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OCTOBER 2020 SOLO SKETCHWALK in the year of a PANDEMIC

1/11/2020

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I decided to take the whole month of October off teaching and focus on all urban sketching. While I was doing quite a lot of urban sketching in August and September already, I was also teaching a lot and there was very few whole day sketching or long stretches of being on location that I could not do. I would like to see how not having classes changes my rhythm, and productivity if I could go on longer stretch of sketching on location.

Here's where I rant about the weather in equatorial Singapore. October is no different to previous months in terms of weather. Its either very hot and humid, with rare occasions of cooler and less humid days, or it's rainy, and gloomy and unpredictable. Sometimes the rain can come quickly and heavily, and clouds lingers for most of the day or its a thunder and lightning kind of rain, that is short and sweet, and brings with it such humidity I could not tolerate for long.

On full day sketching days, my body's readiness and my artist mind's ambition does not always work in parallel and I find the morning a slow time to get going. With morning rituals and routines taking up most of the slow waking hours, household chores comes next, and then the body needs to move through its full morning cycle before I am ready to leave the house. It's quite interesting to observe all the emotional and movements of this body as I prepare it for a full day of being outdoors. 
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Below's a selection of sketches I did on location in October. The goal was to improve my resilience to being on location, to learn about myself when I am drawing buildings instead of mostly people. The other goal of the month is to loosen my need for perfection and to just start. It is not just about quantity but also about quality. It is about attention. Giving a lot of attention to specific things. Improving my distracted brain into quieter less noisy brain. I want to see how and what changes, and if there’s a new style emerging from it.

It is showing that I don't always succeed in making a good sketch that reads beautifully. Sometimes I can sense it very early in the moment that its a struggle, and in other days, a good day, the sketches are wonderful, hoping with expression and depth and I am really pleased with the outcome.

No matter what sketchbook I use, whatever size and quality, I find that each sitting, when I decided to settle takes about 45 minutes to 90 minutes, and I would do multiple sketches of the same subjects or areas, so I could work on them interchangeably. 

Most of all, I've been able to visit a lot of locations with such depth, and such quiet contemplation, that even if they're places I frequently go to, I see them with new eyes, and it is something I can highly recommend if you're an artist looking for new subjects. A new sketching energy seems to come even in familiar places if you have time to examine, focus on them through your drawings. And a great way to feel you've explored somewhere new while still unable to travel. This pandemic year just feels so exhausting and the familiarity breeds some contempt which I am sure is a shared emotion globally. We live in such a small island, and we have taken the ability to travel around regionally and internationally for granted until now, and I feel the restrictions achy in my bones 9 months on. 

How I planned:  
  • Starting early and getting a lot of quick sketches, some of them without thought. 
  • Not posting all my process on IG story every day, just focusing on doing the work. Less focus on recording the process. 
  • Quick sketches helps me reduce the need for perfections. Sometimes a whole sketch book without planning can show a lot of things. 
  • It is a good idea to keep the sketchbook filled, with and without quality work. 
  • I will not look for perfection. 
  • I will not judge myself harshly, but only constructively whenever necessary. 
  • I will allow the flow of work to be there without trying to change it
  • On October 31, I will do a big review and see what happened but not before. 


Here's the day by day actions- locations I went to in October: 

