Drewscape blog

Remixing folktales for the Singapore Night Festival

2026-09-28T19:26:24.651+08:00

I had the opportunity to collaborate with the National Library to do 3 comics. It was for the Singapore Night Festival this year, which focused on folktales. My work was to select 3 south-east asian folktales from their collection and draw them out. The challenge was to condense several pages of story into single page comics. I simplified the stories and retold them using my own pictures and words. I worked with the library team who decided on leaving the ending open for participants to fill out during the event. And that turned out to be a good idea!

These are the pages I finally produced. We printed them on nice textured paper for the event. Each participant could chose from one of the 3 stories. They could sit in air-con comfort and were provided with black pens and colour pencils. And without telling them the original ending (at first), they did their own version of the ending. This was open to both adults and kids. The objective was to introduce the public to old folktales that most have forgotten. These stories were fresh to me!

This was how the public completed the comics. Some amusing and creative solutions emerged. And some amazing colouring by some very young kids! Big thanks to NLB for inviting me to work with them on this!

Outdoor sketching with students

2026-09-28T18:51:16.702+08:00

Recently completed an outdoor sketching class series with Nanhua High School. We went to the Jurong Lake Gardens and to Utown to sketch. We learned to sketching with sticks and indian ink.

Sketchbook covers

2026-09-17T23:34:46.454+08:00

Here are 3 recent home-made sketchbooks I noticed laying around my studio. Each were home-made from whatever paper I have in store and I usually fill up each one within a month. But what caught my attention today were the covers. The covers are something I don't worry much about. Sometimes I do them last. I usually try to decorate them somehow just so it would be easier for me to tell them apart. And I enjoy just trying some daring experiment on them. I don't worry about spoiling it. If I do, I found that I can always paint over it again with acrylic, or paste something over it. Thoughts like these free me to create without worry. I like creating with no pressure. It makes exploring fun.

In July, I made stencils but cutting out photocopy paper and stamping acylic paint through them with a gelli plate. I orginally wrote the words with a ballpoint but it didn't look good. I used correction fluid to do the white lettering over.

In the first part of August, I decided I should use some gouache paint I've not used in awhile. I didn't have anything in mind to paint. So I just painted some shapes and textures. It didn't matter. Then I added some stamping. I'd not used stamps in awhile too! I find that when a composition has it's colours skewed a little warmer or cooler and also has some dark, midtone and highlight areas, it starts to shape up. So I do aim for that. Randomly throwing paint and texture on paper, hoping for a pleasing result doesn't really work (I used to do that when I was still a student!).

In the 2nd part of August (Part 2), I was having an online meeting with a work client. I was being briefed on an illustration in which I had to draw robots. We were discussing possible looks for the illustration and I drew/painted this robot on my sketchbook cover during the meeting. I was using the Artxx markers I reviewed some time back, together with a little bit of white chalk. Have you ever tried doodling or drawing while speaking on the phone? It's a great way to take the pressure off drawing because I find that when my logical mind is locked in a conversation, my visual senses seem to go off to play. Here I show you the original drawing on my sketchbook cover, and the drawing after minor edits in Photoshop.

A brush pen and ink class in October

2026-09-04T17:38:45.619+08:00

If you are in Singapore, I will be teaching a brush pen and ink class focusing on art journalling at Brahm Centre in October. Check out the details HERE.

A comic diary focusing on others

2026-08-14T11:13:50.688+08:00

There are so many ways to do a comic diary. I don't like just sticking to one formula. Where is the fun in that? In this one, instead of focusing on me, I decided to focus on what each of my family members have been doing. 1st row- my daugther. 2nd Row- my son. 3rd row- my wife. I liked this practice because during a week, I can get so wrapped up in my own busy-ness and this helps me take time to notice and appreciate those around me.

Drawn with a Sailor 1911 Zoom nib fountain pen with Baoke black carbon ink and watercolours. I've been trying this an an alternative to Platinum carbon black. It is waterproof and cheaper. It seems to hold up under washes. Though in my first few tries, I seem to notice that it take a bit longer to dry before it is safe to add washes over.

