September Sketchwalk at Upper Circular Road

Above sketch by Tia

For this month's sketchwalk, we will meet at the bus stop outside The Central at 9AM (see map). After a short briefing, we will cross the road and walk through Upper Circular Road and then through Circular road. Take your time to draw what you wish. There will be shophouses, watering holes and cafes along the way. We encourage you to take your own detours. If you prefer to walk along the river, go ahead. But please take note that at 12PM we will all gather again outside the UOB Plaza along the Singapore river (see map).

If you come later, no problem. Just walk along the route in the map and you will find us. Look for people drawing along the side of the road.

Everybody is welcome. No permission to join or attendance to be taken. Just show up during the time stated. See you all there.



Lucky draw

Join the lucky draw by clicking the picture below sponsored by Parkablogs.com

Final Mass Sketchwalk

I was still doing this piece and Orling called me to go over for the group picture. The group picture will bring fond memories in time to come. Can you spot moi?

Day 4 - sketching KK's demo session

Ch'ng Kiah Kiean from Penang whose demonstration sessions were so popular at the Symposium was having a session in the morning on the fourth day, also the last day. I was too tired to walk around so I sketched the group of Brazilian sketchers attending his session. We also met Teoh Wenqi in the group; a young Malaysian lady doing her internship teaching in another city about few hundred kilometres from Paraty. She was teachng English at an international school there. Rare to see Asians in Paraty and everywhere we went, we were mistaken by the locals as Japanese tourists.

Urban Sketchers in Lyon

Day 3 at Pereque-Acu River - Corsario

The open sketchwalk on Day 3 was at Rio Pereque Acu just next to a prominent curvilinear bridge accessible to cars and pedestrians overlooking an old church. I did not know when I was sketching it that this was the back of First Church of Our Lady of the Remedies in Paraty. My hotel was directly facing the front of the church! I totally lost my sense of scale and direction in Paraty. Blame it on the cobblestones that I could not walk straight and see what's was directly in front of me.

There were so many sketchers sketching alongside with me. I wish I had more time to speak to them. I was with Kumi from Japan and KK from Penang. Thais Lima Machado Canavezes, a young Brazilian sketcher was sitting next to me and I gave her some tips when she asked. I told her to squint both eyes to read the tonal values and added horizontal darker tones for the row of houses along the river. I also advised her to add some colours here and there especially the sky. She was very pleased with the result.

Day 2 of Symposium - Beautiful Cais Paraty

These are schooner boats turned leisure boats for hire at Paraty Pier. They are in candy colours - pink, purple, sky blue, turquoise, lime etc.

The Pier or Cais Paraty is next to Santa Rita church. This old church dates back to 1722 and stands beautifully against the backdrop of the lush, green hills. It was drizzling and I had my poncho while Liz Steel and the participants in her workshop next to the church were looking for corners to hide from the cold wind and rain drops while sketching the church surroundings. While I was sketching, I witnessed how cars and people trying to avoid the flood water that was just in front of me. People just took out their shoes while not many cars drove through the flood waters. Drivers reversed their cars before making a U-turn and disappeared very quickly in front of me. HA!

Remembering 911

Day 1 of Symposium in Paraty, Brazil

This is Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores, The Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, also the first loose ink and watercolour piece I did upon arrival at Paraty after a 5-hour journey on the road from Sao Paulo. This church was erected in 1800s on the initiative of the ladies of the aristocracy of the city. The church was abandoned around 1901, when the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows, composed exclusively of women, retired.
It is now known as "Chapel of Sorrows" or just "Chapel." There was only one tower now but originally it was designed to have two towers.

Similar to all Brazilian colonial towns, Paraty’s churches were built according to social status and race. There are four churches in the town, Santa Rita was for the ‘freed coloured men’, The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Benedict was for the blacks and two other churches for the whites.

Paraty is a beautiful colonial city paved with cobblestones which were left behind by the Portuguese who replaced them with heavy golds to ship back home in their huge vessels. Walking on these pavements was challenging although there were no cars at all. The small town was founded in 1667 around the Church of "Nossa Senhora dos Remedios", the patron saint. Paraty is famous for its sugar cane mills and the name "paraty" synonym of a very good sugar cane rum. I saw small bottles labeling "Cachaca" at local lifestyle stores catering for its large numbers of tourists and did not know it was a kind of distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice.


size : 680mm x 240mm

Sketches Alight

Urban Sketchers Singapore had a little public workshop on the evening of Saturday, 6 Sep 2014 for the Mid-Autumn Festival at Transitional___02 on the rooftop of the National Design Centre. The idea is basically to create paper lanterns using paper on which quick sketches were done, which participants get to take home with them and use while celebrating with mooncakes and tea. More info on this workshop and Transitional___02 at: http://www.shophouseandco.com/transitional/02/sketchesalight/






photos by parka at https://www.flickr.com/photos/126095157@N05/with/14970257370

Travelling Sketchbook on Brazil

I am back from Brazil!

I am not very good at scanning, gave up on that, took photos instead. Here is the cover of A5 Moleskine Japanese Album that I brought for my trip to Brazil. I will update all my sketches later.