If you think my blog posts just keep coming and coming… that is how I feel too!  At the time I was starting to get very tired around this stage in my trip. I really had done a lot and worked fairly hard in the previous weeks… but still I keep going.

The flurry of activity in my first 2.5 days in Singapore had been crazy so I was in need of some solo time and decided to keep below the facebook radar this morning and go off on my own…maybe a some classical architecture sketching on the agenda?

I also felt like a little museum visiting – something I have not done at all lately (I just prefer sketching outside) so on the recommendation of some USKers I went to the National Museum of Singapore. I got there too early to get into the free gallery so ended up sitting in the entrance foyer and sketching the dome.

This sketch did me a lot of good. I was in a comfortable spot and sketched slowly but freely – and it gave me some great processing time. Nice to do something without watercolour as well – I love colour but it is healthy to restrain myself from time to time (I was using a water-soluble brush pen for the tones)

Once I had finished this I was ready to move on and not bother going inside….hopeless I know!

 
I had so many ideas bouncing around in my head – not only from my own sketchbook adventures in Penang but from the discussions of the previous days and from sketching alongside other Urban Sketchers. I never take it for granted how wonderful it is to be able to hang out with other artists like I had been. Sometimes you just happen to notice someone next to you do something with their pen or brush – it gives you an idea and that connects with something you were already thinking… and so the process goes on and we are inspired by each other.

Anyway, that was a long rambling way for saying that I decided to do something different with my sketch of the museum exterior. On other occasions I have put the paint down first but for some reason this time it hit the spot …. I really liked the resultant sense of play that it generated. As I have mentioned before, the most important thing about sketching for me is to get ‘the buzz’ and I got it doing this sketch!

I took a few photos of my sketch during the process.

I was having trouble finding coffee shops that open in the morning… so it wasn’t till lunchtime that I found somewhere quiet and comfortable to sit. So quiet that I was practically the only one in the place. Continuing with this new idea of some line – paint –  ink line – paint …mixing it and having so much fun!!!

A sketch-free afternoon included some shopping and buying a copy of James Hobb’s wonderful new book “Sketch your world”. Then followed a quiet evening doing some more experiments – drawing with my paintbrush and other stuff.

One of my little random pages that record the little things. It is a great luxury when I am travelling to have time like this (and it is a rarity too!) – time to think and test a few things out while I am rather focussed on my art.