Singapore 2050

2026-08-11T10:31:36.472+08:00

A project by SG Bicentennial, first published by Ethos Books in 2019

This comic was released on the SG Bicentennial site for free in 2019 but the site is no longer up. So now you can still download it for free HERE.

My friend Parka interviewed me about it here.

A silly but fun comics experiment

2026-08-08T23:18:55.606+08:00

This week I found myself at a public clinic. I was accompanying my wife while she sat and waited for her queue number to be called. I was facing this scene in front of me and I decided that, maybe, I could use these items as prompts for a quick comic. We had the numbers 24 and 23, a sticker for a sanitizer bottle and a spill kit. How could I put these into a story?

I'd brought with me a cheap ruling pen for drawing and a bottle of ink. So I drew with these. (I did get ink on my hands but I used the sanitizer in front of me to wash my hands later!)

This was what I cobbled together there and then. It's silly, but fun:)

With added colour in Photoshop.

A mention about the Ollie Comics

2026-08-04T21:19:32.798+08:00

It's been over 10 years since I wrote the stories in this comic. Time flies and my daughter is no longer a baby or a toddler. She's tall now. But it is delightful to read a review on it even now. Read the full online article HERE.

I only have a few copies with blemishes left. And the eBook is available here.

Because it makes me feel happy

2026-08-04T12:14:56.162+08:00

I had some pieces of wood lying around my house for quite a while now. I finally made it into a bear- a robot bear. I've very minimal experience with making things from wood, but I do like how it is in 3-D form with all those raw textures. And I can hold it, turn it around, and look at it from various angles.

Like my drawings, I prefer to keep it loose, imperfect and hand-made. I glued the parts together with woodglue, painted it with acrylic paint. I decided to give it one eye which made it more unusual. Then I decided it'd be a robot. Instead of drawing all the panels on his body, I chose to have some in ink, pencil and some stuck on paper. It added to the texture. Is this related to drawing and illustration? I like to think of it as a painting but in a 3-D format. A 3-D art piece.

And no, I'm not thinking of mass producing or selling this. I just wanted to do this for my own pleasure, to create a little something of beauty to look at. I think, sometimes, art should just be that. Not for making money, not to gain admiration, or increase my views. Just to make something because i will feel happy looking at it. And I'm OK if no one notices. I do like how it looks like in different lighting.

I made cats with my daughter and few years back. I don't do this often. But I still love looking at those cats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdSe0ZYbTWA

No photo outing

2026-07-26T17:22:04.535+08:00

I've been playing with cameras a little too much lately. I wanted to appreciate the camera that I have in-built in my body - my eyes. So that day, I decided not to bring my camera out with me when I brought the kids to visit the beach. OK, I did bring my phone, but I prefer shooting with a dedicated camera nowadays because I the pictures look better to me. So I didn't consider my phone a camera.

So my camera were my eyes. And my hands, colour pencils, pencil and a small box of oil pastels (8 selected colours) were the printer. And I took pictures with them on the long train ride and at the beach. I cropped the scenes like how I would frame photos. All these were drawn on location. Oh yes, this is the magic of illustration- I could draw myself into the 2nd page, through imagination!

New skillshare class is live!

2026-07-09T11:18:19.283+08:00

"Telling Stories With Comics 4: Draw a Dramatic Conversation". In this class, I break down the process to doing a conversations scene in a more dramatic or "cinematic"way. It will be like shooting a movie, except it's with pencil and paper! And that's what I liked about comics since I was a kid- you don't need much to make your own "movies". I also give lots of example on how you can draw shots using different crops and angles in a conversation scene. Here, I share what I know from drawing comics over many years and I believe this will help you tell stories through comics with more confidence.

This is the class I've been working on for months. It was put on hold because of work, and then when I got back to it again, I decided to revamp everything to make it even better. It is now available on the Skillshare platform.

If you are new to skillshare, use this link to get 1-month free access to Skillshare (which means, you get to view this class as well as all the other classes by me and other creators for free.)

