Singapore, at last…

by Stephanie Bower, Seattle

Things are crazy busy these past weeks!

Craftsy class “Perspective for Sketchers” is launching October 12, together with a deadline for the Urban Sketching Handbook “Understanding Perspective” on Monday… my life is filled with vanishing points and horizon lines, with little time left to scan these images from the summer…but all such really good things!!! 

My first USk symposium was Barcelona, and it was such a fabulous experience.  I went knowing really only one person, Gail Wong, and I was clinging to her like toddler to her mom.  But by the end of the symposium, I knew more people, as sketchers are a really friendly lot.

Next symposium was Paraty, where I had the opportunity to teach a workshop called “180 Degrees” on wide-angle perspectives…by the end of this one, I knew even more people, slowly getting more and more comfortable. But it was really after the workshop when a group turned up in Rio to sketch that I got to know so many more people.  It was a revelation that there were other people as motivated as I, to pretty much sketch from early in the morning till late at night…the synergy was amazing, I feel like we all bonded for life!

This past summer, was symposium #3 in Singapore where I gave a lecture on perspective (detecting the theme?) twice, and got to TAKE workshops, which was GREAT.  By now, I knew so many people, but still, traveling alone to the other side of the world was daunting.  Luckily, as soon as you see someone with a sketchbook, you are connected.

Here are a few of the pre-symposium sketches.  It was so hot, we all met  up nearly pre-dawn and headed out to the streets.

Please click on images to see them larger, as the long ones get a little lost…

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Bussorah street was probably the most sketched spot in Singapore that week!  Thanks to Don Low for entertaining the school kids watching us work while I finished this sketch.  

Before the workshop, you can literally head out your hotel door and wander, and you’ll come across sketchers you can join.  They wander off, then another group rolls in, and you’re sketching with a different group.  I felt like a sketching nomad, and it was such great fun!  I was eventually adopted by a roving group of Aussies who were so warm and welcoming and soooo talented too–I love you all!  Thank you to Angela, Rooi, and all that group as we wandered and sketched and ate together!  Also Marc and Laurel Holmes, Suhita Shirodkar, and Liz Steel…I was so inspired and influenced by sketching with you all…

Iconic images of the buildings, trees and skywalk at Gardens by the Bay, sweating and chatting with Marc Holmes and/or Liz Steel all the while. It’s the good company that really makes these 

experiences so memorable.  Sketch below was literally sketched and painted in the complete dark, could see no color, just knew where to look in my palette!  Funny, but these are my mom’s favorite.

One of my favorite sketches, the dancing Baobab trees at Gardens by the Bay, and an early morning sketch of the Chinese Calligraphy Society on Waterloo Street near the symposium home base.

Morning breakfast and sketching with the Aussies at famous ZamZam, behind the Mosque. Delicious, really a highlight of the trip were the breakfast koppi ice and paratha.   This was sketched with a migraine, and it shows.

Below that is Haji Street shophouses, midday heat, again with Liz and Suhita…

Next are posts of the workshops I took with Suhita Shirodkar, Nina Johansson, and Shari Blaukopf. My gosh, I admire them so much!