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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!

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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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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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Travel Sketching - Online Short Course

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

In A Pandemic Crisis, taking drawing lessons ONLINE.

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