Thur 1 Oct Whole day Tiong Bahru
Fri 2 Oct Dhoby ghaut- whole day marina south pier, Armenian Street
Sat 3 Oct - no sketching
Sun 4 Oct - no sketching
Mon 5 Oct - Fort Canning Park, Fort Gate (half day)
Tues 6 Oct- Half Day Kampong bugis water way. 
Wed 7 Oct - Whole Day Sentosa
Thur 8 Oct - Arab street 
Fri 9 Oct - Half Day Robertson quay, chijmes 
Sat 10 Oct - life drawings 
Sun 11 oct - no sketching
Mon 12 oct - whole day queen Elizabeth Walk, empress place, victoria theater. 
Tues 13 Oct - studio day 
Wed 14 Oct - Studio day 
Thur 15 oct - Whole day - Bishan park, kebun baru birdsinging club 
Friday 16 - Half Day tanglin, loewen Road 
Sat 17 - life drawing 
Sun 18 oct- no sketching 
Mon 19 oct - Whole day Joo Chiat Road. Shophouse 
Tues 20 oct - Kallang River, golden mile complex 
Wed 21 oct - telok ayer Thian hock Keng temple 
Thur 22 oct - Whole day Geylang, Joo Chiat, Katong. 
Fri 23 oct - no sketching
Sat 24 oct - Waterloo st & Life drawings. 
Sun 25 oct - hampstead wetlands park. Little india MRT. 
Monday - Punggol 
Tuesday 27 October - Blair Road. 
Wednesday 28 oct - studio day 
Thursday 29 oct - whole day Hong lim park, Telok Ayer,  Yueh Hai Ching Temple 
Friday 30 Oct - No sketching
Saturday 31 Oct - USK Singapore sketchwalk Little India, Life Drawing.


What I also learned this month is that the morning sketches are generally always better than the afternoon ones, in energy level, in attention and focus. I had a few sketch walks with other friends some of these days and the work does seem to look a bit distracted, even if we don't talk much. Solo sketching gives a lot more focused energy into the work, despite other external distractions like noise and people and nature. 

I got used to being crawled on by different insects as I sketch. I let them continue as long as it doesn't distract or impede on my work.
I got used to the gawking passerby, and they don't tend to bother me much.
I understand how to find the focus of my sketch a bit faster than in earlier months.
I find this month to be a time to release all the precious energy around productivity, around quality of work and to give myself some space to be more intentional in the future with my sketch walks. 

​It was a great end to the month with joining Urban Sketcher Singapore official October sketch walk in Little India where I did one good sketch and a very loose two page spread. 

​Just for data fun, in October I did 108 pages of sketches across 4 different sketchbooks. While in September, I did about 86 pages (or 43 double pages) across three sketchbooks. An increase of about 20%. 

I learned that a very good 100% cotton paper sketchbook is unbeatable for sketching on location. Moleskine watercolour journal's doesn't really have good paper, it buckles and the colours tend to become somewhat muddier. The moleskin sketchbook with red cover becomes my workhorse sketchbook where all kinds of learning and experiments happens in it, as well as some excellent drawings.  
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​My travel kit is slowly tightening up, I no longer carry any grey tombow markers I learned from urban sketchers such as Ian Fennelly and Liz Steel, I strictly use the fude pen, palomino pencils, and my generally all Daniel Smith palette, with the occasional Schmincke paints here and there. I got used to the larger travel brushes now and sometimes only use them exclusively. 

I should have brought a square sketchbook if I want to post beautifully on Instagram. A note to Self. The landscape orientation sketchbook is very difficult to capture in a square frame for social media.

Finally, one- two hour sketch walk can be plenty if you choose the right time of day, and in the right mood and state of mind. A full day sketchwalk is tiring but can be so fulfilling if I can find exciting subjects, and on days where it's just meh all the way, I have to learn to let go faster, and just call it quits while I was still fresh. 

What I would do differently knowing all these things? I would adjust my expectations on producing a large quantity of work, I would slow everything down and be more in the present. I would remind myself a lot more often that this is a process driven outcome, not an outcome driven process.

​Now I feel I've gotten most of the need to do full day of sketching on location out of my system, I am focusing on other things in November, back to teaching classes on Zoom, and in person. Back to some portrait sketching and weekly life drawings. And learning from a new teacher. 

More to come in November. Stay tuned. 
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Artist Interview for In-Visible Space

19/7/2020

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Story time...

