It’s 6:15 am when I finally got to The Bund. I’ve wanted to go out early to Shanghai’s iconic Bund to sketch the skyline of Lujiazui (the other side of the Huangpu River) ever since I saw @envy4lens share some early morning photos on his Instagram. And finally, Tõnis @vanishing.shanghai and I made it there this morning. Typically, this place would be jampacked with tourists. And going there that early, it’s just fantastic to see this area without them, to savour in the sights of the boats plying the river, the early morning sun (after rainy mornings), kite flyers, a group of young dancers, and a sprinkling of tourists. We were mesmerized by the…
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For Saturday’s (20 May) outing, we went to sketch No. 543 Guangdong Road, at what was formerly known as the Central Hotel (中央旅社), built around 1929 and owned by the Chief Inspector of the Police Force in the International Concession, Lu Liankui （陸連奎）. It was also known to be the gangsters’ den. Lu Liankui’s story was he was rural area and escaped to Shanghai getting caught defrauding people during his stint as an orderly. When he arrived in Shanghai, he saved a rich man who in turn wrote him a recommendation letter which he used to his advantage, signed up with Huang Jinrong’s gang, and then rose up to his…
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Last Saturday, 13 May, the sketching location was around Xiao Nan Men (小南门), which is not too far from my home. We have sketched here in the past but not this year so far. As per Tōnis’ (@vanishing.shanghai) observation, this part of the Old Town stands out as the most “green” with plenty of plants, foliage, trees, and vines hanging down electricity lines. It was great that I decided to venture out early that morning for sketching was a delightful experience, as it allowed me to take in the vibrant energy of the locality. From delivery men in electric bikes deftly maneuvering their way around the narrow lanes to vans…
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All done! I reached the finished line even though it took longer than it should. In the end, I made more than 100 sketches (probably my OCD) that felt like I needed to finish up the sketchbook even of that meant going over the 100 “limit”. The sketching locations with Drawing Shanghai took us to various parts of the city, though some repeats to the Laoximen area is not uncommon. When December came, we all got hit with COVID which meant being house-bound for almost all of December. We were fortunate enough to have still managed to get our exhibit at the UNO Gallery push through right after everyone had…
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The recently concluded Drawing Shanghai exhibit showcasing select sketches of Shanghai’s local life that is slowly vanishing as the city is rapidly modernizing and “upgrading” the standard of living of locals. Soon, longtangs or communities that are quintessential Shanghai will be long gone. We hoped with this exhibit we can at least immortalize the local lifestyle through our sketches. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thank you for stopping by.
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Feeling excited as I mark the 3rd quarter installment of my #the100day project. Last week when I was counting the number of sketches, I thought I still had 20+ to go but then when I recounted yesterday, I actually have about 10+ more to go! Yay! Driven right now to get this project over and done with! The past outings with Drawing Shanghai / Urban Sketchers Shanghai has been quite fun as a lot of these places were quite interesting. We seem to have ventured mostly to the old town more. In this batch of sketches, #52 to #54 were sketched from photos from out company outing and the rest…
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The second quarterly update to my #the100dayproject is here after a long delay. In between my last post, we have come out of lockdown, gone back to work, searched for apartments, packed and moved to new apartment, unpacked and settled. It has been a whirlwind of 3 months and my art practise has also been focused on art journaling and other creative pursuits that sketching has taken a backseat. There were some sketching events organized by Drawing Shanghai since lockdown was lifted however it has been a bit difficult to balance going out and other priorities. PLUS (and I am not making any excuse here), the heatwave that has descended…
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When I started with this project, I was raring to go out and do quick sketches. Little did I know that I was going to end up with a bad cold that I couldn’t stay outside and sketch as what I had originally planned. So my progress ended up slower than I had anticipated. I decided to change my approach starting from changing the hashtag to my project. The other change I made was taking photos of subjects I wanted to sketch and sketch these at home. This is not my preferred way of urban sketching because I tend to sketch slow, taking more time on the details. Whereas when…
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Perfect weather means sketching outdoors is even more exciting and inspiring. After days of dreary cold weather and plus being sick with a bad cough for over a week, I was just dying to get out and do some sketching. The venue for our sketching group was at the Duolun Culture Street, more specifically the old Protestant church called Hongde Church, formerly known as the Fitsch Memorial Church. The interior has been mostly been renovated as most of the church was damaged during the Cultural Revolution. Actually I did a warm up sketch inside the church (above), before moving outdoors to sketch the exterior; well, at least, part of the…
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2022 #the100dayproject is here!!! And I’m doing urban sketching, finding those places to sketch that are “typical” Shanghai. I actually prefer to do more of the old Shanghai rather than new but I will make some exceptions just like my first sketch. My plan is to do 100 sketches and that may turn out to be in 50 days or more. Don’t want to pressure myself on doing 1 a day. My hope is that I will be more accountable with this year’s project compared to last because it was not easy to keep track of what I was finishing. So I am hoping this year’s will be manageable. As…
