The Business of Sketching in Public Spaces

Chinatown, Singapore (drawn by a fude nib fountain pen on sketchbook)

For any experienced or veteran sketcher (anyone who sketch on-location), it is still a daunting experience to be sketching in any public spaces, when you couldn't help but feel that you are under many watchful and prying eyes, at the same time, being scrutinised for whatever you felt are your weakness. Even under such circumstances, I am still loving sketching, drawing or painting in-situ. Even though you are constantly plagued by self-consciousness, sometimes being in the public spaces help you with getting things done. Having the thought that someone out there is standing with his arms akimbo or crossed in front on his torso and judging you, you tend to want to do a good job and fast. There is always this nagging thought that you should not leave the location with a half baked drawing, even when you are practicing reportage sketching, in which you are sketching the essence of the location, its people and buildings and activities that were going on, thus the sketches might look "unfinished" at first glance. 

Some random sketches from the sketchbook.

I have been sketching for quite some time now but I am still nervous when I whipped out the sketchbook from my bag and methodologically took out the fountain pen from my pencil case. Some part of me felt the exhilaration and some part of me wanted to anticipate a questioning look or a lingering gaze in my direction. Most part of me was pretending that I was just going about with my own business and so should everyone else. Sometimes that's the thing that makes this act of sketching in-situ exciting. Some part of me wanted someone to take notice and some part of me wanted to tell the person to mind his own business. So many conflicting thoughts and emotions! I am fickle minded and I ashamed of it.

Why Sketch in Public

Sketched while having dinner with wife and mum in a Chinese restaurant, painted digital in the studio.

 Firstly it is enjoyable, and you never know what and who you will encounter. I like to be accompanied when I sketch because in most cases, people tend to leave you alone when someone is sitting beside you. If you are alone, there is a likely chance the person standing to watch would speak to you. It is okay when you are in the mood to talk or answer questions. Secondary, I am an urban sketcher and the essence of urban sketching is sketching on location and sketching from life and from direct observation. Thirdly, sketching is the best way to pass time and the best excuse to watch people around you, without feeling bad or that you stalking them. It is quite strange really.

Sketching people in Starbucks.

How to Stay Inconspicuous while Sketching

Avoid bobbing your head up and down when you sketch, especially when you are sketching in a cafe or anywhere with many people. You are bound to be noticed because you will be doing something that people don't. Though no one is looking up or at you usually, they would notice because the peripheral vision is quite powerful. We tend to sense movement through the corner of our eyes due to the way we are made and wired to response to danger; the fight or flight response. The best practice is to blend in by making people think that you are doing what they are doing. Think yourself as a hunter so no sudden movement. 


Sketching is not about making pretty pictures all the time. It is an end to its means. A messy sketch or 'poorly' drawn sketch may not be a 'bad' sketch. It is still a record of the time and moment the artist spent looking and translating what he saw and felt as he penned the scene with his pencil or pen. Every moment recorded is precious to the artist and to anyone who appreciates. Every drawing or sketch done in-situ is a sincere and honest translation of the scene, whether is about people or landscape, and it has to be so. An honest translation is one that records whatever the artist sees, not glorified or edited to hide mistakes or unsightly stuff caught within the scene. Doesn't mean the artist cannot move things around to suit the composition or the format.  That's the fun and thrill of it.

 

I have been using this comic book style of sketching people for quite some time already but each time it yields different results. The approach was actually introduced to me by a sketcher and illustrator friend of mine quite a while ago but I kept at it and felt that this method keeps me on my toes and steer me away from staying too long in my comfort zone. I would draw each panel different by varying the size of the frame, and the proportion or scale of the figures within each panel, as though I am looking through a camera lens as I sketch. It may seem obvious at first but our minds’ eyes are powerful enough to zoom in and out of what we see with our physical eyes.

When I sketched this way, the frame was done partially first and then I would plan out the composition by imagining a virtual frame or picture plane in front of me, giving myself a ballpark of how much to place inside the panel. Then scaling these down into the panel size on paper. To further the challenge, I would draw direct on the sketchbook without a prior pencil sketch. This forced me to really plan ahead and see the composition first before laying down the first strokes of the pen.

"I don't care how the world is running in circles, getting and taking all the time, I'm happy where I am. The strays are my company, the pigeons my friends. There's nothing left for me here, my stoic demeanour hides my loneliness but I have learned to live with it."

Capturing candid moments with an iPad Pro - I love sketching candid moments of people eating and chatting in restaurants and food courts, sometimes over hearing their conversation, not intentionally because most people speak out loud as if they intended their dialogue to be heard by neighbouring people in public places. Sketching people while they were standing or waiting in a line is another way I practice sketching people in different poses and gestures. My challenge is simplifying what I saw and getting as much likeness in essence as possible. It is unlike drawing people from a distance as in this case, simplification takes precedence over details. When drawing people up close, capturing likeness is getting the shapes and proportion as close to the reference as possible, if not you would be drawing an entirely different person all together.