A couple of months ago, a new friend I met while working at Mox, the Co-Creative space Charmaine Wong from Chark Chalk Architect ask if I would talk about my travel sketchbook and be interviewed in my studio about how I use my space in my art practice and be filmed for a passion project for In-Visible Space by Benny Loh, a videographer and photographer from a production company called Food And Shelter.

A few weeks after lockdown was relaxed, Benny and Charmaine came fully equipped  including a box of delicious cake that arrived even before they did. I was curious about how one do these kind of short films, so saying yes was easy because I actually wanted to see Benny's creative process, and I couldn't find any reason to say no to talking about my art on film even if it's a bit nerve wrecking. It fits so perfectly to my own challenge this year of just trying new things, including talking to a camera, filming process videos, and showing my face more, not just my hands and my sketches. 

Benny's a professional, so there's a kind of ease in his way of working,​ a glide almost. He and Charmaine took some initial studies of the space, looking at corners and lights, and plotted their visual plans. I was then given a mic that coiled inside my jumpsuit, small enough to clip to my neckline. 

Charmaine then assured me that being relaxed and myself is the best way to be, and not to be nervous. There were a few times I talked too much, I didn't say the words simple enough that I had to repeat it and be simpler. Haha. I think I talked quite unedited and thankfully I didn't use any profanity, which is usually a natural part of my speech, as an expression of emphasis.   

​Benny took videos of parts of the studio, we opened the window to show the spaciousness that it can be. And he also took videos of things that matched what I talked about in the interview, so that it all can be edited coherently together. It's such a smooth process, and a professional knows how to make the awkward times really smooth. Thank you so much Benny and Charmaine for putting up with some of my quirks. Also I really really appreciated how much was shared about the passion for how people use space and that amazing origin story of this in-visiblespace project was so inspiring. I won't tell it here, I think Benny needs to tell you about it. 

​Benny Loh can be found at www.foodandshelter.co 
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​Charmaine Wong can be found at www.chalkarchitects.com

​And the Instagram is @in-visiblespace

So here is the final edit and I am so thankful to both of them. It's an honour and privilege to be in this series and project. Thank you guys!

And Thank you for watching,

Susan 

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The Ink Pens Chronicles

6/7/2020

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What I like
  • I like using pen, and have been using only strictly but nothing else except pen and ink, and saying goodbye for now to pencils because it is the bold, the beautiful, the irreversible way is the way I preferred to go in my drawing practice. The irreversibility gives opportunity for mistakes to occur, and without mistakes, we don’t learn. I am not deliberately trying to make mistakes, but I give space for it to occur, and it strengthen my confidence, so perfectionism doesn’t ruin all the fun I could be having. 


Why I don’t have a preference 
  • I drew these two pages chronicling all the pens I own, in the hopes of a deeper analysis of my preference only resulting in reminding me what a maximalist I am. 
  • At the end of drawing all these pens, I realise that I actually don’t mind whichever one I use, depending on what the drawing i am trying to make. Even the most bleeding kinds I rather like. In this selection, that award goes to MUJI brush pen. What I like is still a finer tipped ink pen, but it must also have the flexibility to produce slightly thicker lines if needed. All in all, most of the ink pens here can do that, so the degree of preference becomes flattened. 
  • The MUJI brush pen came with me on my year off traveling and this one I kept until it died had one hair sticking out of the brush, and that allowed me to make very precise details, such as a face even if its very small. I loved that pen. And this brings me nicely to the next point. 


Why I always look for the best brush pens 
  • There is no such thing as the perfect brush pen, but there is that perfect brush pen for now. I go through stages with ink pens where I want fluidity to come before accuracy and even if the lines I made is wrong, i did it my way, which these days is confident inaccurate.
  • I used to like the accuracy of a graphic fine liner, and the sizes I used to teach fashion illustrations was a range from 0,03 to 0.3, and 0.5 is just slightly too big. 
  • These days, with travel sketching, I no longer use the smaller liners, even tho in countries limited in stationery, I manage to use the same ink liners months on end. And use the MUJI brush pen sparingly because it bleeds too much, and make my watercolour muddy when there’s too little details. 
  • The best brush pens is one that has a nice fine tip, but when pressed down, can pull a lovely thick brush line and shape a nice leaf like stroke. The best brush pen is not one with actual brushes, but of a soft felt tipped kind mimicking a brush. The downside of the felt tipped kind is it gets tired really fast, and the tip will fray and be less pointy after a few use. 
 
