Singapore Day 2

By Murray Dewhurst in Singapore

The day started for me with a mad rush to get to the Singapore Design Centre in time for the start of day 2 of the
symposium. Talking into the night in a bar in Kampong Glam before returning
to the hotel to write up my blog post made for a very late night!

Collecting materials for Richard Alomar’s activity

I arrived just in time to find Richard Alomar’s excited activity participants getting set for their challenge of documenting and mapping their symposium experience.

9:15 – look for your workshop codes!

Workshop time next so look out for the man holding up your reworkshop code. Before long we’re all on our way to the workshop destinations.

I tagged along with Melanie Reims workshop ‘Found in Translation‘ – the influence
of Calligraphy in the Figure and Environment.

Everyone came armed with brush pens,
Melanie helps them through various techniques to master the brush and suggesting
form and posture with thin and thick lines. Easier said than done for those of us used to fine liners and pencils!

“If somebody moves, don’t get upset, someone will come to replace”

I had to keep moving, so quickly wandered along to Marc Holmes workshop actors on a stage, sketching
characters on the street. The fact that this street is Waterloo Street, a busy street of markets and temples means there’s no shortage of characters
to practice on!

Li Yun Yong and KC Lee in action on Waterloo Street

Mark Leibowitz and Asuka Kagawa sketch in Marc Holmes worskhop

‘Heads, Hands, Stuff’ – all part of Marc’s process. Kenneth Chia from Singapore in sketch action.

One of the features for this years symposium has been Sketch Passes — no
problem if you don’t want to do the full workshop thing, just come along and sketch! This
group below were on Waterloo street too, and appeared to be in their happy place.

Then lunch time there’s no shortage of options and people to hang out with. We had a hilarious waitress who insisted on being drawn, it even earned me a free drink.

Then it was time for Sumo Capecchi’s workshop, A Collective Reportage — Religions and popular devotion
in multicultural Singapore. An opportunity to gain sketch access to an important buddhist temple – the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho temple, of the goddess of 1000 hands, Kuan Yin. Simo encourages sketchers to observe and use their sketchbook to help process new unfamiliar situations and make a comprehensive reportage.

Simo introduces her workshop

Details inside Kwan Im Thong Cho temple

Jayakrishnan from Kerala, India

 I moved on to Suhita’s workshop – Capturing Chaos. Suhita encourages sketches to apply loose sttrokes, then push the background back with shadow values then finally bring
the foreground out with bold colour.

I did a quick section of the cxxxx temple before heading back to the centre for
the board open talk.

Finally for the day the board gather in an open discussion. They explain what’s been happening behind the scenes of Urban Sketchers, such as education initiatives, the work the symposium organisers do and the editorial team and plans for
the future to growth of Urban Sketchers.

I couldn’t resist a quick capture of the nearby Sri Krishnan Temple before we headed back to base.

The board took the stage at the end of the day to discuss some of the USk initiatives and projects and to field questions. It’s clear there’s a huge amount of work going on in the background with education, symposium organisation and editorial work. Pretty amazing considering they’re all volunteers.

The USk board — Mario, Gabi, Suma, Elizabeth and Brenda

See you tomorrow!