OLIJ STUDIO - Blog

Travel Sketching - Online Short Course

23/4/2020

New Classes is rolling out for the next 4-8 weeks. The first one is Travel Sketching, The online version is coming next week. It's a whole new way of approaching travel sketching. While we are all in isolation, it doesn't mean we have to stop dreaming, and to stop making plans. We can gear up for when we finally can travel again.

How can we think and approach travel sketching while stuck at home, you ask? Being in wanderlust might make us feel more frustrated but travel can be seen from the context of paying attention to things you don't normally give attention to. For example, when you clean your living room, or bedroom, do you pay attention to the shape of you sofa, or your pillows? We own many things, but until we have actually drawn them, you've never really given those things your full attention.

In the online version of Travel Sketching, I will teach exploring the details right under your roof, and how travel sketching is an attitude in taking in the space you're in. Drawing what you see is what the Urban sketchers, a community that exists globally pride themselves to do, instead of drawing from a photograph. This is the spirit of Online Travel Sketching, and we are going to travel within our homes.

If you've never drawn your drinking glass, something you use everyday, or your pot of plants by the window you pass and water every week, I hope this online course about travel sketching will change your perspectives and how you feel about your home in a positive and enlightening way. And when we finally can travel again, you can apply the same attention to your new destinations. I like to help make your isolation time more bearable, but also learn from the experience that we as human beings, are extremely adaptable.

I am more comfortable in online teaching via Zoom now, as is most of you are more or less used to using your gadget to learn and listen now too. This is our new reality temporarily, and I hope to make this experience fun, educational, and entertaining.

The class is 8 sessions long, twice a week. Wednesdays 7-10pm and Saturdays 10 am- 1pm. The structure of the class will include two breaks where you can have time to practice and you will get individual feed as well as a general group feedback at the end of each sessions.

To sign up, email shortcourses@lasalle.edu.sg

See you in class!

ARTIST NEWS: TEN Online Life Drawing Sources, you can join.

20/4/2020

The most amazing and unexpected joy coming out of lockdown and quarantine time is the efforts for life drawing groups in the UK and Europe to keep drawing life models, and not just from still images.

On instagram, I follow a few life drawing groups and communities in Europe where I usually go to draw when in Europe. Since the mid of March, there’s a bunch of them starting to offer online and live streaming life drawing. More the last 2–3 weeks that I almost could not keep up, mostly based in the UK and a few in Spain. I’ve started trying a few of them out, and within a few weeks,there’s a lot more offering different streams of Creative workshops too. Because it’s all online, the life models can be from all over the country in Europe. This is really amazing considering the few life drawings sessions and models variety in Singapore such as the one run by Creative Singapore’s Damien Thomasz. It has been refreshing to see the variety of European- based life models.

The majority of these groups are conducting classes through Zoom, and I think because of security and safety reasons, most life models prefers not to be 100% nude. This is not a big deal, since there’s a lot of different aspects of drawing life models that is challenging in a new way when you’re looking at them through a screen.

Having tried a few of them the last three weeks, not all of them work for me, in one sense, the ‘organizer or host’ could be talking too much, and while perhaps that’s a style some people like, I prefer more silence to concentrate on my drawings. Having said that, if you like a lot of feedback and continuous commentary to help you think through your life drawing, I will not rule it out. The fees ranges from ‘free and donate what you can’ to 4 - 7 pounds via paypal.me or bookwhen.com.

So, I’ve decided it would be useful to make and share a list, its not exhaustive as it seems they grow in numbers as we move into longer quarantine months. I’ll also give you my quick review of why I like or don’t like the ones I have joined.

