A handful of sketches of people done in 2018

[By Don Low, Singapore] Looking back, 2018 has been an interesting year. I attended Porto Symposium 2018 which became the highlight trip of the year. My sketchbook for the Porto trip was already made into a video uploaded on Youtube. If you are interested, you may visit the following link to watch it: Porto Sketchbook. Besides, I was invited by the Indonesia sketchers to conduct a workshop on sketching people in Jakarta. Even though it was only for a short weekend, I had lots of fun teaching as well as sketching alongside so many talents there. Sketching always makes travel a lot more memorable. Prior to that, I attended “Taichung Asialink”, a sketching meet for sketchers from all over Asia and Australia to come together to sketch historical places in Taichung. It was a well and wonderfully organised event in which I was able to meet up with many sketcher friends and making new ones. I brought my mom along too just to see how the world is actively involved in sketching expeditions like this. Though I wanted to elaborate more on these trips, this post is not about them but sharing a selection of sketches I did in 2018 of people in places I visited for food or coffee.

The one on top is a sketch of a hawker stall that sells fried carrot cake (radish rice cake), a favourite breakfast dish among many Singaporeans and residents living in the estates nearby. I have been eating from this stall for 20 years and I have seen the line grew longer and longer over the years. On a weekend, the wait for a S$3 carrot cake can be as long as 40mins. This of course gave me the opportunity to sketch while I waited. I have gifted a print copy of a sketch I did of the stall and the lady boss so she is always giving me a larger portion since then.

Singaporeans spent a lot of them eating so inevitably, my sketches are usually cafes, restaurants, coffeeshops or kopitiams where I ate from. To Chinese, “吃是福“, which is translated as, “it’s a blessing to eat” literally. It’s one thing to “eat to live, and another, to “live to eat”. I am constantly thankful for the varieties of food here and the ability to savour them as much as I wanted.

This particular McDonalds branch in Vivocity Mall does not see an end to the line of people.

I am not always eating. There were times I was just waiting in line for something. Sketching makes waiting or standing in line a lot more bearable. Sometimes you wished the wait could be longer and so you wouldn’t be interrupted half way through your sketching.

I don’t take public very often but when I do, I would usually look forward to doing one thing I love – sketching commuters.

A noisy restaurant…

… and a quiet coffeeshop. This was also my last visit to Costa Coffee because the franchise has withdrew from Singapore. I was chilling with a friend, Tony Chua, who has became the foreground focal point of this sketch.

This is Telok Blangah Food Center – where my wife and I would visit for breakfast or brunch almost everyday since we moved back to this estate for good in July 2017. All my favourite food is here: fried carrot cake, steamed chicken rice, economy bee hoon, fritters and Nanyang coffee brewed with a sock.

Food courts in malls are air-conditioned and are more comfortable to dine in – but food is more expensive too.

Customers at a churros cafe – this is one aspect of Singapore that displays the “cultural influence” of America brought about by the media.

I would always choose to eat at a traditional coffeeshop aka kopitiam even if it’s alfresco style.

This year in 2018, I had my nails clipped by a stranger for the first time.

And attended 2 Malay weddings this year.

Sketching while my missus was having her hair pampered.

Visiting a friend at his mother-in-law’s funeral wake service…

The iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil have become the tools that I carry around with me wherever I go. Sometimes I don’t even have my fountain pens and my sketchbook with me. But I am not totally converting to digital sketching yet because nothing will replace sketching on paper with pens or pencils.

Anyway, this year has been eventful but great! Here, looking forward to a new year of uncertainty and challenges.

Wishing all an awesome 2019 and happy holidays!