Sketches of Golden Mile Complex

Did 3 sketches at Golden Mile Complex at different days and times.

Huge turn out at this month’s sketchwalk on Saturday, 25 March 2023. So crazy how it developed to this level. It was just my SIMPLE IDEA in Nov 2009 to fix every last Saturday of the month for 4 of us to meet and sketch.

We are the one to coin the word SKETCHWALK too in 2009 and now it’s used all over the world. Really crazy haha

Our Beautiful Skyline

I only added the water to complete the piece. Some people like it light washes, some like it with heavier brush strokes. Many ways of interpreting the same scene. I have done so many pieces on the same view and every piece is distinctively different.

Result of March Sketchwalk

Two sketches at Sketchwalk.

It was raining cats and dogs, so I just sat there and sketched after my nice mee pok and Kopi O. Good recommendation for the noodles stall from Patrick Ng Benedict Tay Hendriko Teguh Sangkanparan and thanks Alice Lim for the popiah, all so nice. Kopi O was very good too.

Sitting there, I noticed there were so many old folks in wheel chairs or in other PMDs. The old Chinese lady on wheel chair sitting opposite us was with a sweet Malay lady, I was very sure she's a social worker or a friend. Another Malay lady came to sit with them and the old lady took out some papers from his bag. She left shortly after giving her a cheque. They had traditional breakfast (bread, egg and hot drink) in the morning and when I left, the old lady was having noodles.

So many old uncles and aunties at the coffee shop and the young ones were at the crowded food centre and market near-by.

Jalan Besar

I sketched this after a heritage walk at Jalan Besar area orgainsed by Urban Redevelopment Authority for a small group of enthusiasts, historians, researchers etc. The back lanes were so interesting, full of life and character. There was an altar for the wondering souls, old soil collecting points, overgrown banyan tree covering the back of shophouse, stories about the properties, so colourful and interesting.

Result of Nov Sketchwalk

Result of November Sketchwalk. There are three parts of Petain Road in this long sketch namely the shophouse, the park and the playground.

Petain Road was named by municipal government of Singapore in 1928 after Field Marshall Henri Philippe Petain, one of France’s greatest military heroes from the First World War. However, the name drew controversy when the French military force grew from bad to worst as Petain became the Prime Minister of France in 1940. There were suggestions to change the name of the road when it became a notorious red light district in Little India in the old days. Today, this row of beautiful shophouses are the homes of rich and famous with elaborate majolica floral ceramic tiles covering the walls and flowers, cranes and phoenix adorning the pillars and walls. Directly across Petain Road is a big park with lush green and a colourful playground.

Size : 700mmx300mm
Paper : Saunders Waterford

Little India

My demo piece for the students from LaSalle BA(Hons) students on a Saturday, so there were overlapping shapes, lines and washes here and there as I spoke.

As I talked about learning points for the students such as line qualities (thick, thin, continuous, broken lines), composition (mountain, valley, vertical, horizontal and oblique), tonal values (scale 0, 2, 5 , 8 and 10) and accent colours at 3 spots with washes, I finished a sketch with ink and washes.

This is also the first outdoor sketch after my eye surgery, such fun!

8th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Chicago

This is how it all started for the Urban Sketchers Singapore as mentioned by Gabi, USK founder. See footage at 25:08.

End of Term

We are now in second term of first semester. The first term of first semester ended in late June. This semester, I was observing a class of non-Chinese students taking a subject called "Introduction to Language and Culture (Mandarin)". It was so inspiring and fun to watch them speaking Mandarin. My colleague also did a wonderful job in engaging them in class.

I was taking part in "20 Sketches 20 Days" on Facebook with sketcher-friends and we needed to sketch at least 20 sketches in a month for this entire year. I recently found an old sketchbook which I bought in Portland when I first attended the Urban Sketchers Symposium in 2010. It was not ideal for sketching when there was a lot of 'show through' as the fountain pen ink 'bled' through the pages which also warped when light washes were applied. Brush pen was better and I would apply digital colours if I had time.

Here are three sketches depicting the classes at different sessions, one with digital colours and two just in black and white.

Tools: Piccadilly Sketchbook size 90x140mm, brush pen and digital colours.

Where is the Windmill at Holland Village?

I will be in Hong Kong and will miss this Saturday's sketchwalk at Holland Village which is one of my favourite places to sketch. I found my post on sketches of Holland Village done at the time when the fake windmill was still there. It has since been demolished and Holland Village is still a place for hipsters. Don't forget to visit Chip Bee Garden across the road too. Happy Sketching!

Finally find time to scan those long sketches in my Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook only available in UK. This sketch was done on my way back from Nagoya to Singapore. It's a 380, very spacious cabin but I was stuck at window seat sitting next to two Japanese ladies for 6 hours. Did a sketch to kill boredom.

Result of March Sketchwalk

Sungei Road Thief Market will soon be gone by July 2017. You can read about it here.

