders and Dome were still shut on the left. It was a significant day for Borders who was to close its biggest flagship store in Asia at Wheelock Place in Orchard Road due to a dispute with the landlord. This store at Parkway Parade will be the only one in this country.

trouble Borders

Orange Thimble in Tiong Bahru

The Orange Thimble is a new cafe in Tiong Bahru. The same owners as White Canvas Gallery. I like the concept and the ambience of the place. One of my Tiong Bahru sketches was hung on the wall.

Katong Laksa

I had a bowl of Katong Laksa before heading home. I had to sketch this family sitting in front of me directly. They were wearing the sport T-shirt that had country flags on the sleeves plus the word EPL on it. The scale was also interesting with the little girl sitting among the party. As I was sketching, I dropped the Hero Pen and the nib was alright but I could feel it cut the paper a little as I sketched. The ink also flowed more and bled a little.

I do not mind it, just need to get used to it as long as the ink continues to flow.

A dinner date with my children

I brought my son and daughter for dinner when my husband was on business trip last Friday. I had been very very busy since my return from Lisbon so I treasured the dinner date very much. I pampered them by ordering dishes that they like. I managed to do a sketch after a very good meal. We continued to shop and bought a pair of pants and a very nice shirt for my son.

This sketch was done on the first page of the new Muji Sketchbook. Size 130 x 130mm.

Prawn Noodles at Thomson Road

I took a half day leave in the afternoon and drove to Thomson Road for my lunch. I saw this crowded coffee shop just opposite Novena Catholic Church so I decided to check it out. From the newspaper clippings on the wall, I realised that this coffee shop was hailed as having the legendary prawn noodle from Whitley Road! So I ordered a bowl of dry noodles with medium size prawn and a cup of coffee. The verdict : I like it very much especially the soup.

This sketch is also the last page of the Muji Sketchbook size: 130 x 130mm.

Stamps with my artwork

First Day Covers are here!

National Day First Day Cover

It is out! The news release on National Day First Day Cover. If you not already known, the stamps feature 4 of my sketches of which two were done on locations in Joo Chiat , the heritage town and Taman Jurong to give tribute to late Goh Keng Swee's economic contribution to our country. My earlier post with the sketches is here.

a simple sketch of Obidos

I was ambitious to try a big format for Obidos. But there was no time. So I had to keep it very simple. Colours were added later and I kept it as simple as I started on site. Less lines and textures, just shapes and simple colours.

This was the last one inside the walls. Size 200 x 400mm or 8" x 16" ink and watercolours.

Day trip to Obidos

We took a day trip to Obidos on Monday, 25 July, 2011. I did two big format sketches and this is the very first one at size 200 X 400mm or 8" x 16".

I then moved on to do the second piece on a square format. You can spot Pramote and Ana in the picture too. For this piece below the size is 200 x 200mm or 8" x 8".

splashes with Forty Hands coffee!

back to people & cafe sketches

People and cafe sketches done over a few days after my Lisbon trip.

Result of Sketchwalk at Peranakan Musuem and Substation

Result of last sketchwalk back home. Although I was still having jet-lag from the Lisbon trip, I attended the July sketchwalk last Saturday. I was so glad to see so many young new sketchers. They had great potential. Thanks Parka for the pictures.

my sketches on National Day Stamp First Day Cover!

Sintra & Obidos after Lisbon

After the symposium ended on Saturday 23 July, on Sunday 24 July, a few of us were invited to join the USK Lisbon group for a celebration at the beautiful weekend house of Pedro Cabral and Rita, his wife at Sintra. The group worked very hard to make the symposium a great success! Among the Lisbon sketchers, there were also talented and really professional guitarists and singers.

On Monday, 25 July, 2011, I also joined Asnee, Pramote from Thailand, Ana Luisa Frazão and Dulce Nunes from Portugal for a day trip to Obidos to sketch. It was like a mini symposium. These five sketches were done in the Muji Sketchbook.

Obidos, a old walled town, is 100km in the north of Lisbon. Bougainvilleas were everywhere and the town retained some authenticity when no new building was permitted and only the existing structures within the walls were used as shops. The walls of the old town were painted white, with blue or yellow ochre trimmings. The town was occupied by the Moors before falling into Christian hands and that explained the Moorish patterns everywhere.