So here we go, you can cut and paste the link or click the hyperlink:

London Drawing. (www.londondrawing.com/online-creative-sessions/)

They have a range of Creative classes, not strictly life drawing, from Mindful Still Life, to Self Portrait lead by artists educators. Their life drawing fees is on the higher side at 8 pounds for 2 hours, and this was the one time where I discovered the organizer/host just talks too much, sounds like there was two of them constantly talking through most of the 2 hours). Otherwise, their instagram is busy, one I find interesting was a guest artists showing how she made her own ink from Avocado stones and Onion skin.

The Jolly Sketcher Online (www.bookwhen.com/thejollysketcher)

This is so far my favourite because of the timing and time zones. Quite a lot of the life drawings sessions based in Europe are doing it around dinner time/after work time, which with daylight savings the time difference to Singapore is about 6-7 hours. So all of their 7pm start is basically 1 or 2 am Singapore time and totally not workable for me. Tanja runs Jolly Sketchers Online and she has lunch time sessions which translates to Singapore 7-9 pm which is doable for me. So if you’re based in Singapore, I highly recommend her sessions. She is also one of the few that listed the world time zones in her posters which helps make decisions easier and faster, and her website listed the sessions very clearly and are also on the affordable range at 4 pounds for a two hour session compared to some others.
She also offers free 30 minutes drawing by theme that you can join in case you’re not comfortable with the longer sessions.

London Drawing Group (www.eventbrite.co.uk/london-drawing-group-11407647443)

This is not a life drawing session, but a teaching site for all kinds of art classes, such as portraits, and art history lectures such as ‘violence against women in western art’. They use Eventbrite for their classes, and payment by donation. If you’re interested in learning not just drawing but about western art in general. This is for you.

Art Model Collective https://artmodelcollective.com/event/paint-draw-from-amc-photo-references-during-isolation-veiled-marble/

This one sells hi-resolution photo reference mainly to try to make some income while in quarantine, the one off price of 25 pounds gets you a set of 50 photos, uncensored and never seen before, that does not exist online, mostly taken at their previous live drawing sessions.
If that’s not your thing, their instagram story shares a lot of different online classes by others, which is where I got some of the ones on this list.

Cercle Artistic Sant Lluc https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCwS12fHWIos5AltFGHHVk4g

This is an art center based in Barcelona where I used to go for life drawing sessions. Their online sessions are conducted in YouTube, on their channel. It’s short poses conducted by many different models. And if you missed the live broadcast, the sessions are recorded and stays on YouTube. This is free and based on donation.

Françoise, Artist, Conceptual Performance Contortionist https://instagram.com/oh.francoise?igshid=1k8nub5u04441

To join her online classes, you need to send her an DM on Instagram,and she will ask for your email address to email you the details. Classes conducted on Zoom, and payment links are all sent to you individually. I’ve yet to join one of her sessions, but at the moment, her timing is not working for as it mostly starts at 7pm UK time. She is also modelling for other groups, and I cant keep up at the moment. haha.

Everybodys_lifedrawing https://instagram.com/everybodys_lifedrawing?igshid=6sk5uvv8kbx7

This is an ongoing weekly life drawing but just for one hour, and some of the timing is good for Singapore, starting at UK time 12.30-1.30pm for 4 pounds using Zoom. If you want a shorter session. This might be your thing. The model I’ve drawn so far is a yoga teacher, who also offer Yoga for Drawing sessions.

Life Drawing Barcelona https://instagram.com/lifedrawingbarcelona?igshid=104hejhoi5uxq

This is a life drawing group I used to go to weekly in Barcelona when I used to live there. They’re running almost every other day of the week, 90 minutes life drawing via Zoom, the classes are free, but you can donate to the model, and the link to do so is written on their post as the model changes. This one sadly doesn’t work for Singapore time zones. Their timing is 7.30-9pm Barcelona time, which is starting around 1- 2 am in Singapore.

Adrian Dutton Life Drawing https://linktr.ee/adriandutton_life_drawing

Another host of life drawing based in London, that I had previously joined in London. The link will take you to a list of upcoming online life drawings. This is another one that doesn’t work for Singapore time zone, as they all start at 7pm. But hey, if you’re a night owl. This is for you.

