sketchwalk telok ayer

Pen, ink, colour pencil + photoshop.

Sketchwalk at Telok Ayer

I always think of a drawing as a jigsaw puzzle, with dozens of different pieces demanding your attention. Unlike shooting a scene with a camera, sketching on the spot is harder because you cannot blur the background or use a fast-apertured lens to focus a subject and make it stand out. If you arrange all those pieces in the right order you'll end up with an organised, structured image that makes sense and (well, fingers crossed) looks good. While studying Architecture in college, my old teacher always reminded me that pretty pictures is not much about detail and vibrant colors. That there’s only two factors that will make or break your pictures—composition and tonal value. If you put them together any other way, without a definite picture first in your mind, the end result will be a muddled mess of shapes, colours and details that's difficult to make sense of. Though sometimes spontaneity can be good too. Maybe that’s what they say about “breaking the rule”. Until now I still struggle with compositions and tonal value. And maybe I will forever. But what’s important is I like drawing and I enjoy every minute of it—and that’s what make it every inch satisfying—even more so doing it with people who share the same passion in drawing as I do. Who cares if the end result wasn’t as good as I strived for? I put my feelings into it. And at the end of the day that’s what really art is about—heart.

Below are some pictures of the sketch I did while participating the Telok Ayer Sketchwalk with USK-SG.

Sketchwalk Amoy Street 27 Nov 10

Sketchwalk Amoy Street 27 Nov 10

by Grace Yeo, age 21+++

by Sarah Rozario, age 12

by Athalia Yeo, age 9

by Eleora Yeo, age 11

by Deborah Ng, age 10

by Eleora Yeo

Telok Ayer Street 2010

Click for more.

Sketchwalk November

Trip to Pulau Ubin

Dinner @ Bishamon- Best ramen ever!

After a superb sketchwalk experience in the morning, we headed to Vivo to do some shopping for cleaning products, and then back to Funan for Kat's singing lesson. While waiting for her to finish, I sketch the Central Fire Station. Afterwhich we were at Bishamon for ramen - it was heaven!!




:D

Best ramen ever!

Supper at Xin Wang Cafe after Kat's lesson

Kat was having her hip hop lessons at Scape. I went to fetch her after her class but I was needing a drink. So we decided to hang out in Xin Wang Taiwanese Cafe for supper and I ordered my favorite red pearl's tea to quench my thirst. Besides I love their crispy chicken cubes too. Almost every Friday we would come here for food. Here's a pix of what we have ordered!

cafe sketches - coffee and people

Coffee Club at Siglap. This group of eight young ladies enjoyed each other's company and they were oblivious to people around them. A few of them would burst out into uncontrollable laughter but it was alright to me since they never got off from their seats so I could sketch them. Sepia colours are coffee stains. Can you spot the Coffee Club logo on the counter wall?

More cafe sketches on coffee and people on my blog.

SKETCHWALK NOVEMBER

You are invited to join us for our upcoming sketchwalk happening this saturday, 27th Nov. We will be meeting at the Amoy Street Food Centre's POSB ATM at 9am, you may have your breakfast there and then spread out in any direction around the Telok Ayer Street area to draw. Interesting points to cover would be the Tian Hock Keng temple, an Indian Shrine, rag & bone men and women, and there is also the business district just a short walk away. At 12pm, we will all meet again at Amoy Street Food centre where we will have lunch and do our "show and tell." Tia mentions that the lor mee on the 2nd storey is really yummy and so is the XO fish soup on the ground floor.


To get to the Amoy Street Food Centre, please drop at Tanjong Pagar MRT (exit G) and walk over (See map)

For more information, please call Andrew at 91070735 or Tia at 96968080. No sign-ups necessary. See you there!

Spooner Road

Sunday morning at Sham Shui Po & Mongkok, HK

This is probably a familiar scene in HK for everyone living here. I drew this from a covered overhead bridge when I was crossing to Mongkok mtr. The rows of red top mini public buses caught my eyes. They were all lined up along the road ready to pick up passengers. Cheap and convenient way to jet around HK quickly. I have yet to try one though.

54 Blair Road

random

A Diffused Sir Stamford Raffles

Sketched this last month while waiting for my Eggs Benedict sandwich at a Cafe along the Singapore River.

Heritage Hunter @ Tiong Bahru

We were all reminding everybody to see it on TV. We were also asking anyone who could record the show too. We missed the days when we could just insert a tape into the VCR to record anything we want. Now with the advance in technology we couldn't even record something from TV no more. Sigh*
Anyway that aside, we are thrilled to see our artworks featured in the show! I wished they did not shoot a close up on my big head, but I like how the producer led the story from Tiong Bahru market to a sketch of mine of the people eating at the food court. And I thought the storytelling is great and the editing is pretty tight too. :P

Here's an excerpt of the show recorded with a camera mounted on a tripod stretched to reach the height of the TV. I call it the "old school way of pirating a movie".




Credits:
Show produced by-- Sitting in Pictures
Website: http://www.sittinginpictures.com
Starring: Linda Black
Written By: Catherine Lim/ Vincent Fong
Directed by: Vincent Fong/ Catherine Lim

Aired by MediaCorp Channel News Asia

Sketching at Buona Vista

Wet markets are markets where you can buy fresh produce; namely fresh fishes, vegetables, fruits and even flowers. The above is one of the stall in a wet market at Holland Avenue, Singapore.

After I dropped my wife at the Civil Service College, I drove to a nearby hawker center for coffee and breakfast. There is a wet market just 1-2 mins away so I decided to sketch something there. I have not tried sketching one here in Singapore yet. This is a stall selling fresh vegetables. But something funny happened.

The stall keepers somehow noticed my presence and become very wary of me. I don't really understand why until a lady came over and asked me whether I was a health inspector. I smiled and said no. She did not believe me even when I showed her my sketchbook and told her that I was merely sketching the stall. She continued on to say that the stall keeper did not mean to over used the stall space and pleaded for him. I kept repeating that I was just sketching and sat down to sketch, just to prove my "innocence". LOL!!

Soon after they were then relieved to see that I was actually really sketching.
At the end, I decided not to take any pictures for fear that they might get worried again. :D

What a great day!!

Chicken rice restaurant along Upp Thompson Rd.

Signo gel pen + photoshop.

Location Drawings Everyday

Hi Y'all,
I have placed a slideshow that I came across in the Urban Sketchers blog. It is about a gallery show that features location sketches like what we have been doing.

I am very impressed by how the sketchbooks are displayed for public viewing. If you watch the slideshow you will see it. I have been thinking of how we can display our sketchbooks for public viewing too, without having them destroyed or torn. We are all very wary of how unthoughtful we as Asians can be.

Anyway I would love to hear from you guys on your views too.

MacPherson Area

The weather was hot and humid. I did another sketch at Thai Thong Crescent, MacPherson area while sitting in my car with the air-conditioning comfort. It was difficult as the cars were moving in and out of the parking lots all the time. Although there was a van blocking my view as I was about half way into the sketch, I managed to complete it with the composition that I wanted.

You can see my earlier sketch of the area here.