There's still much to discover and rediscover in the conservation area at Kampong Glam. In this sketch, line art was done on location opposite the building. We were sitting comfortably in a coffeeshop and crab restaurant enjoying the shade and breeze. The sketch took a while but it was fun to do especially when you have a company. I took the drawing home to add colour from memory and from the photo I took when I completed the sketch. The idea is to bring out the atmosphere we experienced and the light but not directly copying from the photo. It's a lot more satisfying this way.

There are a few principles I follow when adding light and shadow with watercolour:

• use transparent washes and glazes
• use complementary hues to mix greys for shadows
• choose a facade of the building for light and the other for shadow
• the facade that gets the light may have more white or saturated colour
• interiors need darks, same goes to whatever that is under the roof or awning
• shadows indicates the direction of light - opened windows will cast a shadow on the facade of the building
• the sky and clouds should be abstracted
• keep the brush strokes loose and vary the shapes painted

Junction of Clive and Dunlop Street

The coffee culture is prevalent here in Singapore too, a fusion of western and eastern coffee connoisseur, sometimes blend with expert opinions of how a country should be run... but in most cases, peaceful savouring of the cafe's finest brew.

Kopitiam is the vernacular for coffee shops. Unlike coffeeshops in the western culture, kopitiam offers somewhat more. Besides serving coffee and many other beverages, there would be stalls that provide daily street food to satisfy our tastebuds. The kopitiam culture can be found mainly in Singapore and Malaysia, that shares a similar configuration to serve the common people food and drinks. The kopitiam is also like a meeting place for anyone who wants to talk about the latest news or gossip about politics. That's why we call it coffeeshop talk. My wife and I have been having breakfast (sometimes supper) at this kopitiam located along Lor Mydin, east of Singapore. It's a stone throw away from where we live. Hock Choo Eating Place has been our favourite breakfast place for 7 years. We have never gotten tired of the coffee brewed by a young chap who called himself "Ah Bui" that means "Fatty". He has a huge pot belly but he brewed the most fragrant coffee. Coffee is like an addiction, once you got to like the taste, you would never want to drink from anywhere else. Anyone who visit Singapore should at least tasted the local brewed coffee, and Starbucks has no fight (sorry no offence to Starbucks fans).

iPad Pro, Procreate, Apple Pencil

On a weekend, we would spend an extended time at the coffeeshop to read and sketch. My wife reads while I sketch. Hock Choo is different because it is not anywhere near a housing estate; therefore it is not surrounded by high-rise building except for a 6-storey-tall hotel and lots of green. Even when the weather is hot, the place is constantly cooled down by gentle breezes.

Hero fountain pen

When you frequent a place long enough you get to know the people there. The stall owners would know our orders and preferences without us having to repeat them again. I like how the kopitiam has become a close knitted community. Everyone knows everybody. Besides the occasional renovation, things remain a constant, which I think is quite important for a fast changing country like Singapore. A familiar environment would provide the people something to hold on to; according to studies, going back to a familiar place or environment can enhance spatial and object memory, more important for older folks. Singapore is changing so fast nothing is familiar anymore. Honestly but sadly speaking, I have no childhood memories so to speak because nothing looks familiar these days.

iPad Pro, Procreate & Apple Pencil

Pentel bushpen on sketchbook

iPad Pro, Apple Pencil & Procreate

When I was introduced to the concept of Urban Sketching back in 2008-2009-ish, almost 10 years ago, I was pretty impressed. The idea is to draw and finishing a sketch on location of the location. We can call it in-situ sketching too. The sketch becomes a direct response to the environment and location we were in while we were sketching. We could response to the people around us, or the traffic and noise we heard and of the elements. The satisfaction is to see the sketches we made as a group and sharing what we learned. Becoming a correspondent of Urban Sketchers for Singapore made me want to sketch more, everyday, and so I did, eventually, accumulating almost a hundred sketchbooks since I started to sketch more in 2010. I see myself sketching faster and a lot more looser in approach and the handling of lines.



2013 was the year I saw myself adding watercolour washes to the sketches I made, and then progressing to finishing small size watercolour paintings as well. I was making larger painting in 2014 and also moving on to plein air painting with different mediums. At the same time I saw many others doing the same too. We used to exchange information among ourselves about pens, sketchbooks and so on, but now, we hunger for information about water-colours paints, papers and more. There are almost close to a 1000 members for the Singapore chapter now compared to only about 5 when the group first started.