Diary comics by kids at a comics workshop in May 2026.

2026-07-08T14:06:00.000+08:00

These are comic dairies drawn by elementary school students during a comics workshop at the Singapore Korean International School in May 2026. I love how these kids used simple shapes and lines to convey objects and people. It's so charming. (I didn't get the names of the students so I can't credit each student.)

I like to refer to those very early cave paintings at Lascaux, those were only using simple shapes or marks and lines to tell stories. They were only representative rather than realistic depictions of objects and people.

It reminds me that we don't need so much realism in art to tell stories. Realism in art is good, don't get me wrong! But if your drawing skills aren't so developed in realism yet, and you can draw simple shapes, you can already start telling stories.

End of June 2026 Comic diary and sketches

2026-07-03T10:20:58.025+08:00

I drew this comic diary out at the breakfast table one morning. Just sitting down and remembering what's been happening helps me get my head in order and away from the screen! This time I was using the basic pen ink drawing set I was talking about in my last video. It keeps things simple. Using 3 values is good enough to telling a story in pictures. It's kinda like shooting with black and white film- It has it's own look. I'd use this combination if I don't want to think so much and just get to the drawing!

Below is the page I showed in the video, scanned without any adjustments. I added a drawing of how I was drawing in the bus with some silly contraption! My wife was amused.

If you are wondering about paper choices, I'm using my usual ambassador wove vellum 200gsm paper I ordered from a paper supplier. But that paper supplier has since closed down, so might have to switch to another paper soon.

June 2026 Comic diary. Work, squishies and bunk bed.

2026-07-03T10:10:10.579+08:00

It's been so busy with so much stuff that I find myself glued to the computer all day. And when I take breaks, I'm checking out Youtube to distract myself. That usually leaves my head feeling all gooey at the end of the day. Comic diaries help me clear my head and note the things I have around me. One tip on doing comic diaries- vary the crops between full body shots and close-ups. That can make the visuals look less monotonous.

Ollie makes squishies with tissue paper, tape and cotton filling balls.

And I did manage to get that Youtube video out before the month ended! On the very last day!

Drawn with a cheap Hero pen with Platinum Carbon Black and watercolours. I didn't have to adjust the colours because the Epson V850 scans it so faithfully. Wow!

Illustrating a map with many small icons

2026-06-11T10:50:44.166+08:00

This is another recent project I was working on. It was done together with the team at Singapore Press Holdings. I only worked on creating the illustration icons. The area around the Singapore Zoo now has so many other attractions. The whole area is now called the Mandai Wildlife Reserve. I wished I had more time to go explore these places before I had to draw them, as a research and reference collecting trip. That would have been fun! But I didn't have the time so I had to work with reference photos already available online.

Each location had to be distilled to a small picture icon. And that was the challenging part. Here you see the completed version, and it may look simple. But most of the time was spent on the concept sketches, to nail that angle, that position, and showing just the essentials to represent each place.

I usually think up multiple variations of the same location as options, and then choose the best one. Then there are amendments. All this can take days or weeks, depending on how rushed the deadline is, but that's part of the work. The part where the work is in sketch stage is the most important and also most time consuming. Nothing gets colored or vectorized until the sketches are approved. And then after that, the coloring/vectorizing can proceed smoothly without much adjustments.

Used with permission by Singapore Press Holdings.

Here is the artwork printed on the newspaper. Although it looks duller because it is on newsprint, I enjoy looking at the dot textures! Can you spot me in the illustrations?

Serving the message

2026-06-06T14:37:02.084+08:00

I realize I've not displayed a commissioned project on this blog for some time. The reason, partly, is I have to get permission as the clients usually own the rights to the artwork. This is a couple advertorials I've done recently. Thanks to the people at Singapore Press Holdings for the project.

I do a lot of drawings as a means of self-expression and capturing my daily life and all. But I do need to eat and support a family, so that's where my work as an independent illustrator comes in.