Whether you call it thief market or flea market, it is undeniably important part of Singapore's history. My uncles would come all the way from Johor, Malaysia to source for the parts that he wanted and brought back to repair his fridges or fans or even cars.

On this sketch, I thought it was important to sketch the context too, so, I chose a view to include Sim Lim Tower and Rochor Centre which will be demolished soon. You can see my sketch of Rochor Centre here.

Tiong Bahru again!

  

  

The top is the completed work and the next one was taken just before I apply colouring on location. I led a group of my colleagues and their families to Tiong Bahru and sketch. The ad-hoc sketchwalk was conducted in conjunction with the LEGO exhibition at the campus. Sum Kwan, the 5-year-old boy really impressed me with his drawing. He could identify shapes on the spot and drew with very confident lines. Paul's son who is nine, is also good and bold in his line work. I had so much to observe and learn from these children. The lease we can do is to encourage them to do more so they will continue to sketch, draw, paint and enjoy the process of mark making.

My Separate Malacca Trip

My husband and I went to Malacca for a short weekend company getaway trip a week earlier than my sketcher friends. Malacca was super crowded and the traffic jam was so bad. There was no way for me to sketch the famous landmark - The Red House with the group tour but I still managed to sketch when the tour members went shopping and I stayed in the hotel room or a cafe to relax and sketch.

This view was from our hotel room at Hatten Hotel just opposite the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall looking at Malacca skyline. The famous Jonkor Street is in the middle with the yellow end wall. Overall, the impression of this trip was not up to my expectation but our spirit was always high.

We were lucky to have a room with a view at Hatten Hotel on the 16th storey. The room was very big with 2 TVs. It was love at first sight but later on, we had to call for bath towers and the curtains did not work that I had to use the paper clips I brought for sketches to hold the curtains together. I noticed some rooms like those opposite our corridor faced the 5-metre narrow internal courtyard overlooking each other's room.

You can see my other Malacca sketches on my blog.

Result of September Sketchwalk

I just scanned some sketches. I did two sketches at Circular Road sketchwalk, this one was done inside the car, in air conditioning comfort, it was too hot and humid these day. Average of 33 deg C.

Bedok Reserviour Park

This piece was done at the first sketchwalk of this year in January 2014. However, it is a larger format that I finally find time to scan in small parts in my small printer and merge them with Photoshop. It is really hard work.

Bedok Reservoir Park is a beautiful park in the east just next to Temasek Polytechnic where I work. The building on the left is School of Design and the tall structure is the library. The green roof which is the icon of the campus is copper roof which when it was first completed in 1995, we were told it was the most expensive copper roof contract in the world.

size : 680mm x 240mm

Video by Parka on "Journey to the West"

My recent trip to Hong Kong

September 2013 Sketchwalk @ Bukit Timah Railway Station

We're going to explore this quaint old place, and see what's become of it and its surroundings after the decommissioning of the Malayan Railway in Singapore.

Make sure to bring water and a hat to keep cool, and put on a bug repellant band so you don't get bitten!

Meet at the station building at 4.30pm. Then we are free to roam the vicinity. Please meet back the same place for show and tell. If it gets too dark, we can all walk back to King Albert Park Mall for show and tell. We can all have dinner at McDonalds.

Favian has suggested a few areas we can sketch:
1) Bkt timah rail station (of course!)
2) King Albert Park MacDonald's etc (before it's demolished!)
3) Bkt Timah Rail Bridge (if it is still there)
4) Bkt Timah Shopping Centre, Beauty World (old school malls!)

Or you can just stay around to sketch the former station building. 

I would suggest sketchers to do something different this time. Say, sketch with a different medium, or sketch large format. If you are used to sketching A4 size, maybe try A3 this time or something bigger like A2. If you are up for the challenge.

PS: For those who are driving, please park at King Albert Park, and then walk to the station. See map for direction. I have also included the buses you can take to come here for those who are using public transport.

You may download the map and print to refer later. We will keep you posted if there is any change to the plan.

TIA on NDP2013 website

I was featured in Our Stories of this year National Day Parade 2013 website. It was filmed on last Monday morning and uploaded on last Thursday night by the NDP team.
The rest of my story is on NDP website at this link - http://ndp.org.sg/our-stories. Enjoy!

Phoenix Park

This is very near to Queenstown. Block 138 at Phoenix Park is the location of my friend's art studio to conduct classes for young children at Tanglin Road next to Kay Siang Road.

The compound is so beautiful with lush green and low rise buildings built in 1949 by the architectural firm Palmer and Turner as the regional headquarters and centre of power for the British, coordinating its military, political and economic activities in East Asia.

In 1966, it was at Phoenix Park that British Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced to the press that the British would begin withdrawing troops from Singapore. The withdrawal of the British was completed in 1971 and marked the close of a chapter in Phoenix Park’s history.

Phoenix Park is a Historic Site by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Heritage Board on 29 Aug 2012.