Because of work I have not been attending the monthly sessions. However I noticed that smaller groups have sprouted under the umbrella of the large USK group. Besides meeting monthly, some have been meeting on a regular weekly basis. Much to my encouragement. I am certainly glad to see how this act of sketching on location has proliferated in a very positive direction.



If you are a beginning urban sketcher, here are some thoughts and reflections that I may think is helpful.


1) - Draw ALL the time, whenever possible. Have a sketchbook ready in your bag. Draw when you are waiting for someone, for transport, for food. The notion is not to get better, though in the process of doing so, you will get better, but to develop a lifestyle of sketching, recording your life in a visual journal.

Digital sketching with Procreate and iPad Pro

Sketching a car showroom | Don Low

Throwback: Sketching a car show room... a while ago (maybe about 2 years, not sure whey time passed so fast these days), James and I were attending an exhibition located right above a car show room, like a part of the office lobby portioned out for putting up art exhibits. However we got more interested with looking at the show room below us and seeing the cars from a top down angle just triggered me to want to try drawing them as a challenge. Well you could do that if you are staying in a HDB estate overlooking an open air parking lot. Very common. I don't, so I am thrilled. I am not posting this without making some modification to the original line drawing. So I brought it to Photoshop, and added some halftone effects just to throw in some light and shadow.

It was only a couple of years ago, the idea of a food court changed when big companies decided to brand the idea of selling street food in a shopping mall, where patrons would be able to enjoy relatively cheap and their favourite street food in the comfort of air-conditioning. Well the prices went up quite a bit but many of us seemed to welcome the idea of eating in comfort.

Procreate | Ipad | Photoshop

For some, the price hike is not worth it so they stay with the open air food courts, some with ceiling fans, and wouldn't mind basking in the aroma of steam and oil. You could save quite a fair sum if you are eating out everyday.

Procreate | Ipad | Photoshop

So now if I say I am sketching in a food court, most people would understand that I am sketching in the comfort of cool air, and comfy chairs. A food center whilst is alfresco, open air concept, and warm if the ceiling fans are broken, or the climate got too hot and humid. A kopitiam is a smaller version of a food center, usually privately owned, open air and is most of the time found in HDB estates. Every venues have different demographics but equally noisy.

Now here's the class divide. Most, but not all, Singaporeans belong to the middle and upper class, so they wouldn't mind paying more for the same type of food you can get almost halved the price in a food center. Blame it on the weather too. We welcomed the idea of having everything housed under one roof. We want to shop after we eat, why not eat in the mall, thereby we would not be exposed to the elements, protected and kept safe every steps of the way. Food courts are now for the elite.

Claude Monet would draw and paint a subject repetitively. He was famous for doing the "Haystack", "Waterloo Bridge", "Rouen Cathedral" and the "Water Lillies" series. Monet painted the Rouen Cathedral's facade at different times of day to explore the effects of different light during Winter, and in 1895, he exhibited 20 Cathedral paintings at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. (source: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-monet-claude-artworks.htm#pnt_5)

There is one location in Singapore I have been back again and again to draw and paint. Till date I have done more than 50 pen & ink sketches and watercolour studies based on the same location. At least about 40 pieces were sold in 2 group shows with "White Canvas" which is now a private gallery renamed as "Black Gallery" - managed by Colin and Maria who are the owners too. The group shows were held in 2010 and 2011, and those were the years when USK Singapore Chapter grew exponentially.






Tiong Bahru has been a favourite location for me to sketch and paint. The reason is very simple. The buildings are unique and the place is quiet. The morning breakfast crowd dissipates by 10am. The lunch crowd would arrive by 12pm but they usually congregate within the food center. In recent years, there have been many cafes and pubs opening in Tiong Bahru, but these have simmered down in the last 2 years, so Tiong Bahru has more or less become what was before when I first came to know the place.

So far I have mostly used pen & ink, and watercolour for Tiong Bahru. I have not done acrylics or oil yet. It would be a challenge and I am still looking forward to a plein air session at this location.

Anyway drawing and painting the same subject or location can be quite refreshing every time. You may visit the location at different time of day like what Monet did. I can vouch that it would be different all the time. If not you could try a different point of view, which I did all the time. Similarly you may use a different method to draw and paint, or create a series with different colour temperature or colour scheme. I like to change how I frame or format my sketches. This time I used the foreground foliage as a vignette for composition, though I wasn't really thinking of visual path and movement within the image, but I did think about using the darks for creating rhythm. And instead of watercolour, I change my painting medium to coloured pencils.

