USKSG Volume 3 Submission

Calling for sketches for USkSG Book Vol. 3! 
Submission form: https://forms.gle/13jgDQ5JRHmRZtMf9

It’s been 10 years since we released Vol. 2; we reckon it’s time for a new collection of memories and sketches done by our wonderful community.

So start going through your sketchbooks over the past 10 years (or however long you have been with us); don’t miss out on the opportunity to contribute to collection! 

Full instructions in the submission form link above!

Commissioned Project

Today on 15 May 2023, I just delivered the complete artwork 1300 x 600mm to the client who is a good friend. Photo here shows a small part. Don't want to stress over deadlines anymore. I am only open to conducting travelling workshops! Retire lor.

Urban Sketchers Singapore: Volume One

Today, 22 Oct 2021, it's been exactly 10 years since we launched our first group publication and companion exhibition — Urban Sketchers Singapore: Volume One. We missed by a day, but 522 Fridays ago, a huge crowd descended upon The URA Centre to show their support, flipping through colourful pages and gawking at the displays we put together. Were you there, and did you get a copy of the book?

Book Launch for "Urban Sketchers Singapore: Volume Two"

Thanks Parka for the video. Our second book "Urban Sketchers Singapore: Volume Two" was launched on Saturday, 16 May 2015 at National Library Board. Free copies were given out to the public who registered for the event. For readers who are interested to get a copy, you can like our book page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/usksgvolumes to find out more.

Jan Sketchwalk

For the first official sketchwalk of the year, we are going to do something special! We're going to do an Island-wide sketchwalk! The reason is because we want all of you to capture sketches for the upcoming Urbansketchers Singapore Vol.2 book. And all sketches need to be compiled by February! Very soon!

Let me tell you a bit more about the vol.2 book. It is a team-up with the National Library's Singapore Memory Project. So the focus of the book this round are sketches of places that have special meaning to you and your personal stories behind the places. In the book, your sketch and story will be displayed something like this: 

Got it?

Sketch can be landscape or portrait. We will adjust the layout.

SKETCHWALK LOCATIONS ON 31st JAN, SATURDAY.

We all have places in Singapore that are meaningful to us. It may be your old school, the neighbourhood playground where you used to play with your friends,  the place you got married, the shopping centre your parents used to take you to, where you used to hang out in your teenage years, or where something very happy or sad or important happened to you. We all have different locations in mind. So we can't all go to the same place. Therefore, this month, we splitting into mini groups.

You may form your own mini-group, do a solo, or join one of the mini groups that have been set up already (if your meaningful location is very close to theirs). To join a mini group listed below, simply show up at 4pm at the location stated. Call the mini group leader only if you are lost. No sign up or fees necessary. They are all friendly so make friends with them:) 

Name: Ignatius

Place/s you want to go: Tiong Bahru

Phone number: 97450038

Meeting point: Tiong Bahru Food Centre. Ground level next to the escalator. 4pm.

Time: 4-7pm 

Name: Tony Chua

Place/s you want to go: In vinicity area of Telok Kurau till Still Road.

Phone number: 97898637 

Meeting Point: Penny University, Artisanal Coffeeshop, 402, East Coast. Just outside the main entrance. 4pm.

Time: 4- 7pm 

Name:  David Liew

Place/s you want to go: Holland Village / Chip Bee Estate 

Phone number: 96896312   

Meeting point:  Holland V MRT (in front of Old Chang Kee) 4pm.

Time: 4-7pm

Name:  Don Low

Place/s you want to go: Race Course Road

Phone number: 84183032

Meeting point:  Farrer MRT Station Control at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Jenny Sim

Phone number: 94891416

Place/s you want to go: About Street 11, Pasir Ris

Meeting point:  Pasir Ris MRT station counter at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Francis Theo

Phone number: 90021001

Place/s you want to go: Tras St and Peck Seah St area

Meeting point: Tanjong Pager MRT station counter at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Ban Pang

Phone number: 93858391

Place/s you want to go: Kampong on mainland Singapore, Kampong Buangkok

Meeting point: Meet at Shell Station next to Gerald Dr. at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Lim Ham Seng and Dawn Lo

Phone number: 97414633

Place/s you want to go: Sunset Way Park Connector

Meeting point: Blk 308 Coffee Shop Clementi Ave 4 at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: TIA BOON SIM

Phone number: 96968080

Place/s you want to go: Prinsep St and Waterloo St Vacinity

Meeting point: Outside Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Andrew Tan Tsun Wen

Phone number: 91070735

Place/s you want to go: Serene Centre along bukit timah road. And then take a bus to Bukit Timah Plaza.

