8th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Chicago

This bring back fond memories as Gabi mentioned about my email to him in 2008 at 25:08 to be a USK sketch correspondent reporting from Singapore. I remember I had to upload all my old sketches on the Flickr for Gabi to see as we need to 'show the world one drawing at a time'.

Urban Sketchers in Lyon

I will be conducting a workshop with Paul Wang for the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona from 11-13 July. Hope to see you there!

Support "Give a little, Ge a sketch!"

video from Lisbon

the little presale foldout

The is the initial little presale foldout we did to promote the USKSG book. I brought a few copies to Lisbon and told people that the launch date was 9 Sep 2011. We then set up the facebook page, website and twitter to shout out to interested people and the launch date was finally set to be on 21 Oct 2011. These few weeks a few memebers from Urban Sketchers Singapore are busy with our book launch on 21 Oct 2011 at URA Centre. I am the independent publisher for the book it is our contribution to promote the manesfesto of Urban Sketchers worldwide.

steamboat dinner for a cold night

I was too busy to scan my sketches until last night and I uploaded them to my flickr site. Within the short period of time, a few viewers noticed "the details right down to her crack". Oh, it certainly was a very fun sketch to do. I also want to say that this coffee shop at Siglap is famous for their fish steamboat which was perfect for a cold night.

we are on Razor TV!

Urban Sketchers from Singapore are on local Razor TV.

Special Sketchwalk Queenstown 08 Jan 2011

You are invited to join us for a special sketchwalk this Saturday, 8 Jan 2011 near Margaret Drive in Queenstown. We are hoping to sketch and record the old estate before it is demolished by end Jan 2011. We will meet at 9.30am, Blk 27A Commonwealth Ave, at the bus stop nearest to Queenstown MRT Station. call Edric at 96358132 if you are lost at the station.

Alternatively, you can meet TIA at blk 40A, the hawker centre for an early breakfast before the sketchwalk. We will start sketching at around 9.40am from the hawker centre and explore the surroundings. Blk 38 has an unique roof structure - an icon in the rustic charming Margaret Drive neighbourhood. Call TIA at 96968080 if you are lost on the day of sketchwalk!

blog flag

This week I appeared on the blogflag of Urbansketchers.

Liz's 15 years of long service trip

Here is my first reaction when I saw a great post on Urban Sketchers today.

Liz Steel, Urban Sketcher from Australia, also an architect, earned herself a long service trip from July to Oct 2010 this year. She worked for the same company for 15 years to earn the trip. How about people like me who work for 20 years at the same place at June this year? Ok, some may say I get to go to Portland but that was not after I had to apply for it by submitting a paper to justify my trip and the paper was vetted by 3 levels of authorities at my workplace. In addition, the trip was partly sponsored by the the symposium organizer as I was invited to be one of the international presenters. Really happy for Liz.

Kallang River from the Sky Park

This was the third time I went up to the Sky Park of Marina Bay Sands to sketch. This time I decided to sketch the other side of the island view that covered Singapore Flyer, Kallang River and the East Coast area. I could see National Stadium and Indoor Stadium too. As I was sitting on my tiny stool getting into the mood of sketching, the security guard came and said: "Sorry ma'am, no sitting is allowed." I was upset but continued the sketch in a hurry and added the blue-green colour on location to mark the long winding Kallang River. I rendered the black trees and green turf later for Marina Bay Golf Course. Opposite the golf course at the other side of the river bank is the big wheel called the Singapore Flyer and directly under the big wheel is F1 Pit Building- location for the F1 Grand Prix held this week from 24 to 26 Sep. That's a lot of happenings this week for our tiny city-state island.

same temple different sketch

Same temple, same caretaker, different date and different format. The tree on the left has grown quite a bit to cover the other dragon on the roof eave. Ink and watercolour, 400 x 200mm.

backstage

Similar to Chinese all over the world, Chinese in Singapore too has a rich background of folklore, customs, rituals, festivals, myths and celebrations. Seventh month of lunar calendar is the Hungry Ghost Festival during which the Chinese believe that all the hell gates will open to free the 'hungry ghosts' from hell. People from earth must appease these "hungry ghosts" either by staging a Chinese traditional opera show or a modern musical show called the 'Getai' along side with offering sumptuous food, burning paper money and big joss sticks.

Last night, I followed my photographer friends to the backstage of a opera troupe at Beach Road and did one sketch. I was overwhelmed with the movements, sight and sound from these hardworking and multitasking opera performers. One moment, an actress could be a pregnant lady and next moment, the same actress could be a warlord with sword! Beside their roles as various characters on the show, they also doubled up as stage hands, make up artist and chorus. I even spotted two performers in their heavy make-up and costumes searching through stage photos on a laptop. Everyone had a standard chest for costumes and a cabinet with mirror at the exact position on the backstage regardless of the performance venue for the entire opera troupe. What a team of multitaskers! Respect!

sketching from the sky park

Last Friday after night sketching with the group, I went to Marina Bay Sands to stay for a night with my family. Next day, Don and Kath joined us for an over-priced local lunch before heading up to the sky park and sketch. I found a tiny shady area and sketched comfortably while Don bravely stood under the hot sun for one and a half to two hours.

Night Sketching at Rangoon Road

I pre-splashed some black and salt on the watercolour papers for the night sketch. We gathered at Heartroom Gallery at Block 44, Owen Road. Mei Ho, gallery owner invited us for a sumptuous meal with famous hokkien mee and home made chicken porridge before our sketch walk. We had a great time. I did two 250x250mm format in ink, watercolours and white gouache.

Central Business District

The best time to sketch the central business district in any city is on Saturday and Sunday. No crowd and no traffic. This sketch rekindles my memories as an architect except that the building is not designed by me. I used to pour coffee but this time I had fun experimentating with salt and lots of splashing.

A3 size, ink, watercolour and salt.

Happy 45th Birthday, Singapore!

We are a very young nation and how timely for me to post this sketch to celebrating Singapore's 45th national day on 9 Aug 2010. I sketched this on the rooftop of the new hotel Marina Bay Sands last Saturday. The yellow part is the customized seats at the Padang or lawn in front of The City Hall building which is the venue for this year's national day celebrations.

Did you notice even today's logo for Google homepage is made up of icons of Singapore?

Portland watercolour pieces

I am back from the most amazing 3-day Urban Sketching Symposium in Portland.

My sketches of Portland are on three different types of format. One is the regular moleskine (A6 size), the other one is the special USK moleskine (A5 size). Finally the long watercolour format (400x200mm). Here are the three watercolour sketches on the long format I did on each different day plus some photos taken at the Symposium.

More sketches and photos at my flickr.


Day 3 at Portland Farmers Market I did the Simon Benson House, Urban Colour group


Day 2 at Ire Keller Fountain, Urban Nature group


Day 1 at Cargo Store near PNCA, Urban Colour group


Day 1 to 3 on USK moleskine

sketchers in the local news

Today is a off day for me that I was still on bed in the morning when my daughter came to my room to tell me there was a write up about me and the exhibition. This time, there is a mention of urban sketchers and Gabi, the founder.