Coffee & Breakfast

Coffee & Breakfast @ Tiong Bahru

Even after the gallery show, I have been back to Tiong Bahru now and then just because the estate is very near to where my wife works. However each time when I was there, it felt different all the time. My wife does not like the buildings in Tiong Bahru; she said they look more or less like asylums with white walls and flat roofs, even though there are round corners. I like the ambiance the place carries, with the usual morning hustle and bustle which dies down as afternoon approaches and after the lunch crowds departs. I like how the shops are selling stuffs which are cheap and things which we use everyday; and how the goods are laid out so haphazardly you have to look very closely to find what you need. I also like how the pace of life slows to a stroll too. With every place commercialized and urbanized and modernized in Singapore, this is where you would find a little heritage and memory to live by.

My wife bought me a new bag for my birthday, and after we got home from shopping, she was eager to see how the new bag works for what I usually carry around and bring along for my sketching trip. It is the best time to empty out my old bag and lay out the contents. Here it is:

What I bring along for a sketching trip

It is amazing how these things could actually fit into a little bag that I usually carry around with me. Sometimes I would bring along 2 sketchbooks – a regular one and one that I paint watercolor – both are small and handy and lightweight; the fountain pens are the essentials – I use “Lamy” and “Pen & Ink” fountain pens loaded with Noodler’s ink which I would bring along in a smaller bottle shown above (it is not clear from the top down view). Besides the fountain pens, the brush pens are very important too – one is loaded with black ink, another with diluted black watercolor and 3 loaded with water for watercolor painting. On the bottom right corner you will see my medicines which include a bottle of AXE oil, a tube of Mopiko for the mosquito bites, panadol for headaches, sunblock with 32 spf, lozenges for discomfort throat, mouth spray for the bad breath, wet towel to wash up and mosquito patches (not shown above) as most of the time Singapore is infested (not too bad) with the bad bugs that bite especially after a rain. I am trying my best to keep everything lightweight so I wouldn’t get too tired carrying these. On an official sketch trip, I would also bring along a mini camping chair, and an additional cloth bag to contain my extra larger watercolor papers too! Whew! Most of the time, I find myself just using 1-2 pens and not everything that I brought. But you never know.

Urban SKetchers Round Table

Happy Bithday Singapore

Well there are a few things we are celebrating about. First of all Singapore’s 45th birthday. My 40th birthday. Tia coming back from Portland. Paul’s coming back from Hong Kong; farewell party for Paul since he is moving to HK for the next one year; farewell party for Yi Ting as she is going to London for her studies too. We all have something to celebrate about. And finally I got to know James’s lovely wife, Joanne! Thanks for coming and for all your gifts!! You guys rock!!

The art brief was given: 3 illustrations are required for 3 mobile gaming gadgets from the 80s onwards. I have to make some research on which gadgets were the most popular then. Then I produce the sketches for review and approval, and provided some visual references as well.

Click thumbnails for a bigger view. Once green light is given, it is time to create the individual elements. First a picture of my hand is taken (unfortunately I do not have a budget to hire a hand model, so I have to make do with my own hand) and it is taken to Photoshop for cropping and adding some simple efx. During the process, the editor thought the hand used within the graphic is too fat, so I have to “tweak” it in PS again.

The efx are just creating high contrast and adding color half tones… which is very ez to do within PS. Next is to create the game machine. I am using the Game Gear as an example. There is nothing special to the process, just simple airbrushing and drawing the individual elements.

It may look tedious but if you can do it fast enough it may not be the case. Using the same method I went ahead to create the gadget illustrations for PSP4 Go and Game Watch. Yes I have fun and I used references from pictures I found on the internet.

I am going to skip to the final illustrations.

These are the final illustrations. Different color schemes and graphic designs are used for different mobile gaming gadgets.

Thank you for reading.