When I do work for clients, it's not all about me anymore. I have to listen to what the client's needs are- What's the look and feel they are aiming for, and most importantly, what is the main message they want to convey to their readers. Everything has to be designed to deliver that as clear as possible. At the same time, I have to make it look good (in my eyes and theirs!) So that's where a bit of me comes into the artwork- my preference for colors and shapes and composition. But I have to aim all of that to address and serve the message.

We often see the final art. But there is a lot of planning and rounds of changes to get to that point. The main message in this advertorial was to show how phones are made and how quickly they can discarded for a new one. I have to keep that one message in mind as design the visuals. I had to reference photographs online, and distill them to simple imagery like these, so that with one look it is clear what is happening (combined with the text). It does take time and I don't always nail it on the first time. And sometimes, the client has a preference of what should be drawn. There is some push and pull and finally we settle on something that works well for all of us. It can take 3-4 rounds of sketches before I finally start on the final artwork. Going straight into the final artwork before things get approved is a bad idea as they can be major changes. Major changes in rough sketch stage is quicker than major changes after a few hours of finely-tuned colored art.

In this other advertorial for V-Zug, each visual had to demonstrate using products that stand the test of time, recycling, sharing, and re-repurposing (in that order). The pencil sketches were done on paper first (it's less distracting on paper), and then I usually move the sketches to my iPad so it's easy to make more edits. After several rounds of changes at this sketch stage, I would then trace it in vectors using Adobe Illustrator.

Chatting with Mike Rohdes on the Sketchnote Podcast

2026-06-04T14:52:00.000+08:00

Mike Rohdes from Sketchnotelab and I did an interview some time ago. Mike loves taking notes and journalling. He encourages and teaches others ways how to go about doing visual journalling. After watching a video I did about diary comics, he started doing his own. I think he's taken it to another level! And I'm impressed at how organized he was about it. We started talking, and in this interview we talk more about diary comics among other things:) Click on the image for the link to the interview.

I bought a CCD scanner. Now I can scan paintings better

2026-05-08T14:32:00.000+08:00

So I went scanner hunting! I'd been using a Canon scanner/printer for a number of years and the machine was falling apart so I went looking for another scanner. I got an Epson L6370 scanner/printer to replace it but found that the scans for the L6370 were terrible for scanning illustrations. There was some over-sharpening going on and I could not get the same level of details I got with my old Canon scanners. That's when my quest began.

I did some digging around on the internet and found that the scanners I'd been using previously all used a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) sensor. Those are most ideal for scanning documents. But I found that the CIS sensors on Canon scanners, like the Canoscan Lide (which I used to use to scan my sketchbooks) were pretty decent for scanning illustrations. It could capture really fine details when I scanned at a very high resolution like 600dpi and above. But the CIS sensor on my new Epson L6370 wasn't terrible at capturing the fine textures of paper and ink details. So now, if I was a student or someone on a tight budget, and wanted to buy a basic scanner with a CIS scanner, I'd still stick with a Canon (A Canon Lide 400, for example). I would NOT go with an lower end Epson with a CIS sensor.

However, I found that if I wanted a scanner that could scan illustration really well, I'd buy a scanner with a CCD sensor. Professional illustrators, like Rebecca Green, use scanners with a CCD sensor to scan illustrations for picturebook, for example. These CCD sensors have a higher dynamic range and capture more details and variation in color, etc (I won't go too deep with the tech specs.) But they are also more expensive. Since I do client work involving scanning natural media paintings, and I do picturebooks, I was interested. And, although the price range was rather steep, I could buy it as an investment.

I narrowed down my options to these CCD scanners:

1. Epson Perfection V850 Pro
2. Epson V600
3. Plustek opticPro A 320 E
4. Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II

I was considering the size of scanner (Do I want an A4 or A3 scanner?), the pricing, and also the dynamic range. I tried stitching together a bigger painting in Photoshop and it could do it very quickly and seamlessly, so I realised I didn't need an A3-sized scanner. But did I need the highest dynamic range (detail capturing ability)? Will most people even notice the difference? Eventually, I decided to go with the Epson V600 scanner, which was good but with slightly lower specs and at a lower price. But then...