2 B or Not 2 B Collective. https://instagram.com/2bornot2bcollective?igshid=xfpml6n2ohbh This one is a new one and I’ve got no comments as yet. They have a variety of classes and times.

So there you have it. I hope this is useful to somebody.
Let me know what you think once you’re tried some of them. Is it good, does it work for you? Love to hear your thoughts about this new reality we are currently experiencing.

Cheers and keep yourself safe!

Susan

In A Pandemic Crisis, taking drawing lessons ONLINE.

6/4/2020

I invited my students to a zoom meeting, It’s session 7 of my short course titled Travel Sketching. Ironic that now I am teaching how to travel sketch through my screens into other people’s screens at home. The isolation is what has gradually been happening since the beginning of February. A Covid-19 virus outbreak starting in China causes a global pandemic shutting down most airports and cities incrementally and Singapore shuts down as much as they can to try stop the outbreak getting worse, by slowly shutting down all non-essential businesses and schools too. Everyone is in a slow burning panic and anxiety, washing hands, wearing masks, staying home, hoarding essentials and inundating all the usual delivery services.

LaSalle college of the arts finally told all their staff to take all the courses ongoing and teach online. I have the privilege to be one of the first few to do an online class. We all join into the meeting room I hosted, and I check that everyone can see me and my other screen of hands on paper to do demonstrations, and I check that everyone can hear me. Time becomes inconsequential, and three hours fly fast. The lessons I give are not that different except showing how to do something like drawing a head of a person using a reference has to change and is based on new visuals, that is either something in a magazine/book at hand, or it is my student’s heads showing on the screen, in the case of learning how to draw people.

I also use my own travel sketchbooks as a reference, and a lot of the materials are covered through giving multiple examples and demonstrations on the screen. This seems to be a well received method, because all they have is the screen to watch, their attention becomes more focused, and they can see every strokes I make with less distractions compared to when in a classroom. With demonstration on a screen, everyone has the same view of my hands and paper. In a classroom sometimes people are obstructed or on a strange angle when I am demonstrating.

The not so good part of online class is the lack of feedback that I am getting as a teacher to what my students are actually doing. There’s a lot of silence that I feel I must fill with more examples or more talking that is not necessarily useful or effective. However I am glad we have addressed that before we ended the class, and I’ve told my students to give me a bit more feedback during the session.

In the midst of the online broadcast one of my ipad stopped working so I had to work with just one view which is of my hands, and toggle the screen when I need to show my face. It’s not the worse situation even tho this didn’t help smooth broadcast in my opinion.

I ask myself what is my expectations for this online class, and the TOP answer seem to be more interactions from the students to me so I can tailor the instructions according to their needs. The other answer is for me to give them the best lesson content that I can and showing as much as possible the techniques that I use. I realise I tend to give too much information too fast, so every so often, I check in with them if I needed to adjust.

To summarize, an online class for art lessons is better than in a classroom for the purpose of teaching and showing how to do it, but requires participants and students to give more feedback, either in sound, or in facial expressions such as a nod, or a noise. It requires the teacher to be more hands on in showing examples and for students to participate more with their voice and head body language than in a classroom, and as long as this is clearly communicated, I think the class is beneficial for all.

7 Free Activities you can do AT HOME, and have a wholesome ISOLATION time.

23/3/2020

Hi All,

I hope you are coping well with this crazy time of lockdowns, self-isolations and keeping your distance with social distancing.
I’ve been enjoying myself with so much less noise and busy-ness and I have been very creatively productive. Some of you have been asking for suggestions on activities you can do while you’re at home. Here are 7 No Money Fun as Mike Myers used to call it, that’s actually doable and fun. A fuel for our curiosity and good vibes producing.

