Png:Sg Trip 18: Final day. Cafe hopping and architecture sketching

February 4, 2014 | 3 Comments


Warning: Serious Cafe Sketching ahead!
My last day was a full day as my flight was not till 1am. As typical for a last day I did a lot – going solo for most of it was a big part of this! The major issues for the day were fatigue and… far more importantly, lack of pages left in my sketchbook.

Started the day sketching the lovely breakfast again at Hotel Clover- after the first morning, I had the Asian option every day and it alternated between noodles and rice (with the bonus of rice porridge on the weekend) After checking out, I headed straight for what I was told was the best coffee shop in Singapore… but not for stopping for another quick sketch of the Blue Mosque.


Chye Seng Huat Hardware is a very hip cafe in an old hardware store -and  quite easy to miss. I was thankful for the good advice and direction from my church friends who had told me that I must come here! I settled down to a little cafe sketching- coffee and cake, a cafe view and then try the tea. I hadn’t had a really good Earl Grey tea this trip but this one was! Since coming home discovered it was the brand from Tea Bone Zen Mind where I had had that tea tasting – no wonder it was good!


Walked down the road and saw an amazing collection of shophouses with a local hawker centre opposite… so I could sit in comfortable in the shade at a table… oh! I love Singapore for sketching!


Tragically to say it was then time for lunch and there was another cafe that I had been recommended by my other coffee expert friend, Vincent aka Citi Sketcha… with a funny name Windowsill in the Woods… a bit quirky on the inside as well. But I had a lovely lunch and a good cup of tea and then it was time to head back to …guess what… my last sketching session with Paul (at a cafe!) This is really quite embarrassing  to post cafe after cafe like this!


But I had a little bit of time, so how about a quick shop house sketch first?  I had seen one of the USKers with a grey brush pen and decided that I wanted to get one. I do love drawing with brush pens as a ‘fast tool’ but find the black sometimes too black – stands out too much against the rest of my work in my book. So, thinking that a grey brush pen might be a good thing to try. Was rather taken by it when doing this sketch… hhmm… potential here!


Artistry Cafe – a bit of a hangout for the USKers… and my last meeting with a local sketcher. Last chance to bounce ideas around with Paul about our Sydney USK workshop in March (if you missed it see more here) Another great Earl Grey tea, nice cake (half of it!) and an interesting view to sketch. Everything in Singapore is so colourful!


Ah! it is always so inspiring to sit across a table and watch Paul work with colour and paint!
(BTW it is nice to have a day without any corny photos of me – in fact no photos at all of me today.)


I still had hours to fill in but limited free pages left in my sketchbook…so a final wander through Kampong Glam( tried the grey brush pen again for a quick sketch in Haji Lane) then dinner by myself (sketching of course). Sketching when having dinner on your own is a great way to hide the perceived weirdness of eating by yourself… but of of course sketching your food is even weirder! Most of the time, the novelty factor of sketching creates friends with the staff or other patrons…but sadly this time, I think the staff were just laughing at me and just didn’t know what to make of me. Oh well! I had fun regardless.


Well that’s it! Except for of course the usual sketch on the plane which I always do out of habit!

Thank you so much for coming along with me and reading through all my rambling blog posts as I re-live what was a most incredible journey for 3 weeks in Penang and Singapore.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of it and were so generous to me!!!

I am relieved to have finally scanned and posted all my sketches… but also a little sad as it has been a treat for me to re-live it and the discipline of blogging about it has focused me more on what I want to take forward and explore further in the coming year with my own art.

I do hope to put all the sketches together so you can virtually flick through the pages and also do a wrap post on some thoughts about travel sketching.

Once again – thanks for coming along!!!

3 Comments

  • Thank you Liz for letting us be part of your journey. And what an interesting journey it was. Great sketches and obviously a really good time for you. I loved to see all the sketches.

  • Marsha says:

    Liz, it has been a pleasure to meet you through all of your wonderful sketches. I am curious, do you ever do workshops in the US? or on line? for those of us who are unable to get to The Rocks? Will you be a part of Danny Gregory's "Sketchbook Skool?" Would love to take a class with you.

  • Annee says:

    Inspiring as usual! I know it's time-consuming to post these sketches and entries. Thank you.

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