Blog Posts - OLIJ STUDIO

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.

Workshops Success Story in Barcelona. The Flow Painting Launched in Spain

5/11/2019

Part 1: Intention
My intention before we left to Barcelona to spend two months there is to spend time on working on my travel sketching book, and to test out my Flow painting on anybody who are open to it and are willing to try something completely new. I was in discussion with one art space called Cercle De Sant Lluc to introduce this workshop there, however the timing was not great because Barcelona is dead between August and September
for their summer break. I said to no one in particular but to the universe and the gods of timing and movement that "I wish to teach this workshop twice, just twice, and I'll do it anywhere, for anyone who's interested for free., I will leave it up to you what this will look like, ok, Thanks in advance Universe!"

Part 2: Action
I packed about 16 pieces of the Water paper, a bunch of brushes and I was determined they will be used. I plan to develop this workshop and use it on a regular basis for myself, and to record the findings from that. Arriving in Barcelona, I began to catch up with friends, and made new contacts with groups of people I've met before, and I brought this paper everywhere and I showed and demonstrated it as often as I could. I started a morning rituals of meditation and stretching that included using Flow painting techniques on the floor with a yoga mat.

At a summer social gathering I was invited to, my friend Michal was impressed by the paper, and told me he will connect me with his friend Jaime, and that Jaime has an event space I might be able to use to conduct workshops. I met Jaime on the chat group Michal created and before that week was over, I had a workshop called Mindful Drawing scheduled in. Thank you Jaime!

Part 3: Manifesting
First workshop in Barcelona, was hosted by Jaime Mitchell, she's an American who has lived in Barcelona for many years and is one of the organisers of the Barcelona Burning Hub, and this event I am so thankfully included in is called The Urban Playa, Coinciding with the actual Burning Man annually held in Black Rock, Nevada, This group is organising their own event that follows the code of Burning Man, and streams the video live from Black Rock on the daily. The Burning Man Code applies in no money exchanged, and people are giving services and things for free in exchanged for other services and things they need for the entire duration of the event. Jaime organises the week long program and my Flow Painting manifested through it, and is called Mindful Drawing. It was scheduled along with other workshops such as Chakra Therapy, South Bath, Silent Disco, and other quite interesting self improvements workshops and fun ones like DJ 101 workshop.

5 people joined the workshop, and English was mostly understood, although not fluently. The workshop was two hours long, starting with very simple warm up and understanding the water paper and the brush materials. The feedback from the participants were very positive, mostly very curious and impressed with water paper, and not at all phased by the challenge of drawing a portrait. I must add that they all seem to have had a drawing interest so that is very helpful to enhance the enjoyment of the workshop. I was pretty pleased with how it went and so very grateful for the opportunity. Thank you Jaime for the opportunity!

The second workshop was called Eco Pad drawing, and was hosted by a good friend, Pau Cata who runs an artist residency called CerrCa, I mentioned to him that I am looking for space and people to test the Flow Painting on and he generously offered his dwelling and studio space in a very trendy area of Poble Sec. The power of Pau's word of mouth, and a few social events where I met people including joining Urban Sketchers group, resulted in this small workshop success. Thank you Pau!

4 people joined this workshop and I charged €6 per person to cover costs of materials and some refreshments. It went very well again. This workshop was also 2 hours long, and the feedback from the participants was how wonderfully relaxing the meditation part of the workshop was, and the small size of the class was very welcomed. Pau's uniquely designed space added to the general vibe of the workshop with its high ceiling and minimal interior.

In this workshop I met Blanca Navas who runs Coco y Pincel, after she's experienced the workshop, she asked me if I could do another workshop at her studio in two weeks time. She's only done workshops for kids so far, and wanted to launch adult workshops. She suggested to charge full price so the space rental, as well as for a Spanish speaking translator could be covered. I am so super chuffed for this opportunity, I did not expect it but we move ahead to plan my third workshop. Thank you Blanca!

The third workshop at Coco Y Pincel was titled Drawing Faces, it was joined by 7 new participants. Blanca gave a small welcome speech to everyone and to inaugurate her first Adult Workshop. Blanca is an artist herself and she has works hanging in the studio. Clared did the Spanish translating, she is currently an artist in residence there. Most of them could understand English but the Spanish translating helps smooth the process or the instructions if it was not that clear in English. I really appreciate this.

Because this workshop is still at it's early stage of development, it was most excellent to be able to charge €20 per person on my third session, where the space rent is covered, translator paid, materials are covered and I feel the risk of running a new workshop is paying off. I included the same meditation and also mindfulness warm up before they attempt a more risky portraits. This workshop was 2.5 hours, and included painting on actual paper with black watercolour paint. I kept the paint colour to a single colour to maintain the simplicity, and at the last 5 minutes, added a red colour so they can add one impactful accents on their final drawings.