I could not find the Epson V600 on sale anywhere! Not even online! I contacted Epson and they didn't have it! They had discontinued it and the stock in Singapore was gone! All gone! I couldn't find the CanoScan 9000F Mark II online either. The internet revealed that these Epson CCD scanners were launched more than 10 years ago and Epson had stopped producing them, with no plans to make new improved ones. My guess is that most people don't scan art anymore? People like to draw digitally now? Is that it? That's sad if that was true.

In any case, the only option remaining was the Epson Perfection V850. It has been discontinued, but Epson Singapore still had remaining stock. Note that this is a product that is more than 10 years old! But it is still considered one of the best scanners for scanning photos and illustration by many. I swallowed the enormous price tag and bought it. Gulp!

The Epson V850 came with an app called Silverfast, which has an interface that looks a decade old. But I could also scan from within Photoshop if I wanted to. The quality of the scans have been amazing! At first, I was concerned if it could capture collage, but as you can see, it does a decent job.

This was painted with acrylic with collage and some pencils.

The Epson Perfection V850 in my room. I have to keep the room dry so mold doesn't grow in it!

I scanned a bigger painting with Toby. The textures come out really well. I had to stitch this together as the V850 is an A4 sized scanner. No problems with that. Below is the close-up.

A gelliplate/collage painting with acrylic.

I'm pretty happy with my first CCD sensor scanner. I do hope companies make more of these as technology evolves. Artists still need their illustrations scanned! As for me, I want to do more paintings, and even picturebooks, and this scanner will help me scan them well!

TIP: If you are in Singapore, buying the V850 from Parisilk will get you the lowest price.

A comic diary and my thoughts on fountain pens

2026-05-02T11:10:59.557+08:00

I've bought so many fountain pens in the last 10 years that some don't get used much. One of them is the Custom Heritage 912 with an FA nib ground to an XF and a custom feed from Flexible Nib Factory. I suppose that needs a bit or elaboration! The FA nib that came with the pen was pretty flexible but the feed couldn't keep up so I had to buy a custom feed! Yes, I ended up spending more. My friend and nibmeister, Greg Minuskin, is a master at retipping and grinding nibs, so I got him to adjust it. I liked really thin lines at the time because I drew small a lot. Fountain pen hunting and getting it customised to get that ideal feeling when drawing, can get rather addictive and also pricey.

But after arriving at a threshold, I realised there is no end to it. And I find it a better use of my time and energy to create art with the pens I have. OK, at the time, it wasn't all bad wasted time either. Because, every time I got a pen, I found myself drawing more. That improved my drawing skills. Hunting down various speciality nibs also helped train me to draw in different ways. I found that pens don't adapt to me. I have to adapt to them! So I don't regret a certain amount of pen hunting haha. Buying some good pens is beneficial. But once I found that I had all the kinds of fountain pens and nibs that I wanted, and I could create a wide variety of lines, buying more pens didn't serve me more. It was just more of the same. Sadly.

So recently, I've filled up some old fountain pens and started using them again. Using some felt like a new experience all over again because I've not used them for so long!

Above is a spontaneous comic diary of recent events. This was done without prompts, meaning, I just wrote and drew what came into my head without much planning. Doing a comic diary is rather therapeutic for me, especially when I have so much to do and think about. Perhaps it helps me slow down and think. And pens help with that. Pens tend to force me to record things down in a decisive way since ink is not something easily corrected.

So to end this, I'd say, pens aren't just for buying and buying. That's just a pricy, never-ending hunt. Pens serve me best when I'm enjoying using them to create and do stuff like this comic diary. So that's what I'm doing with the ones I've bought these days.

Why even consider simulating real paints digitally?