Hope these would offer you some tips on how you could approach a subject matter for location sketching. :D

Fountain pen and watercolour

There isn't a need to go out to sketch if you can't, or when the weather or climate is not permissible. Like today, the temperature will soar to a high of 34 degC, too hot to stay outdoors. Too much of a hassle to travel in the sweltering sun. For the last couple of days it has been so hot and humid, but what's new in Singapore. It is all round summer.

Anyway, it is not difficult to find something to sketch in and around the house. Danny Gregory does it all the time, from tea cups to just things. It is not the subject or the object that matters, but the process of seeing and drawing it. Just recently I acquired a wet/dry dual vacuum, the type you see maintenance workers bring around. I bought it because one of the air-conditioning unit was leaking, or drooling due to excessive condensation of vapour on the cooling pipes, which are already double insulated. This happened when the weather got too humid and hot. It leaked for a couple of days until I decided to do my own maintenance by getting this wet vacuum. I saw how the service people did it. They stuck this vacuum hose at the a/c outlet pipe for a couple of minutes in order to remove excessive accumulated condensed water within the cooling pipe and drainage. I did the same and managed to suck out 2-3 cups of water, even when the ac was not operating. Next I cleaned out the external filters and also vacuumed the cooling fins. With the wet vacuum I could "suck" dry the filter in minutes instead of letting it air-dry.

Job's done in 20mins. The wet vacuum cost me SGD89. An operation like this would cost me around SGD70 per a/c unit if I call in the maintenance people. I should have bought the vacuum at SGD50 when there was a promotion at the mall.... sigh* I am just not an opportunist. By the way, I regarded the job well done. The a/c is not leaking anymore and it took shorter time to cool down the room. A pat on my shoulder.

It began with a rainy morning. I remained in Starbucks to do some warm-up sketches to wade out the shower. Starbucks in Vivo is unique because one side of the cafe faces the Ferry Terminal and the full glass windows allow customers to see what's outside. Its like an alfresco seating but in the comfort of air-conditioning. From inside, you can see part of the Sentosa island, the sea, sometimes the cruise ship, and lots of palm trees, that are my favourite.

Starbucks Cafe in Vivo

[by Don Low, Singapore] I knew I came to the right location (Geylang Lor 31) to sketch because it felt like a happy place. An empty table in a kopitiam (food and coffee place) await me. It has a good angle overlooking a handsome 2-storey shophouse painted in a beautiful coat of subdued amber. On the front facade hung a sign that says "lim kopi" which literally means "drink coffee" in half Hokkien and Malay. I ordered my drink and happily settled down to sketch. A group of uncles in their 60s were drinking happily at a table beside me, and was bantering loudly how life was hard on them. I wasn't really listening intently because I wasn't very fluent in the Hokkien language they were using except for some curse words, but I mindfully told myself I have to draw them later.



Shortly after, one of the uncle, out of curiosity, came over to watch what I was doing. When I said hi to him, he started sharing about his interest in art but couldn't draw for nuts. He told me he loved to watch artists draw or paint, turning blank canvases into works of art. In simple words, he said a good drawing needs a good angle, which I think what he meant was composition and design or depth. When I told him he said it well, he let out a loud satisfying laugh. I sketched from 8pm to 1030pm.



 All the while he was going back and forth from his table to mine whenever he needed to smoke. I counted, within the 2.5 hours I was drawing, he has already puffed 5-6 cigs. When he laughed, he would be wheezing and letting out a raspy smoker's cough.  I have half the mind to tell him he has to stop smoking so much. When his friends left, he asked to sit at the same table with me. That was when the real conversation began.

 

Uncle's name is Tan Hou Ping (*uncle - a respectful way to address an elderly person). He proudly announced that he is 67 years old (younger than my parents), has served in the National Service as a pioneer, and is a grandfather of 6 grandchildren. He is happily semi-retired, living with his wife apart from his children, and is financially independent. He doesn't do much now except some simple exercises in the morning, odd jobs in the day and then drink with his friends in the evening. Most of the time he dominated the conversation as what most uncles would do. When it was time (already 1030pm) for me to leave, I decided to take a selfie with Mr Tan who obliged happily. I told him I would be writing about him and our new found friendship in my diary. He seemed happy to hear that and showed reluctance for me to go. He sounded like he has a lot more to tell me.

A friend would say he sketches so he remembers. By dating the sketches and short descriptions of what, where and why, the motivation behind a sketch becomes apparent, and more directed. Therefore it is not a random act of simply drawing for the sake of drawing something. Most people would write a diary at the end of the day, about their day, what they have done. Artists, I know of one, do that too by drawing the events of the day in a sequential narrative like in a comic. The latter takes a lot more time and effort, to recall and to draw. A diary needs an angle too, and not simply a record of things and events in a chronological manner.