  • UNIBALL Air by MITSUBISHI, with the L-Broad tip is the one I end up using most in the latest travel sketchbooks because it has the sensitivity and line variety of a fountain pen, it has good feedback on paper, and it can be controlled to create thin and thick lines. In the end,  a brush pen is not my favorite liner, this one is.   

The Urban sketcher’s favorite ink pens seems to be the FUDE fountain pen, and after a long time, after a lot of hating, and a lot of grumpiness, I started to use FUDE in a way that feels how it should be appreciated. I still cannot understand this crazy looking nip, but i see the benefit of the flat broken-looking tip for broad strokes, and then twisted the other way round, it gives thin and precision if that’s what you need. 

The two FUDE pen I now use is not drawn in the big pen page but I drew them seperately. They are the inexpensive Sailor fude pens, the 55 degree nib and the 40 degree nib.  And I find myself gravitating towards the 40 degrees more as the weeks go by, it feels like more control can be hand, the thickness of the 40 degrees is more suitable in how I expect my pens to work. 

So finally, here’s my preference,squeezed out of me by deliberate pressure. 

Favorite liner : UNIBALL AIR by MITSUBISHI, L-Broad 

Favorite brush pen: PIGMA BB, by SAKURA. 

When in limited stationery places, for travel, I will always default to the PIGMA MICRON by SAKURA. 

And the ones I used a lot without realising it is ZIG MANGAKA by KURETAKE. Do I like it, I don’t think this way. It is effective, it is reliable, but it’s not something I LIKE or LOVE using. 

There’s little correlation to what I like using and what is effective. What is effective does the job, while the ink pen I love gives me a deeper satisfaction even if the drawing isn’t produced in it’s most highest standards, and the 40 degree Fude pens are currently still under review to fill this space. 


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August News flash: My Trishaw Uncle sketch hang in Singapore streets this month.

6/7/2020

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Early in June, I submitted a re-drawing of one of my travel sketches from the Sabbatical travel sketchbook to National Arts Council Streets of Hope open call exhibition, where the selected artists work will be printed on banners and displayed all around the Civic district of Singapore. And the digital work displayed on the NAC facebook and Gillman Baracks website.  I am STOKED to be one of the selected artists, and this is the second installment of their Streets of Hope exhibitions that already had 153 singapore-based artists picked early in June.

This trishaw uncle was fast asleep one hot afternoon when I passed by, his trishaw was parked just across the street from Raffles Hotel, where I would imagine  he normally hustle tourists to ride with him. In the new iteration for the open call, I unconsciously end up giving him more hair :) and i think the work is improved in its shadow values. The work represented the relaxed time before CORONA pandemic, where we all could hangout without a mask. The good old days is no more. 

The original drawing was when I first came back to Singapore from the year away Travel Sketching, and i wrote ‘Hokay Singapore, once again with feeling’, as my way of marking a new beginning for me and Tom, being back to live in Singapore. 

Here you can see the original sketch and what I did to turn it into the original artwork and what the final banner looks like.

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Sketchbook #4, Original sketch in my sketchbook
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The original sketch retouched and resized from my sketchbook done in 2019
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Final watercolour sketch in A3 size Watercolour paper.
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The banner on Saiboo Road, Singapore
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The banners with other artists banners
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The exact location of my banner and other artists listed here.
Thank you NAC for organising this massive initiative to support local artists. 