1. After listening to Audible.com for years, I am so happy to hear they’re giving away Free audible books of stories, classics such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and fairy tales from different parts of the world. There is enough free audio books to last weeks and weeks of isolations. There are even books in French, Spanish and Japanese. Is it time to re-up on my Spanish comprehension? Maybe https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

2. Brooklyn Art Library #thesketchbookproject is offering this 28 days challenge with a prompt sent to your email daily. It’s a challenge and great for artists who’s really want to get their critical image thinking going. https://brooklynartlibrary.org/28daychallenge

3. Do you own a house plant? Here’s a list of hard to kill houseplants that you might already have but don’t know much about. I’ve started this new hobby when we moved into our new house, it gives me a nice morning rituals while the kettle is boiling, to water the plants and then see little baby shoots coming up, is such a fulfilling experience. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/advice/g1285/hard-to-kill-plants/

4 . If you’re like me, I’ve got a pile of ‘to be mend’ things including shoes, and Jewelry that is waiting for me to have time to take care of them. When I’ve done a mend to my clothes, it felt like new again, and if you like, you can even try visible mending, I wrote all about it here. If you’re into fixing electronics, hey, that has the same kind of satisfaction. https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/www.refinery29.com/amp/en-gb/clothing-repair-alteration-sustainability

5. Mindfulness meditation with Mark Williams on Spotify.
Mindfulness meditation is a big trend and apps such as Calm or Headspace has been helpful to maintain a mindfulness meditation rituals. I’ve used Headspace for many years, and now on the daily, I listed to Mark Williams guided mindfulness meditation as part of my morning ritual. So being at home, gives you the opportunity to try this too. I’ve felt the benefit when I’m anxious and impatient in my day. It’s more beneficial ofcourse if you can do it every day.
https://open.spotify.com/album/67uxFWx39wI8frDJuF2InX?si=y-DxoXg7R6KZtgX4Gp2vDg

6. Learn to cook a new recipe or two. Recently I’ve found this YouTube channel called The Avant Garde Vegan, even though I am not vegan nor vegetarian, I like to eat plant-based meals a few times a week. Gaz is very cute to look at, and says the word ‘Nutricious’ multiple times in every video. A few recipe that he has inspired that I make is the Moroccan recipes with chick peas and I end up making my own Harissa paste from watching his videos. Making a big batch of really ‘nutricious’ meals, that you can freeze, makes life so much easier and eating out unnecessary. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-ACPYNN0oXD4ihS5mbbmw

7. Instead of Pandemic focus, lets “Pandemake” and focus on being creative. The idea began on the day Singapore announced a travel restrictions and countries such as the UK and USA are all slowly panicking and locking down their borders and European cities all doing similar things. It’s a highly unsettling time and all I could see online was all content only about this pandemic. It becomes unhealthy as my anxiety and panic starts to rise just from reading the news. All other news not related to Corona Virus seems trivial and uninteresting, so I thought this is what I’ll do to help myself cope. You can join me as I am drawing daily objects, from pantry essentials to fresh produce, as long as the items is in your house, and you’re drawing it life, it’s an be anything. Have a look at the video process I post on my IG stories. https://www.instagram.com/olijstudio_travels/

Enjoy what you can, Stay healthy, and may new healthy beginnings come soon.

Susan

Procreate-ing

8/3/2020

I have been playing with Procreate since I got the IPad Pro, and It’s been hand and arm ache-ly fun. One of my artist friend said Procreate is game changing, and I now understand what she’s talking about. It is addictive as well as Super Fun, when it can be combined with actual watercolour painting.

Here’s an example. I am back to sketching random mundane things in Singapore, there’s unlimited source of inspirations everywhere. This is a snoozing uncle in a hot afternoon in Tiong Bahru, the hipster area of Singapore :)

Process videos are fun to make because it also shows my process, my thinking and my ideas in one few minutes episodes. This whole painting took around 2 hours and over the course of 2 days, a slow progression of layering and then finishing off with Procreate to add details.

