Meet the correspondents: BANGKOK > Asnee Tasna

“I was born and trained as an architect in Bangkok, Thailand. After living in Singapore for nearly 30 years, I felt homesick — homesickness can happen at any age — so my wife and I moved back to Bangkok while my son went to study in Western Australia.

We started travelling around Thailand, my homeland that we had not been able to explore because of work, and that’s how sketching really came about. We do a lot of drawing and sketching in architectural office, but it’s totally different from what we call sketching on location. I also turned to watercolors. Sketching has helped me discover another side of life. I find happiness in doing something that has no monetary value called painting and sketching. I believe I gain something more valuable: walking, observing the crowds in every corner of Bangkok. The sound and fume of traffic, the color and smell of vendors lined on the streets leaving only inches to wade through, let alone standing space for sketching. The heat and sweat can be a turn off. But at least we have the great freshly brewed ice coffee, Starbucks style, that is available in every street corner.

Most of my sketches are done with chisel-shape pencil of 2, 4 to 6Bs on a smallish A5 sketchbook. For quicker ones I use fine line pens of various brands, sometimes adding watercolor splashes. For other watercolor works, I tend to mix them with water-soluble pencil lead or crayon such as Caran D’Ache’s Neo Color or Museum. I find more freedom in mixing rather than just using watercolor. I also enjoy the quick lines of brush pen (Pentel ink brush.)

I find myself drawn to scenes with buildings, street scenes more than just human figures or nature. I also think I lack patience for details or desire for realistic accuracy. In other words, my sketches and paintings are rather suggestive, I think! I enjoy exploring with shapes, forms and colors.”

• Asnee’s art on Flickr.