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.

Watercolor on Arches paper

Hero pen and watercolor wash
 Hero pen and watercolor wash

Conte Pastel chalk on newsprint - colorized digitally.


Watercolor on printing paper

The sea always has a calming effect on me and my wife. We love to sit by the sea to think and ponder about life and talk about problems. Hearing the waves crashing gently on the shore seems to be able to clear your mind off things and every little worry would soon dissipate. The sketch shows 2 Dutch families spending some fun time waddling into the water, and letting their babies walked on the sandy beach. I wouldn't see local letting their babies walk on the "dirty" and "dangerous" sand.

Simply chilling at TCC Bugis Junction, and enjoying a nice glass of ice peach tea to cool down from the day.

Painting the evening sea. The horizon disappears as the sky and the sea fused. It was an amazing sight.

Populating a sketch with people and shoppers, one at a time. This is Vivo City.

The sketchers hung out at Commonwealth hawker center after visiting the Queenstown exhibition. As usual we ate and sketched after.

Painting Ellison Building in oil on canvas.

f you have not had coffee and kaya butter toast at Tong Ya coffeeshop, then you won't be because it has closed (some weeks ago). This is one of our favorite spot to paint and sketch at the same time because of its unique and challenging shape and design. I missed those days where we could simply cross the street and have coffee while we were sketching or painting there. With this closed and refurbished into a hotel, the junction would loose the heritage and historical flavor forever. And all we see in the future would be the cold and polished facades or drop down glass windows of another possible cafe where gourmet coffee may be served and drank while you hold the cup with your pinky pointing towards the sky.

Weather was good though sunny, but I was always in the shade just in case I got burnt. Chanced upon this again and this was the second or third time I passed by it, so I did not want to miss sketching it again. It was about 40mins of work for this sketch to be completed.

Dunlop Street is a little street market located in Little India. The cross junctions of Dunlop Street, Upper Weld Street, and Campbell Lane house many vegetable and fruit stalls and coffeeshops and eateries. I think the essence of Little India could be found at that few junction, which is a short distance from Serangoon Road and Tekka Market. The hustle and bustle of people and vehicles is a daily ritual starting as early as 8am. It is also quite a challenge to paint there because there is literally limited standing space. But we found our spot that day. It wasn't in a shade but the weather was overcast. However the moment we finished our penciling, it began to rain so we have to cut short our painting expedition there. I painted my pencil sketch back at home.

[caption id="attachment_2613" align="alignnone" width="850"] Dunlop Street[/caption]

I took some artistic liberty to change the building color to orange and brown in my painting. The original color is apple green. Then when I was looking up the building online, I also realized that the previous color of the building that I painted was orange. So its okay.

Sketched this on my Nude book while a friend was having coffee when he arrived at the location. It measures about 28cm X 14cm. The line work was done in about 5mins in order to keep me from drawing too many details but pay more attention to large shapes and design. The wash was also done in about 5mins too.

Look what I got in the mailbox today. Two copies of DestinAsian Jun/July 2013 issue; this issue includes a writeup of my trip to Pranang Bay, Krabi Thailand made last year in December. The sketch was made with my Hero pen on the big Nudebook that I brought along with me. It was a happy trip and I sketched myself happy too.




Thank you DestinAsian!

The trip was made in the month of Feb. The Bangkok sketchers group has invited sketchers from a few countries to join them in sketching at River Chaophraya, where the old capital of Bangkok was located in the past. Though it has been some time ago, the memories of the visit is still quite fresh in my mind. It was a happy trip and I am looking forward to another trip like this. Anyway here are 2 sketches I did while I was there. Cannot remember the name of the place though.