The feedback for this workshop was very positive, and I learned that most of these participants are quite chilled out. Like most people, they do have some fears of being judged, for being new at drawing, and a few people has literally never ever drawn before. The general class dynamic seems to go with the "Flow" and an enjoyment of the process instead of focusing on the result. In my 7 years of teaching experience in Singapore, I find the stark difference here was that there's a lot less anxiety to produce something perfect, and these participants seems to be more gentle on themselves than some of the adult students I've taught back in Singapore. In this workshop, the participants attempted to draw Male and Female faces, and learned how to work with a basic structure of a head. I used black and white references of very strong images of quite famous people. Because I taught in Spain, I included Javier Bardem and the actress with such an amazing nose Rosie De Palma. When I taught portrait drawing in Myanmar and Singapore, I also used a Local celebrity as a reference. I think it's important to maintain fluidity and familiarity when introducing a new technique, and that can be done through the image guide.

Final thought:

I am very grateful for the way my two months in Barcelona went. For the three successfully launched test of Flow Painting, and I learned a lot from the participants. As always, as an instructor, I always learned a lot while teaching.

My biggest take aways from these workshops are:

- Spanish participants are less of a perfectionists and their attitude is more relaxed overall while learning.
- A lot of curiosity of new materials and new methods was explored as well as enjoyed during the workshop, this shows in their line work, and their bold strokes.
- Participants are beginning to feel more bold with their strokes and eventually thought it would be great to not have their brush strokes dissapeared.
- Everyone loved the freedom of making mistakes that the water paper allows.
- They took home the water paper with such glee, because they can now do Flow Painting anytime on their own.
- I sold all the Water pad that I brought, and some wanted more.
- These workshop would not be possible without the support of my friends. So grateful for all the generosity and collaborative vibes I've received in Barcelona. It feels very satisfying to share a very new kind of creative workshop, with all its risks and unknown elements with groups of new people. These workshop would not be possible without the support of my friends.
- Feeling very fortunate to meet all the new people during the workshop.

Thanks to everyone, hopefully I could employ the same kind of gusto of Intention, Action and Manifesting for this workshop to develop even more so it can help reduce stress, reduce anxiety, rejuvenate people and help reduce mistake phobia.

Travel Sketching Short Course & Studio Reopening whispers

26/9/2019

Hi everyone,

My travel sketching short course has launched in LaSalle College of the Arts on the 9th of October, 2019. The course schedule of twice a week, once on wednesday evenings, 7-10pm and then on saturday morning to lunch time, an excursions to practice the theory learned, has so far been very well received.

This group of students seem to be engaging with their new skills and materials quite well. They've started to learn how to use water colour to paint and to sketch directly, draw thumbnails on location, and feel the challenge push them out of their comfort zones yet it's not too difficult or overwhelming. Some told me that because we use a pen directly, they cannot avoid imperfections and realise that it's actually survivable and okay. Mistakes doesn't kill them and is actually something they can cope with. I think this is the success I am looking for in travel sketchers.

For updates on the next short course starting in 2020, Email me

In the news, I am in the process of re-opening my home studio and workshop space, it is still a secret till we finalise everything else but one hint is, it will be in town, really easy access and is going to be beautiful. So stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Let's keep in touch and keep the practice going together. Studies says that group workout is more beneficial and more effective than solo workout. Do you think this can be applied to a group drawing practice too?

Yours,

Susan

Olij Studio Workshop Series - What is it about?

15/9/2019

Hey there.

I thought it is time to explain what the Workshop Series is all about. I was on flight from Cuba to Mexico, around April 2019, where I thought that a reset of what Olij Studio is offering would be in order. In the past since I started it in 2006, Olij Studio is a one woman show of art workshops, private classes, short courses, and some random commission works here and there. Most of my time was spent growing the skills and techniques offered to a point short courses like Fashion Illustration branches into Fashion Illustration I and II. And Drawing Using the Right Brain that was loosely based on Betty Edward's seminal book Drawing On Your Right Brain became so popular, all the classes was fully booked.

While these drawing workshops mainly introduces incrementally a fun but serious ways to approach basic technique of drawing and fashion illustration, and how to use the art supplies, my focus has always been how a student process and engage with learning. Learning how to learn is always a fascinating subject for me, as I too always seek to understand more about myself when I am teaching.

