Travel Sketching Short Course- Origin Story.

I love travelling and I love sketching, the genesis of this course was when I started my first travel sketchbook while travelling in the UK, and this was a journey that would take me to 15 countries in 15 months, and when I return to Singapore, I was working in my 4th sketchbook. The travel journaling gave me more than I expected, I was in a lot of discomfort the first 4 months because of burnout, and lack of self care. I have since learned a lot more self care and sketching while travelling was part of that self care.

When people say self care, it is often connected to massage, taking a day off, taking a restful sleep, and slowing down. My discovery about self care in the context of travel, was even though I was doing all the ‘right’ things, my toxic mindset about work is what did the damage. Where the definition of work is stress, and work must be stressful or I am not doing it right. I realise I cannot properly care for my self with this mindset no matter how many spas I visited. Work, I unconsciously was taught to mean I have to run myself to the ground or I am lame, lazy or even worse worthless. In a lot of ways, I am sure a lot of people can relate, this is not just me, the urban life, the technologically advanced and modern comfort somehow pushes a lot of these unhealthy striving for the benefits later and rest later. I also realise that rest doesnt come easy to the overstimulated and the the overworked.

Proper rest became more and more a myth in a capitalistic society, nobody rests properly, everyone is tired all the time, and the pandemic really made things worse because prolonged isolations exacerbate our loss of connection with our senses and our family and friends. I certainly felt this loss of connection long ago, and when I am striving in this toxic way, no wonder I was exhausted and burned out. I find myself taking days off without resting, having a day at the spa without feeling any relief, and sleep quality was mediocre at best, I would still feel tired when I woke up. Brene Brown call the trinity of toxic hatefulness as shame, scarcity and comparison, I was definitely looking at my life and work from these three lenses. Ugh!

The sketching while travelling gave me a focus, a sense of meditative calm because for the first time in years, I allow time, and rest. I would sketch on the road too, filling idle time waiting for flights, trains and buses with sketching. I feel so connected to where I was, traveling through Mexico or Morocco, I notice people are doing the same things everywhere, they take their kids to school, they eat street food, they walk their dogs, and laugh, play and make friends. The difference is that the sketches shows incredibly diverse and colourful mundane lives. It shows vibrancy, smells, patterns, vistas that are so different to where I lived. The awayness as we often look forward to on vacations is a rejuvenating and pleasant feeling. When my travel extended to months and I have to move every month, awayness ended up becoming another mundane thing but over time I learned ways to adapt to frequent changes of locations and negotiate degrees of uncertainty so I can manage a healthy balance, this was exactly what I wanted from travel, and the sketching grounds me whenever I feel untethered.

When I eventually return to Singapore, I continue sketching, and having been away for more than a year, I see Singapore with a new eye, a beginners’ eye, and creativity in the mind of a beginner is the best state for a artist because its a combination of terrifying and fun. It is that feeling of disbelief, curiosity, trepidations, anticipations and uncertainty, and those are all very good combinations for feeling aliveness, for connections to myself and my world.

Imagine traveling through Singapore as if you’ve never seen it before, a tourist in your own country means so much more than just going sight seeing, it is seeing, smelling and experiencing Singapore as if you’re a temporary traveller who will soon leave. This is the kind of mindset I would like my students to prepare themselves for in this short course. With travel sketching, eventhough you’re brought up in Singapore and lived here all your life, you’ve never really seen Singapore until you’ve sketched it.

Sketching on location is what travel sketchers do always, all the time, because we are always temporarily somewhere, and we’re always moving. So our sketchbook practice can help us ground our experience to the present. Sketching requires uninterrupted attention but its not that serious. Sketching is also a restful activity that encourages alertness, where I am in the present and engaged fully with my surroundings. Sometimes what I choose to sketch is moving or I have to move, and that can be a little bit stressful, but the sketches will record all that, and when you return to it later, the sketch has captured a memory of a very interesting moment. Ofcourse sketching on location also can be challenging, because there are no guarantees, no 100% security or certainty, your surroundings can change drastically, quickly and weather is usually the biggest culprit. As a sketcher on location, I am always out of my comfort zone, but I can negotiate how much uncertainty I want to have, in order to keep things interesting at the same time achieving the satisfaction I want. Satisfaction doesn’t only come from having produced a masterful sketch every time. In fact satisfaction can come from having done something, even if it’s not finished.

Sketching on the move allows me to practice letting go and moving on faster from uncomfortable situations, and surprisingly, moving on from having made sketches I don’t like. The traveller’s mindset helps me not sweat the small stuff.

My sketchbook practice doesn’t end when travel ends. I am up to sketchbook no.47 now, I did 4 sketchbooks in 15 months, and during the deep first lockdown of 2020, I filled 20 sketchbooks of various sizes. I was using sketchbook practice also as a coping mechanism for not having any control over what’s happening on the outside world. My sketchbook practice became a ritual that I stick to because it gives me a sense of control, a sense of direction, and in a way an escape. And this was when I started to teach online too.

The sketchbook practice and the online teaching became all the things, a coping mechanism, escapism, safety net and a nurturing home where learning always happens and a lot of sense of accomplishment.

This is why I decided that teaching this skill will be so beneficial for people, especially those living in fast paced cities. People addicted to their technology, and always plugged into their devices often feel less and less connected to their surroundings. Sketching while on the move is an antidote for this disconnection, it reduces distractions, and very gently nudge us to be back into the present moments.

This 10 session 5 weeks course with LaSalle College of the Arts is now at its 8th run since I started teaching it in late 2019. In the last 10 months, students has continue to sketch together after the end of their courses. Now a beautiful community of travel sketchers has sketched in multiple locations even during the heightened alert of the pandemic, that is when being outdoors was limited and masks was still worn outdoors. We are calling ourselves the Yakun Sketchers and we are sketching together weekly on Saturday mornings, at the same time we as the on-location classes for this course.

I have written about travel sketching previously, and I have defined what exactly is travel sketching in my mind in this article, and I find that every new course, I consistently need to write more about new revelations, new realisation from having done a lot of sketchbook practice. With international travel returning to my yearly schedule, I am now able to extend the travel sketching experience farther afield.

So stay tuned for exciting travel sketching abroad plans in 2023 and beyond.