[caption id="attachment_2537" align="alignnone" width="600"] Hero pen on toned textured paper with colored pencils (Santa-Cruz-Church-Chaophraya)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2538" align="alignnone" width="650"] Wat Prayurawongs - Watercolor, colored pencils on toned textured paper.[/caption]

Walking and sketching along Short Street when I encountered this interesting make shift fruit stall with the yellow and red umbrellas that stood out among the grey commercial buildings. I stood under the shade in Lasalle College of the Arts to sketch this and filled in the colors at the same time. Many tourists and locals came by to get fruits and juices... but I didn't see anyone eating durians that time... maybe it was too hot.

Hero Pen and Noodlers Ink on Nude book.. painted with Shinhan watercolors.

Only managed to do one watercolor painting in Bangkok during the Chaophraya trip with the other Urban SKetchers from other parts of Asia. Afterwhich I felt quite worn out already so I returned to sketching. This was done on Arches watercolor paper Cold Pressed. And I was using Shinhan watercolor paints. Pretty pleased with the results though I wish I could paint larger.

Pasoh means jars. There were used to store rice and water at homes (source wikipedia). In the 19th century, people got their pots from kilns located in places like Telok Blangah and Bukit Merah. If I am not wrong, Blangah (or Blanga) means cooking pot made of clay, usually used by Southern Indians, who migrated to Singapore in the early years of Singapore. I live in Telok Blangah but the kilns that made these pots were no longer there. When I was a teen, I grew up near Bukit Pasoh and there were many shophouses there that were used as stores houses. Now they are either boutique hotels or offices. The facades are preserved but their functions changed. Just recently a row of shophouses were torn down and an ugly hotel now stood where the shophouses were, even blocking the road that leads to Bukit Pasoh from New Bridge Road. There used to be a traditional coffeeshop too but now its gone. Our memories gone with it.

One of the day tour on speed boats brought us to Tup Island. According to the guide, the island would appear to be made up of 2 separate islands, but on low tide, a bridge would emerge to link the 2 small islands together. Sun bathers took this opportunity to enjoy the thin stretch of sand bar and boats moored on both sides of the bridge. We walked from one end to the other just to satisfy our curiosity. I sketched under the shade of one of the island.

Hero pen and watercolor (Shinhan) wash, and white gouache paint.

A food sketch done with Hero pen on my Nude book. Took less than 5 mins to finish the line drawing and colored as I waited for my lunch to come.

[caption id="attachment_2348" align="alignnone" width="584"] Collage of sketches[/caption]

There are some days you just feel like sketching the whole day when you have the capacity to do so. I did that yesterday which was a Saturday. I met up with Buz who came visiting from JB, and then headed to the mall to join my wife who has been there since morning working on her writing. I have a collection of sketches that I put together as a mosaic (above). It has been really fruitful!!

In March this year I went back Tiong Bahru to sketch the Monkey god temple again, so I could have a sketch or two for keep sake in my own collection. I did the line sketch with Hero fountain pen on location and left the sketch in the folio until today when I filled the colours. Here's the process:

[caption id="attachment_2333" align="alignnone" width="584"] Process from ink to adding wash.[/caption]

Final artwork:

[caption id="attachment_2330" align="alignnone" width="750"] Monkey god temple finished and signed[/caption]

This is where I grew up, and I am glad to see this row of shop houses still intact and not demolished or becoming offices or pubs. The walls were repainted several times but that was all. I am happy to see that these shophouses remain as residential and not converting to commercial uses. Anyway, I sketched this a Hero fountain pen on location and added watercolor washes later in my studio. Here's is also a pix of how and where I work. In my palette, I am using Shinhan premium watercolors which is quite a joy to use. The pigments are brilliant and pretty thick so you get lot of saturation and color from a little paint off the tube. They are easy to mix and dissolves very easily even after the paints dried on the palette. The color wheel you see in the background is created with Shinhan watercolors too.

[caption id="attachment_2295" align="alignnone" width="584"] Everton Road - ink & wash[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2252" align="alignnone" width="584"] Hero pen with dark brown ink, painted with Shinhan Watercolors, on Canson watercolor papers. 10"X15"[/caption]