Hello Sketching Friends!
I am so thankful for your friendship, support and constant encouragement. Your companionship has certainly made my creative journey more interesting. Every time I create a Substack blog post, it is a also small summary and reflection of what is on my mind.
For this post, I sketched and painted a small scene from Tekka Wet Market (Little India) thrice. The scene features a group of ladies (or aunties) busy shopping for spices at the wet market. When I visited the market, I only managed to take pictures as the market was super busy and sketching on-location was just too challenging. Maybe next time I will stand bravely and sketch it live!
STYLE & TECHNIQUE
This series of 3 sketches are also my response to STYLE and Techniques. Students often say they like to sketch and paint in a certain style but no idea how to get there. Or they are busy looking for a style. There is an obsession with acquiring a right style. My response: You already have a style and you just need to nurture and cultivate it with the appropriate skills and techniques. To illustrate my point, I made 2 preparatory sketches of the same market scene. and finally recording one more for you. Each piece I used a different approach and technique but same focus and narrative.
Sketch 1 - First I sketched the whole scene with my fountain pen before adding watercolour washes. The lines once drawn are final so I am unable to do too much shifting and editing. This is a very direct approach to capturing the market scene. I use this approach when I have little time or visiting a new and unfamiliar city.
Sketch 2 - I started with the same creative warm-up (PICK UP STICK with dip pen) you see in my video demo. I do this to overcome the fear of the blank page and also breakup the page into smaller segments. Now I have a page full of lines and interesting shapes to response to. The lines were created with my calligraphic dip pen and drawing ink. For this approach, the woman in dress was my starting shape/focus and kept adding to this focal point, slowly spiralling outwards. It is much easier to shift things around and make adjustments because the sketch is developed bit by bit. However with this approach, the destination is sometimes unclear and there is a high chance of chaos and failure. But I do enjoy working this way because of the satisfaction I get from resolving this complex puzzle.
Sketch 3 - This is a combination of Sketch 1 and 2. I hope you can see how I have used 3 very distinct techniques to sketch and paint the same scene. Same same but different.
Summary: STYLE is just like your handwriting (your DNA), unique only to you. I cannot ever write exactly like you. However you can use many different approaches and tools to write. I can write in all CAPS, lowercase, longhand, use a dip pen or pencil but they will all retain my unique style of writing. Each time we practice and learn a new technique, we add a new tool to our toolbox to develop our style. These tools when used appropriately will help build your ideas and clarify your visions. Apologies if I made a terrible explanation of this complex concept. I attach the photograph for anyone who wants to sketch along with me.
Finally, I like to show my appreciation and say THANK YOU to all of you by sharing a bonus demo video I created for 2025’s Sketching Retreat. Click here to watch it.
In this video you will learn how I warm-up and transfer the inspirations/ideas from my creative workout to sketching of a scene from Hanoi.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING and see you in December!
If you have not heard, I am planning an art retreat with Anna Barnes next March (7th-16th) in New South Wales Australia. Perfect for you if you enjoy slow, responsible travel while exploring the living culture of Sydney siders, Mountains Folk and the Graziers of the Central West Gold Fields. I will be teaching 8 workshops and all held in various interesting locations. Lot of opportunities to discover art, food and culture of Australia slowly in comfort.
Click here for more information!