Meeting point: MacDonalds at Serene Centre at 4pm

Time: 4-7pm

Name: Alice Lim

Phone number: 96369780

Place/s you want to go: Dakota crescent 

Meeting point: Dakota MRT at 4pmTime: 4-7pm 

To form your own mini-group, you can do it informally with your own friends. Or Facebook PM me, Andrew Tan Tsun Wen, so I can list it here.

By the way, even if you not intending to contribute to the book, you are can still tag along and draw for fun.

SHOW AND TELL

It will be an online Facebook "show and tell" this time. Between 7-8pm, you are encouraged to post your drawings you have done that day! You could also informally meet with other mini-groups for dinner!

WRITING THE STORY

No hurry on this. Go sketch your meaningful sketch location. Let the location jog your memory. Then go home and type it up. Keep the story short. 1 or 2 paragraphs will do. Do not write pages and pages as we will not have enough room in the book.

Don't worry if you feel you aren't a good story writer. We just want you to write from the heart as if you are writing in your own diary. Simple and heartfelt. And we will help you edit any spelling mistakes or grammer errors. To help you write a simple short story, follow this rough guideline (you don't have to answer every question):

1. What is this place you drew?

2. What do/did you see, hear, smell here? 

3. What happened to you here that makes this place special to you?

4. How has it changed?

5. How did it make you feel then? And now?

We are still sorting out the best way you can submit your sketch & story. For the time being, find a scanner and scan your work at 600dpi, RGB, and saved as in the .jpg format. Make sure the sketch is clear. 

Ideally, we will want to include everyone who submits. But the editorial team will have the right to select and reject submissions based on quality and suitability.

Result of Katong Sketchwalk

Too busy to scan and post this piece of work I did for the ad-hoc sketchwalk. Thanks Tony Tan of Betel Box Backpackers Hostel for hosting us, providing their comfortable premises for us to do the briefing and show and tell before and after the sketchwalk on 17 Aug.

Book launch at Bookactually

Zhu Hong had his book launch at Booksactually, 9 Yong Siak Street at Tiong Bahru Estate. Had not seen Miel Dengcoy for a while. He is here in my sketch on the left with Ignatius Yeo in the middle and Zhu Hong on the right. He was holding his phone, again. If you not already known, his latest book entitled 'Have phone, will paint' collected more than 125 pages of sketches done with his Samsung Galaxy Note. Finally, can you spot Cake, the cat in my sketch too?

Epigram's sale conference

A sketch at the sale conference organised by Epigram, our publisher for the neighbourhood series. So far these are the titles published under the series: Toa Payoh, Tiong Bahru and Bedok. The next one is Queestown.

Last Sketchwalk for the year 2012

Hi Everyone!

This upcoming sketchwalk will be in favour of the people living in the east because we will be sketching around Bedok! It's a pretty busy and big neighbourhood. We will meet at the Bedok Food Centre just beside Bedok Mrt Station at 930am. You can have your breakfast there before the event (or eat and draw when the sketching starts like some of you like to do) From the food centre, we will hand out highlighted locations for you to draw and explore so you can head for all the places that are famous in Bedok.

You will be able to submit the sketches done in this sketchwalk to Epigram to be included in the upcoming "I Love Bedok" book. Yes, it's in the same series as the "I love Toa Payoh" book. Only the best sketches will be chosen for the book so do as many as you can and submit them! You will get 1 complimentary copy if 1 drawing gets into the book. And 2 copies if 3 or more drawings gets featured.
(all files sent to Jocelyn using yousendit or youtransfer at jocelyn@epigrambooks.sg)

We will have just 3 groups this time + 1 special ah-hoc afternoon group (see below).

We will meet back at the hawker centre again (this may change if we find a quieter location) at 12:30pm for a show and tell session before lunch.

See you guys there!

Group 1

BEDOK INTERCHANGE

• Bedok MRT entrance (on Bus Interchange side)

Very busy area. There is a regular blind busker here who starts playing from evening. Said to have good voice.

• Bedok Bus Interchange and surrounds

There are some iconic places at the interchange itself that I think should be documented. One is the flower shop, the other is a medicine shop that sells really inexpensive toiletries. And further in there's the wet market and lots of mom and pop shops (I'd recommend one called Kian Wee Stationery Shop -- has those old school toys too!)

• Bedok Interchange Food Centre (Blk 207 New Upper Changi Road)

- Goreng Pisang stall (back corner stall)

- Bedok Chwee Kueh, #01-53

- Jian Bo Shui Kueh, #01-24

- Selegie Soya Bean / Beancurd, #01-46

- Famous Bedok porridge near interchange - ??

• Current construction of Bedok Residences –Huge site worth recording, cranes and all!

• Princess Theatre building – v old.

