Results of April Sketchwalk

From National Parks Board website:

"At 62 hectares, Bishan - Ang Mo Kio Park, with its ponds and bridges, colourful shrubs and lush greenery, is one of the largest and most popular parks in Singapore. Divided by Marymount Road into two plots, Pond Gardens (formerly Bishan Park 1) and River Plains (formerly Bishan Park 2), the park caters to park users of all ages. Some interesting features include three exciting playgrounds, a community garden, a vantage point on a hill that gives one a landmark view of the park, and a Riverside Gallery.

One of the highlights of the park is the stretch of Kallang River that used to run in a concrete canal but is now a naturalised, meandering river teeming with life. The result of a joint collaboration between NParks and PUB, under the latter's Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Programme; this river brings park users closer to the water to enjoy its beauty and serenity, and to appreciate the flora and fauna that flourish in the park because of the waterway.

It may be of interest to visitors to note that the transformation of the canal into a river involved a series of bioengineering techniques and the use of a combination of natural materials such as vegetation and rocks. Civil engineering techniques were also used to stabilise the slope and control soil erosion.

The water quality in the ponds and river is maintained, without the use of chemicals, by a cleansing biotope located in Pond Gardens. It consists of carefully selected plants which filter out pollutants while absorbing nutrients from the water."

Quote and unquote.


Everyone loves the park although it was hot and humid at 12.30pm. By the time Andrew and I arrived at the park, I did a quick third piece with just a few strokes and simple washes. The format was long at 160mm X 300mm. The first piece on top left was done at Bishan Block 513 near Junction 8. You can see CPF Bishan Branch at the back. Andrew and I were sitting and chatting and we both did opposite view. He was sketching the Bus Interchange view. Second smaller piece was located at the junction of MRT Train Depot and Bishan Park when Andrew and I walked from Junction 8 to Bishan Park. There were three MRT tracks at this view on the left and they formed a very powerful visual lines in composition.

Size : 160mm x 160mm (1st and 2nd pieces)
Size : 160mm x 300mm (3rd piece)
Media : ink and wash

April Sketchwalk

Here is the plan for this saturday's sketchwalk:

At 9.30AM, We will meet outside the Toastbox at Junction 8 (just outside the Bishan MRT station).
We will draw around the Bishan central area. You can draw the Junction 8 shopping mall, the bus interchange there and the Bishan library with its cubby holes.

At 1030AM, let's start to fan out in the general direction of Bishan Park (See map below). Feel free to form your own small groups and form your own trails through the neighbourhood. You are encouraged to spread out and not cluster together so much. If not, everyone will be drawing the same thing. Explore freely.

From 1030 - 1230PM, take your time to explore and sketch Bishan Park which has been renovated. See the site here: Bishan Park.

At 1230AM sharp, let's meet outside the McDonald's at Bishan Park, circled in the map. We will find an open space there to view all our sketches there and end the sketchwalk.

This is just a recommended time plan. If you'd like to head to Bishan Park earlier because you are tired of drawing HDB flats, please go ahead.

If there happens to be a thunderstorm on that day, we will stick to drawing around junction 8 and the areas around.

If you are in Singapore, your are invited to join us. No joining fee or attendance. Just bring your drawing tools, paper and show up. Travel light.

If you get lost, please call 91070735. But please only call if you are seriously lost so that I won't need to keep answering my phone when I'm sketching. We will not be deviating from this mapped out route. So if you are late, please find us along this route. Thanks!:)

No Monday blues

A wonderful Monday night spent with a few sketchers at Muffinry with the talented Mexican band. Certainly no Monday blues and we had so much fun eating, drinking and sketching!

Good food and good beer

Brotzeit German Bier Bar and Restaurant at Vivo City serves very good pork knuckles, beer and sausages. The pork knuckle is very crispy, deep-fried on the outside and juicy on the inside. We ordered different types of beer too. The guy sitting in front of us was wearing a shirt with the big word "SWE10" and I had to sketch him. The table next to him had a baby and a stroller blocking the passage but it was OK, the place was very crowded anyway and I did see a few babies and their strollers. It was quite a complicated scene for a sketch but I liked the challenge.

Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail

This morning the sketchers were sketching at Tiong Bahru on the invitation of National Heritage Board to take part in the launch of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail. I did two sketches with my like-minded fellow sketchers, interviewed by the media, talked to Ms Indranee Rajah, the Member of Parliament, also Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Education. What a day!

TGIF buffet

TGIF. I had a very rough week in the office and two sketches after a good dinner was therapeutic. The top one was the second sketch at Carousel which is an expensive halal buffet restaurant with very good spread on the menu from Chinese, Indian, Italian, Greek, Middle East to Japanese. The cheese platter was one of my favourites and we were often spoil for choice. From the first sketch below, it was funny to have a long fish tank with live fishes swimming above the sea food section with sashimi, crabs, prawns, crayfishes, oysters and other sea creatures. The ladies opposite our table grabbed at least 2 big crayfishes each on their plates when they returned to their seats. From their accent, they were tourists from China.

uncles and cold beer

I sat at the smoking section and sketched these uncles drinking tiger beer bottle after bottle. There were pretty Tiger beer girls going around pouring the beer for these uncles. These girls or sometimes older aunties with heavy make up received commissions by the numbers of bottles they sold, so they happily poured away!

my other passion - wood firing at dragon kiln

Please watch and tell us how to save Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln in Singapore. Its fate is uncertain at the moment.

Join us this Sunday

We are very privileged to be invited by National Heritage Board to assist in launching the Tiong Bahru Heritage trail. Using our sketches, we will demostrate our very unique way of recording and interacting with heritage and culture.

Ms Indranee Thurai Rajah, Ministry for Law and Ministry of Education, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC will be the guest of honor. She will launch the event and even watch us sketch on-location. 

Bring a friend along and we hope to see you this Sunday at Tiong Bahru with your sketching materials.

back to Tiong Bahru

There will be an ad-hoc sketchwalk this coming Sunday from 9am to 12nn to coincide with the launch of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail organised by National Heritage Board. Urban Sketchers Singapore are leading the community to sketch the area and we are also given a booth to display our sketches at Tiong Bahru Community Club. I realise I do not have any loose sketches of Tiong Bahru as all of them were sold during the two exhibitions in the past two years. So I went down after my office hour to sketch again. I did two pieces in the long sketchbook which I bought in Bangkok for only 100Bht or S$4.00. Very cheap and the paper quality is good that no problem for heavy washes.

Size : 160mm x 300mm
Media : ink and watercolour

late dinner

At Coffee Club, while the group with baby and kid was enjoying each others' company, the two younger men on the right were always typing and reading on laptop and smartphone. They did not talk to each other at all.

Sunday dinner

Speed sketching before they left at one of my favourite dinner places; the corner of Joo Chiat Place and Still Road. Although I have sketched at the same place before on the bottom right, I have not been sketching much lately on Muji Sketchbook.