See if you can spot the banner when you're around Robertson Quay and Mohammed Sultan area. I am not sure how long it'll be up for, but catch it while it's hanging up the next month or so! 
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PLAY LEARNING SERIES- Wet on Wet technique

12/6/2020

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Wet on Wet watercolour technique tested on varieties of paper. 


f you’re here, you must either be a watercolour student or an enthusiastic artist and learner. 


Here are all the results of the wet on wet test on the different papers that I did on this video 


I purposely choose paper from inexpensive paper to medium grade watercolour paper that is very affordable. 


Here’s the materials I use: 

PAPER FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
POP ARTZ, Minimalism Non-Watercolour sketchbook A5 (from Popular stationery)  SGD$3.20
Cartridge Exercise Book Non- Watercolour sketchbook A5 (black soft cover, also from Popular stationery) SGD$1.95
Watercolour paper by ClaireFontaine Etival 300 gsm/140lbs 
Signature Non-watercolour sketchbook by Mont Marte 150 gsm (https://www.montmarte.net/product/view/signature-sketching-journal-croc-finish-150gsm-a5-landscape-100-page
Non-watercolour ring bound sketchbook A5 (from Popular) with a plastic cover. SGD$1.25
Watercolour paper, 300 GSM from OVJ (Overjoyed.xyz. own brand) about A5 size but a bit smaller $12 for 100 pcs. 


Daniel Smith paints: 
Fired Gold Orche
Bloodstone Genuine
Quinacridone Purple
Raw Umber Violet
Shadow Violet 
Moonglow 

PWC Extra fine artist watercolour - Naples Yellow

Sakura Mat Water Colours - Prussian Blue (not Indigo as I said in the video) 

Brush: Silver Black Velvet round size 8 


If you examine these 6 paper closely. You can easily see that the Mont-marte sketchbook, (2nd row far left) is the worse for watercolour. It is not meant for wet medium, while it could be worse, it doesn’t retain water long enough to spread paint beautiful, and the colours on the surface is the least vibrant when it dries. Especially the yellow  swirl on the dark background.

In terms of spreadability and water travel. The one that travels the most aggressively is the Etival watercolour paper, the purple slashes is shown least distinct there and is blurry. And the soft cover sketchbook shows the purple slashes eventually not spreading at all, because the water has evaporated fastest compared to the other papers. 

And we can not quite conclude anything distinctively but it is easy to see where you’d put your preferences towards if you like some of the effects. Depending on what you’re painting, some fast spreading is very good, and sometimes you dont want that if you’re painting something more detailed and small and you want the definitions to be sharp. 

In terms of vibrancy, the two watercolour paper differ a lot, the OVJ paper seems to keep the vibrancy more. And the “sketch” one too. While the rest are much more muted. 

What are your thoughts about it?

Will you be doing your own tests on your supplies? 

See you next time.

Susan
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Weekly Art class on Zoom in an era of Corona Virus Pandemic.

4/6/2020

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I've written about how I moved my teaching of the short course titled Travel Sketching, online from the end of March, 2020 when a week later, Singapore goes into "circuit breaker' which is synonymous with pandemic lockdown in other countries.

So here's the next stage where I reflect on what I learned and how the weekly classes came about. When Covid 19 started to reek havoc in Singapore around Mid March 2020, I was half way through my short course, so the school says, we had to move online, The transition was smooth, because I was already prepared, and already have screens set up in my studio for projecting my studio work table onto an online platform. I was already playing and producing process videos at the time so the system was easily transferable to project to Zoom..  

Three hours of class in a classroom and then outside in a public space goes very fast, and I discovered it is very different when we all moved online, the work that goes into preparing for the class is pretty much the same, but the effort and feedback is very much different, and it felt more draining for me as the one who's job is to show and explain all the theories and techniques limited by a screen. 

I learned after about 2 weeks of online teaching, that I need to be more aware of my energy output and that I don't have to speak all the time. I could give the silence of work some space, and let the students work without constantly adding information because they won't absorb it anyway. 