Group 2

BEDOK TOWN CENTRE

• Bedok Public Library
  This was the first solar powered library. Might be good for sketches to catch top-view down (if possible?).
• Bedok Adventure Park

• Blk 216 Market and Food Centre (technically Bedok North St 1)

Hon Ni Kitchen Nasi Lemak (closed on Sun)

Chris’s Kway Chap, #01-80

Rui Xing Coffee (kopi and toast), #01-42

Mixed rice stall ($2 only!) facing road, always with long queues

• And any other neighbourhood stores that catch artists’ attention
  
  

Group3

New Upper Changi Road / Bedok North Road

• Bedok Swimming Complex
• Bedok Sports Hall
• Bedok Stadium
• Bedok Badminton Hall
• Bedok Tennis Centre
• Bedok Community Club (across road from swimming pool)

ADHOC GROUP

BEDOK SOUTH

Bedok South Ave 1

• Bedok South Road Market and Food Centre (Blk 16)

Ah Wah Rojak, #01-197

Hill Street Char Kway Teow, #01-187

• Blk 18 HDB old-style long block

This is next to food centre, and good angles to sketch from – the ground here is all red tiled.

Temasek Junior College (I don’t think this is drawable from outside, so it is optional)

Gregory's new book

Danny Gregory is one of the best known Urban Sketchers in the world. He has written many books on the subject. Butch Belair and Tommy Kane helped Danny make this video for his newest book. The video will explain what the book is about. I am sure this book is the result of how Danny came out of his misery after loosing his wife a few years' ago. It should be another amazing book.

photos of "Scenes, Seen" exhibition

Nearly a year after the debut of our book Volume One and its companion exhibition, Urban Sketchers Singapore returns this year with a very compact, super-casual exhibition only six days long. The exhibition is at Galeri Utama as an Archifest 2012 fringe event, the exhibition will let fans of the book and the group see what We had been up to since last October. Thanks to Parka, here are more photos of the exhibition from 26 to 31 Oct 2012.

The book "Urban Sketchers in Lisbon - drawing the city"

I got my copy sent by Eduardo Salavisa tonight.
If you like to purchase a copy, click the buy button on side bar at USK.

The Art of Urban Sketching

YES! The book is available FIRST in Singapore. Copies at Basheers Graphic Books are all sold out but the folks at Basheers reserved a copy for me to collect today! Here is the video by Parka who bought his copy earlier. It is an incredible book put together by Gabi, our energetic and highly capable President of Urban Sketchers which I am also one of the founding board directors. I also helped to coordinate the Singapore chapter of the book. Order your copy at Amazon now or you can wait for the world-wide book launch in Feb 2012.

Here is the link to order online.

Video of Sketchwalk on 12 Nov 2011

USKSG book launch photo collage

the book poster

in the local newspaper

We were featured in the two big local newspaper Lian He Zao Bao 联合早报 and The Straits Time dated 23 Oct and 29 Oct 2011 respectively.

Sketchwalk Oct, 29 Oct

Hi everyone,
October's sketchwalk will follow the same plan as the previous adhoc sketchwalk around the Tanjong Pagar and Duxton areas. There is much to draw and discover around these parts.

We will meet at URA centre (location 1) at 10am then walk over to the corner of maxwell road to sketch the former Jinriksha Station at 1 Neil Road (location 2). Afterwhich, we will walk and sketch along tanjong pagar road and explore duxton road and duxton hill area (location 3) before walking back to URA centre for our show and tell at 1pm. (see map) Then we will have lunch! If you get lost, please look for us along the mentioned route (we will be everywhere) or meet us back at URA centre after the sketchwalk.

This sketchwalk is open to the public and everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level!

the book "Urban Sketchers Singapore Volume 1"

The book that we have been all waiting for is out! Order a copy here!
The book showcases sketches and photographs that were done in the past two years from 2010 to 2011. Some of the buildings that were sketched had already been demolished so some of the pages literally record our memories.

33 contributing sketchers responded to the production of the book so the sketches offered a wide variety of styles and techniques. As a publisher, I make sure that it is not just a visual treat so there are also descriptions for the places, stories of the places plus quotations by sketchers and friends.

The book is also on sale at the "Urban sketchers Singapore Volume 1" exhibition at URA Centre, 45 Maxwell Road from 21 Oct to 24 Dec 2011. The book has a hard cover at 248 pages with over 360 images. Here are some pages in the book, they are from Parka's flickr album. Enjoy!

USKSG Volume 1 now available at Kinokuniya

Our book Urban Sketchers Singapore Volume 1 is now available at one of our biggest bookstores Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City, Bugis and Liang Court. Here is a picture of our book on the bookshelves of Kinokuniya @ Ngee Ann City.

Our strategy to have a plain book cover works! we wanted a minimalist look cover among the colourful book covers in the art and design section.