[By Don Low from Singapore] The last sketchwalk for the year 2018 was held on the 29 Dec, the last Sat of the month and of the year too. It is also customary to have the last urbansketching of the year to be held at Orchard Road, where the streets and malls were all donned with Christmas lights and decoration to celebrate Christmas and counting down to the new year. It was a lovely morning when I arrived, late as usual after having breakfast nearby with my wife, who always accompany me whenever or wherever I joined the urbansketchers. When we arrived at the location, Tony Chua, a diligent and hardworking sketcher was already sketching happily away at the junction of Orchard Road and Emerald Hill Street. A conservation shophouse which is used by the Tourist Information Center stands alone amidst the modern high rise buildings opposite the junction. The old (refurbished) juxtaposed against the new; this would give a beautiful composition in which the story would be about the new contrasting with the old. No wonder Tony was sketching there. I joined him without hesitation because I like that contrast too, most especially the contrast of the different styles of architecture put together.
Tony was using a landscape A4 sketchbook opened horizontally giving a panoramic format. He has been using that book for many locations and I admired his tenacity and patience to record everything in his view. It’s not an easy format to do because you need a good command of perspective drawing and proportion for things, and Tony did it pretty well. Here is his final drawing done on location. He may have added the colours later. Don’t tell him I bumped up the contrast of his sketch to show the line art better.
Let me show you the other sketches that he has done.
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| Kampong Glam, Singapore |
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| Chinatown, Singapore |
As for me, I turned my A4 sketchbook to draw vertically in a portrait format. I love conservation shophouses therefore I have to include that in my sketch, along with the hordes of tourists and visitors to the malls nearby, and crossing at the junction. The people will provide a good way to show scale and proportion. I needed the modern looking building in the background too to provide the contrast.
But how would I draw it? That was the question that lingered in my mind all the time I was sketching the shophouse with all its ornamentations and architectural details. The process was enjoyable because I am always obsessed with those, but not the modern looking monstrosity behind. When I did not have the answer immediately, I sketched the milling crowd.
Very slowly I moved my attention towards the building behind. It’s all glass and it looks plasticky. Then I noticed how the glass would reflect the building from across the road displaying a distorted perspective of the windows. The result – an abstracted pattern of light and shadow shapes – which may provide some visual interest against the more organic forms of the shophouse on drawing. If it’s not sketching, I wouldn’t have taken notice of those details that would be missed by most people.
Here’s my final sketch placed against the view I was sketching. The whole process in about an hour and a half.
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| Drawn with a Pentel Pocket Brush pen |
Then it was time for show and tell.
As you can see, the turn out for the year end sketchwalk was overwhelming, as always. It was very inspiring and exciting to see so many embracing the art of sketching and staying passionate. The number of talents is climbing in an alarming rate. Which goes to show that sketching is definitely the better way to see and record things around us, and the best way to meet and network with like minded people.
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| Urbansketchers Singapore gathering in front of a giant mural done by Tia, Tony, Francis, and Ignatius. |
Happy new year to you friends! Feliz 2019!