Monkey god temple @ Tiong Bahru

Revisiting the temple for a quick sketch and watercolor painting within the duration of drinking a cup of coffee. The motivation for revisiting the place is to make more sketches and painting @ Tiong Bahru since those that were made at this location were sold during the gallery show which was a great success. I earned my bonus for that month, thanks to the generous art collectors who bought my sketches and paintings. I am not yet sure whether I would sell my new pieces, but for the time being, I am just sketching and painting for my own pleasure.

Work has been busy lately and things have been an upheaval. The storm has quietened down… so this is the time to pick up the pieces and move on. I discovered friendships that I wasn’t aware about too. Now this is the moment to focus on improving my skills and sharpening those tools!

Here are some commissioned work — if I am not wrong, there was this illo that was used 3-4 times in a roll.

Battle between Flash and Non-Flash

DPS on Tablets

Flash vs non-Flash

Contents Page

Putu Piring Stall

The advantage of living in a multi-racial country like Singapore is the ability to taste all kinds of food and delicacies from all walks of life and from all the different races living within. One of them which is my favorite is named Putu Piring – a Malay dessert. Just today, I chanced upon one of these stalls that make Putu Piring and I know I need to have some. Just to elaborate more, Putu Piring is a small, white cake made of flour and stuffed with gula melaka (brown sugar). For SGD1, you get 3 cottony cakes. I haven’t found the meaning to the word Putu but Piring means plate. To make one of these, rice flour and gula melaka or brown sugar is packed into tiny metal containers that look like flat plates aka piring in Malay. The latter are then placed on a specially built steamer with conical inserts to hold the plates. White cotton cloth is placed between the plates and the conical steamers. Finally conical metal lids are placed above each piring and then everything is left to steam for 5 mins. To serve, the steamed rice flour now in the form of a cottony cake, is removed from the metal containers, and eventually placed over a square piece of banana leaf for added flavor. Grated fresh coconut is added to the putu pirings to be eaten together. This is best eaten piping hot – “the right balance of sugar and flour coupled with a fluffy texture and the fresh grated coconut” — boo_licious (a blogger @ http://masak-masak.blogspot.com). A typical Putu Piring stall is shown above.

Making Putu Piring

I managed to sketch the interesting contraption that is used to make this delicious Malay dessert. I have not understood how this thing work yet but the entire steamer could make about about 20 pieces of Putu Piring, if I am not wrong. My sketch is not drawn to accuracy.

My Putu Piring

My version of Putu Piring is served as sketched above – the cakes are wrapped in a large brown paper folded in the shape of a pyramid. There is a little square piece of banana leaf for added flavor, and a generous portion of grated coconut or Kelapa Parut in Malay.  ) Yummy! I am hungry now.

Child's Play

A colleague revealed to me this morning that I reminded him of the North Korean leader. Based on that, I was inspired to make a comic (sketch) to address this already overly addressed issue regarding arms race and nuclear threat. This is a quick doodle and rough rendering before lunch. Njoy!! ) You know all these fear about the world being destroyed by a nuclear bomb… sometimes I just wish the world would come to an end fast and quick, like within a flash, so there is even no awareness of pain and aftermath… then everything could start afresh again… I know it is bad of me to even think this way, but I am kinda tired of hearing the same old thing again and again as if everything is running in circles… when can this circle of lies end…

We oppose the reactionary policies of the U.S. government but we do not oppose the American people. We want to have many good friends in the United States.
Kim Jong Il

Photo taken by Maye-e Wong

Everything was worth the time and energy. The turn out for the exhibition was overwhelming. Food was great (though I did not manage to get a bite) and the music has enlivened a sleepy Tiong Bahru. I am both glad and pleased that we have decided to do this – a gallery show of our sketches. At first I do not think this would be possible because we thought it would be inappropriate to display sketches from our sketchbooks. These are unfinished works and they are very personal. But my skepticism was proven wrong. People do enjoy looking at sketches. Someone told me these sketches are like a memory, a moment captured on paper, a fleeting emotions of a location and so forth. They were right.

Photo taken by Maye-Wong