I also have wrote how I quickly learned that I needed more physical expression as feedback from the students if what I am doing is good, clear or if they are confused. Micro expressions does not translate through Zoom, and one can end up feeling very unsure if the students are on the same page. The instructions now for zoom classes is a thumbs up, or thumbs down, when asked if they're clear or not, and to ask questions more bravely. 

It is still really daunting than in physical classroom to ask questions on Zoom in a room full of virtual blank faces, and only a few would dare to ask the questions that I know everyone really appreciate to know too. I know because I too have taken classes online and know what it feels like to be the students on Zoom and how scary it can be to be heard speaking in a virtual room full of strangers. But if you persevere, the fear transforms into warmth and the nice feeling of being heard is something you can look forward to.  

I learned the use of Zoom, and how to manage a virtual room, it's very awkward, even after months of using it weekly. Feedback is crucial when I am doing something and the participants don't see it. On the virtual class room, you cannot compensate not seeing or hearing something clearly like you do in a physical classroom by asking your fellow participants or classmates. When my work space is on spotlight, everybody equally see it very clearly, unlike in a classroom where some students might not have the best view or vantage point. 

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The Ipad used as a camera to project for demonstrations
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This is a slide page that I've take from a friend's zoom meeting. I thought it's very good to start every course with this, just in case someone has not yet used Zoom. Simple arrows pointing at the use of each icons.  
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My students also had to resort to displaying their work and their reference like this, so I can see what they're using to sketch
I am glad that the classes are small, which means I have the time to give each students some personal attention because it takes a lot more effort to demonstrate feedback of their work, the above is one example where I drew the image reference they use to draw and suggested improvements in this way. 

​I try to use procreate to digitally draw on their drawing but it appeared not so useful because the method might be right, but the material was not watercolour so they couldn't see the result with the effects of watercolour. So I've stopped doing that, and returned to demonstrating directly on paper. 
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Soon after the short course ended, my students had an abrupt stop, and was looking to continue their practice. The one hour weekly class was born so they have somewhere to go regularly and maintain the sketching practice they've already started. So that was how my weekly online zoom class started. One hour, once a week, and a month later, it turns into a 90 minute weekly class with the students suggesting the topics they want to learn. It has been 5 months now, I have about 20 students in my class list, with half of them returning weekly.

I designed the class so it's always fun, always challenging but not so hard they'd loose the motivation. Anybody from beginners to expert can benefit from it. Designing a weekly curriculum on the fly is something I realise I like a lot, and while it is a challenge to find the right balance between challenge and ease, I find that preparing for the class is not always necessary apart from deciding the topic or image reference and some of the time, based on one question thrown into the room, I could build a whole class around that on the fly. 

​So I learned that there's enough technique in me to teach on the fly, as long as there's a starting point to focus the class on. These short weekly class are one complete session per class, so students can join at any point without missing anything from the week before. Students can come and go on weekly basis whenever they want. As long as I have 4 confirmed, I will start the class, and I've always gotten at least 5 and at the most 15 of them, which was always a great feeling. 

So far we've covered a number of techniques, from landscape, people, urban scenes, flowers, brush techniques to still life objects, skies and sunsets. 

Feedback time.

I would love it if you came to my weekly class the past few months to hear a little bit about your opinion of it. Please leave a comment below. Tell me what you want more of, what you like and what you wish to see in the future classes. Does the WhatsApp group work for you, what you've learned. This helps me improve these weekly classes so it can be better going forward.

Thank you so very much to all my students. I truly enjoyed teaching online, and in a time of non-travel and social distancing, the connection made through these weekly classes has given me hope, and joy and growth beyond what I could imagine. 

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June 2020 class
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August 2020 class

You can find details about my weekly zoom class here. 
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Travel Sketching - Online Short Course

23/4/2020

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

20/4/2020

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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 




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In A Pandemic Crisis, taking drawing lessons ONLINE.

6/4/2020

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

23/3/2020

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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 

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