I think this is one of the better videos Ive made so far. What do you think?

Susan

I am going to Margaret River to Travel Sketch with Emergence Creative Festival.

10/2/2020

Exciting news y’all! I won a trip to Margaret River during their wine harvesting season to do my travel sketching there! I’m going to travel sketch the slow traveller style for 4 days from 24-27 of March.

I have never been to Perth or Margaret River! Thank you @emergencecreative for including me so I can continue travel sketching the slow way in Western Australia.

This event is part of WA’s premier festival called Emergence Creative Festival,
an annual gathering for the international creative industry, and to capture the beauty of the famed wine region during harvest season.

About a month ago, mid January, I applied to this open call, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was short -listed and invited to their wine and grazing table reception where I met a few of the other short-listed artists. The next day I was one of the 16 shortlist artists to get interviewed. I brought my travel sketchbooks, we talked about road trip to Mexico, and the travel sketching around the world that I’ve just finished in 15 months. Brianna and Erin were very complimentary about my sketchbooks which is exciting. I was hoping to get to go to Margaret River, because that’s a whole new continent, and a whole new place I have not travelled sketch to, and the pictures they showed me of the wine region was magnificent. I cannot wait to see that all in real life.

Here's the link to the article on their website.
https://www.emergencecreative.com/newsitems/singapore-based-content-creators-win-trip-to-emergence/

Thank you Brianna and Erin for picking me.

Patreon, Support me and my first Book

13/1/2020

I finally make the jump. I am in Patreon now as I am embarking on the book about travel sketching I realise I need help and support to make it happen. The working title of the book is "The Slow Traveller's Sketchbook". I like this title because it is what the book is going to focus on. In a very distracted world, parents fearing their children turning into tech zombies, adults addicted to mindless scrolling and lack of sleep becoming a normal thing. I felt the way my sketchbooks and travel experience can be helpful is to write and advocate and crusade about Paying Attention.

There is just not enough attention given to anything these days, I struggle with distraction as I am sure a lot of people do. Artists with a wandering mind and explosive creative energy knows this struggle well.

Travel sketching is a way to help improve attention, and slow everything your mind is racing you to do and feel down to a place of clarity, and simplicity.

So, if this is something you want to be a part of, please support my Patreon at a tier you're comfortable in. I will be super grateful and you will see me rock and roll and make the book and the E-book and everything else happen in 2020.

Yay!

Thank you so much,

Susan

Made the Sunday Papers

2/1/2020

Hey, that's me, looking really serious and involved in teaching travel sketching in the Tekka Market food court. The article was published in Straits Times, Sunday Times, Life section on 29th of December, 2019. Just in time to put a check mark on 'making the papers' as one more accomplishments before the decade ends. Sor Fern, was supposed to try out just the first two sessions of this short course courtesy of LaSalle College of the Arts but ended up doing the whole 8 sessions. I am pleased that she got so into it she bought her own sketchbook and watercolour set after the first class.

Yes, I travel sketch for fun, and also for something more serious. What's that you ask?

It might sound reaching, but I want to make some kind of difference in how people see the world, one bad and runny sketch at a time. Like Sor Fern, who is such a diligent students even when she's on a writing project, drawing with pen and watercolour insists on experiencing mistakes, and no going back on it. It's something I challenge myself daily and developed a strong muscle for drawing mistakes and mishaps. You don't have to like all your work, but you do have to like you as the person making the work, no matter if the work is good or bad.

I am so grateful that most of my students gets this, a ridiculously obvious advice, yet so so hard to do.

Welcome to my world.

Freehand Lettering

2/12/2019

Recently, I did this freehand lettering, posters for the Make-A-Wish Face painting charity I've done for years for their annual Christmas Party. It felt very good to know I've not lost the skills, I've not done large freehand lettering in a long time. I am happy with the result. This took about 4 hours, using MDF foam board and a bunch of wide tip markers. I like the slightly retro, slightly steam punk circus circa 1920's fonts and the star burst effect that made the poster pop.

