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.

Tiong Bahru on brown paper

That day was a hot day- that’s all i remembered. It was so hot I couldn’t really think. Nevertheless, we got together to sketch under a shady spot, with canned lime drinks and coke to quench our thirst. We laid out our materials and before we could even get started, we saw what each other brought with them. I saw Paul’s brown pastel paper and decided to give it a try with watercolor and ink. It took the ink well but it was pretty hard to paint. The result was not satisfactory, until Paul showed me his crayons and I gave it another try. So I added spots of colors to bring out the texture and woh, it was worth the try.

And the following is the video taken and edited by Kat;

Japan Gourmet Town

There is a Japan Gourmet Town in Raffles City Basement. One of the outlet is like Mache, you pick a card at the entrance and buy stuff with it, then pay later when you exit. Food is a pricey and reasonable in taste. Not so spectacular that I will develop a craving but nice enough to think about it once in a while. In conclusion, nothing beats hawkers’ food, in terms of price and taste. Restaurants in Singapore, OK lah.

Kitchen

And just another page from my sketchbook. This was done over breakfast on a Saturday, when the house was peaceful and quiet. It seemed like everyone was out that morning and it was just the two of us in the kitchen. No mom’s relentless bantering of how and where she bought her eggs, her chicken and her bargain from NTUC; or her overflowing grudge against my dad-in-law, on how he would spent all his money on that “lady” and how he hasn’t cared much about his own family and etc. Never endless complaining and mumbling. It is by the grace of God I wasn’t affected and I wasn’t even pitying her at all. Well she drove away her son and daughter-in-law not long ago, the latter who called mum a psychotic woman and refused to let her see the grand son for the last 3 years. Drama!! Who needs to watch a drama series on TV!!

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Finally I managed to compile the sketches with ISSUU.
My trip to Hong Kong was between Jan 29 to Feb 7. It was my wife’s business trip but I decided to tag along. I took a week off from my work so I could accompany my wife for this little holiday, just about 2 months after we came back from the US. We weren’t expecting to travel so soon but we did. Anyway I took a long time to post my sketches because I wanted to try using ISSUU to put everything together so we can all view the sketches a page at a time like thumbing through a sketchbook. I added some drawings, scrap pages and a cover to complete the compilations. Do take your time to look through it and be part of my memories and experience. Thanks.

]]> http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1036 0 http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1023 http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1023#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:37:15 +0000 admin http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1023 1995 was the year I arrived in Hong Kong for the first time. The company that I worked for sent me on a training trip to the US for like 3 weeks but my colleague and I wanted to see Hong Kong at the same time before 1997 when she would be “returned” to China. It was the hot topic during the late 90s and everyone reckoned that Hong Kong wouldn’t be the same anymore under communist rule. To our big surprise upon our arrival today in the new millennium, Hong Kong is definitely not the same after more than 10 years governed by China that adopted a different policy in managing the country. I thought Hong Kong has flourished tremendously albeit all the negativity. Though there is still much to do to “clean up the streets”, for the past years, we have seen increasing influx of tourists from all over the world especially from China. Everyone wants to see Hong Kong — the shopping and food paradise!

I have never thought I would come back to Hong Kong (香港 – the fragrant harbor). It’s congestion has repelled me for many years, but I came back nevertheless accompanying my wife who’s coming here for work. I know it is going to be a great trip just because I could sketch and indeed I have. After a week in Hong Kong island and Kowloon city we decided to take a one-hour ferry there to see the iconic St Paul’s historical ruin of Macau (which is also known as 大山巴) and experience shopping as well. We too were surprised to see Macau such a vibrant city despite their fame for being an Asian Las Vegas and harboring triads at the same time.

The pic below was done in Macau (奥門) yesterday. We found a nice little temple that sits right beside 大山巴 at the foot of the hill. We decided to take a break and I would sketch. It took about 30 mins to finish the piece. I took a pic of the location and the finished sketch to post it here. We would be leaving Hong Kong tomorrow, but at the meantime, more shopping!!

Sketching in Macau

Drawing myself

I basically need a character that represents me well, and that is easy and quick to draw. Here’s the process and a page of the doodle. I would keep doing it until I find one that works well and when I could simply draw one without looking at any reference — like committing to memory sort of thing.

Character Design Process
Watch my very first Character Design Process video!!

]]> http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1014 0 http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1004 http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1004#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:12:26 +0000 admin http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/?p=1004

Upper Changi Road and Siglap Connector

Before I live here, I have never imagined how this place may look like. When the entire island of Singapore clamors for upgrading and building taller high-rises, places such as this has retained its original state for many years. I am really amazed by some of the buildings here that have not given way to condos and shopping mall. Spiral stairwells and jaded windows that reveals their eras and how long they have been around. So after lunch today I decided to linger a little longer to sketch the back of one building, which looks more like one that could only be found in steam punk comics. This is gonna be fun. I should be exploring the surrounding areas in the near future.