Every class for the last 7 years, and the 3000 plus students I've ever engaged with in those classes always taught me something. My biggest take away after leaving Singapore to travel in 2018 was that the classes became too repetitive. I tipped over to the wrong side of healthy, and I wasn't very good at recharging my energy, and erode the joy and enthusiasm that used to be there. When I ended up in a car crash at the start of 2018, I knew I needed to stop and re-evaluate everything, maybe a hard reset to really look at how I spend my time, and how I express my creative energy became that exhausting.

Fast forward 14 months later, it is now September 2019, and I am preparing to launch a few new classes, some have been on a soft launch stage, especially the one using techniques of mindfulness. I feel pretty good about it, but I also realise I may need some help and the doing it solo might not cut it anymore. There's only so much energy and time. The ambition to use creativity and art to change the world isn't the same size as the capacity to make it a reality.

The Workshop series so far is a group of short and one-off workshops where you are guided into a more mindful space, and then lead to learning something new. The first part of this guiding is important for me, because I always believe that creating the best possible condition for someone to learn, a space that's safe, supportive, encouraging and curious is a big first step into their learning about themselves, to be present with your noisy brain, and to observe your mind, long enough to create space, and to make better decisions and live a more meaningful life.

What does creativity have to do with self awareness, and what does that have to do with leading a more meaningful life?

As the English Psychotherapist Donald Winnicott once wrote 'it is only in being creative that the individual finds the self".

The Workshop Series I hope will effectively address self awareness as key in changing a life that's lived in unexamined ingrained habits that may or may not fulfill or serve. And for anyone who wants to use creativity and mindfulness together as a way to interrupt unconscious habits, that they can turn here and come join the workshops.

Here is the alternative space where you can challenge your naysayers, your doubts and your fears, and use art and drawing as a way to be more present, be in focused relaxation and make better choices. Every new project needs a community around it. so it can grow together, you can contribute, ask questions and share your creativity with others like you in OStudio Artist Community

I hope this is giving clarity and I hope to excite you with this new project.

Looking forward to seeing you here and there. Online and offline.

Travel Sketchbook.

13/2/2019

While travelling, I thought drawing will become a primary tool to record things that invite curiosity and demands more attention, for a while I thought drawing on lose paper would be better than keeping a sketchbook, and for the lose drawings to be sent to friends and/or family all over the world who would then keep the drawings until it's time for me to go home. This didn't quite satisfy me because I then could not go through my drawings again to add things to them. So the sketchbook began in October, just before we head to Kenya. Here's the sketchbook so far.

If you click here, you can see my sketchbook drawing process. And of course everything is posted on Instagram

Even though it's scary, do it anyway!

7/12/2018

July 2018- We flew out of Singapore, with just one suitcase and a backpack each, and left behind a place we've lived in for 17 years to travel for a little longer than usual. My cat is safe and loved in a friend's home for the time being. This big journey has been discussed at length for many years. The idea of travelling the world for a year is exciting at the time, and with trepidation I stepped into the scary and uncertain.

Tom and I left Singapore truly stressed out, winded by the travel planning and exhausted the moving logistics, as we put everything in boxes and then into storage. We were spent and desperately trying to stay positive. We looked at each other when we're finally on the flight, "we made it!" We aren't sure what words to use to describe the experience, is it joyful? is it relief? We felt some relief and a lot of hope that we will feel joyful soon. Deciding to book a comfortable (read: Business Class) exit was always the plan as we predicted how the exodus was going to affect our psyche. I am so glad we did that.

I won't elaborate about the travel here, you can go to our travelogue for that. Tom wrote at length there, with my occasional experimental videos and drawing posts.

One thing worth stating here, in case you don't know me well or only know me from a professional distance, I've always struggle with self-doubt, and a very harsh critic, mostly to myself. And over time, this does not have a positive effect on my overall well being. So from the start of this journey, I've just been extendedly exercising more compassion to myself and then to Tom, while eventually trying to slowly unpack in small dosage the emotional and psychological stress of the past few years culminating to this. The intention for this gap year for me is to course correct, to form new habits, and let go of ones that no longer serves me, and I felt there was a lot to work on. Without much further details, I guess this post would not be that interesting to anyone. But let's see how courageous I can be while on the mend. What I slowly realise is that I can start channelling my natural intensity to expand myself instead of letting the old crusty habits of overthinking and harsh self-judgements slowly crush me with that same intensity.

Bear with me, I promise I will elaborate on my process and struggles. It started with The floundering, the Fearsome and Loathsome moments, and the times when I behave in ways I am not most proud of. Maybe this is helpful later for someone somewhere. I hope by sharing with you my struggles and vulnerable moments, it helps all creative people feel less alone.