Maybe this is a good fun way to spend some of my drawing for fun time.

Who's next? The freehand lettering service for cafes, restaurants, art studios and more is open.

Susan

Travel Sketching short course, New at LaSalle College of the Arts

6/11/2019

Who knew that I'll be travel sketching so much during the sabbatical year of travel that a year and a half later, I have 5 sketchbooks full, 16 countries worth of drawings, and be confident enough to say, hell yes, I can definitely teach this.

On 9th November 2019, I start teaching a small group of new sketchers. The course is broken down to an evening in class learning fundamentals, and Saturday mornings on location around Singapore to apply and practice those fundamentals.

Thoughts on how I design the module comes from the experience of travel sketching on locations. Most of the time, I have no control over what I'll see and whether there's time and comfortable spaces to sketch. I could be in a bus station and it's empty, or I could be in an airport lounge I've never been before where it's not conducive to sketch. In any case, the key to continuously drawing in any location, is energy. An example of energy, is when I had a good night sleep, and we arrived early enough in this transit place that I find myself sitting down with a drink and looking around for interesting things that catches my eyes. Observing my surroundings comes easily when I had a good rest. So first that.

Second thing, curiosity comes when there is time to observe, and sometimes this comes rarely when you're in a rush. So I thought of finding a place that we can stay in, with lots to observe and not much moving around required.

Finally, deep seeing, this is what I call it when there's energy, and curiosity, and a blank paper, and the more you observe, the more you see things that you didn't notice before. The best condition for travel sketching isn't beautiful sceneries or palatial buildings, it is the mundane, the every day places that usually gives the most interest to travel. It's the things that everyone misses because they're going from A to B, going about their daily business, and have errands and people to meet. For travel sketchers, it's all about intentionally meandering and aimlessness. Deep seeing comes from aimlessness first, then the deep seeing happens when we are curious. Roman Muradov wrote in his book On Doing Nothing that " Every place we visit, for years or for an hour, imprint itself on our minds. Without much effort or intention, we keep refining these mental maps for as long as our brains can manage".

So that is when I decided for beginners, one class to learn the techniques, and then one class as an excursion to apply the techniques, is the way to go.

Feedback from the first group of students has been positive and encouraging and some find the short course is too short. It does feel quite fast for 8 sessions twice a week. Perhaps there's something we can do there for the next one.

We went on location sketching to Tekka Market, The park in SMU campus near the National Museum, the food court under the Flyer, and then to the airport.

Most of these places are chosen so that comfort is not ignored, when we have art supplies we need to use, first, comfort and space, as this encourage the quiet, and the deep seeing. The locations was chosen to balance offering just enough things to see and observe, yet not overwhelming with crowds or heat. On hindsight, the last excursion that included sketching while on the MRT train, did not go as I planned because the train ended up being too crowded and too uncomfortable both to draw and also attracting too much attention. So this I'll change for the next course.

Funny things seem to always happen when we go on locations. There's a lot of people quite curious about what we're doing, lots of gawking and looking, which is normal, but for new sketchers, this can be awkward and slightly uncomfortable. But mostly, we had a laugh, we got some free snacks and a good exchange with random onlookers.

I really enjoyed myself, and I think the module works for the most part. With some adjustments to make it better next time, this can be quite a good short course for people who wants to start sketching while travelling.

For post course practice, I offer the students to come with me when I go on sketch walks. There are some interesting places in Singapore that I want to go myself, this included the Singapore Zoo, Haw Par Villa, The Natural History museum, and a lot of unusual places, back alleys of Little India, Fishing areas near the Park Connectors and more.

I would love for these students to continue their practice and if I can encourage it by participations, why not.

Students can join Ostudio artist community on Facebook, which I started not long ago, I hope to be more active there.