2026-04-27T11:12:30.976+08:00

Which was done with real paint and which was drawn digitally? That's a question I often quized my daughter when she was growing up. We'd be looking for picturebooks in the library and I always favoured picturebooks drawn with real paint. Asking myself why, I'd explain it this way:

Real paints feel more warm and organic. Like a real person really got their hands into it.
With real paints I feel that the painter took more thought and skill to craft it a certain way. As in, it took more effort to fix a mistake or just go with the mistakes and made it work.With digital, it's easy to undo and hide mistakes as if they never happened.
The lines textures feel more natural and rich. Digital paint and textures can also feel rich especially when scanned from real paint, but I find they often lack spontaneity, too orderly, too controlled. (Btw, the top picture is with real paints)
When drawing comics with a half-natural-line-and-half-digital-colouring approach (which I often do), I think it looks OK because comics are read quickly and, as I reader, I just want to know what happens and get a sense of the feeling from the art. But for picturebooks, the pictures are bigger and I want to slow down and take it all in. I want to savour the art. I want to feel the lines and paint and textures. I want to live in the page for awhile. And with digital, it feels like it is a artificially constructed space and not real. While with real paint, it feels like a space the story teller really lived and worked in. It "feels more real" as many people put it.

So if I'm illustrating a picturebook, My first choice would be to do it with real paints. I have tried many ways to get away with it over the years (when I was less confidence with natural media). I've also done 1 or 2 picture books entirely simulating paints digitally. They look alright on their own but compared to my other work with real paints, real paints still win. Real paints was often messier and I had to do it at my desk instead of my sofa, but I did find it more fun and enjoyable, like I was playing rather than working.

So why did I do a Youtube video about simulating natural media digitally? I note that some of you were asking "Why even consider it?"

Imagine you are a student at an art school, and your parents only provided you with an iPad or laptop. You have a budget of $5 for lunch every day. You don't own a scanner, or a printer. It costs money to go to a shop to scan stuff. OK, you do have a smart phone camera with camscanner app. But that's not great for scanning paintings. You might have some basic paints and brushes from a painting class in the past. You are rusty. You do have more experience drawing your favourite manga and anime characters on Procreate or ClipStudio. Now you are given a picturebook assignment due in a few weeks. It is your first time putting a story and layout together. You are struggling with it and doing tweaks suggested by the teacher. You might have 2 weeks left to paint the pages because you procrastinated. How would you choose to render the pages- with real paints or your iPad?

I find that most students would choose digital paints over real paints even though (I feel) the results won't be as amazing as real paints.

But the next problem is that even when drawn and painted digitally, the art might look like a poor simulation of real paint. It's not convincing at all. And it might be that many young ones today have very limited or zero experience with real paint. So when they try to simulate real paint digitally the process is all wrong! They might find a brush that says acrylic and apply it like watercolour and think that is how acrylic should look. Or they will use too many layers and it doesn't allow the paint to mix.

So that's why the video below. I realise that if anyone were to try make their digital paintings look like real paints, it's best to know the process required of that paint medium. And it will get it looking closer to the real thing. And then I hope they'd brush up their skills with the real thing, in time! Yes it will be messier, it will take more work, but it will be worth it.

Some tips: Gouache is different from acrylic. Acrylic would need an underpainting and the layers above while gouache is applied thick without underpainting. At least, that's what I've learned using real paints

And here is another quick and rough run-though video I made for my students covering a few different media.

Comic diary on 9 Apr 2026

2026-04-13T14:46:00.003+08:00

Drawn with a Uni Pin pigment brush pen. This new small brush pen has waterproof ink and it feels good when I draw with it. I decided I had to draw out another comic diary coz I've been so stressed deciding on all the materials for the upcoming comics class (A physical class in Singapore). I think I'm about settled it but there are so many decisions. Perhaps I should have kept it simpler!

I feel that doing a comic diary is never wasted. Some history is preserved.

My phenakistoscope

2026-04-13T14:17:00.008+08:00

Life for me keeps changing. At one time, when I was single and working at an ad agency, it seemed like things would stay the same all the time, day after day. I was so bored and I wished for change. After getting married, having kids to care for, taking on teaching and learning new things like youtube and photography, I wish things would slow down once in awhile so I can catch my breath. I must say, there is rarely a dull moment these days. Recently I learned to do a phenakistoscope - an invention from the 1800s. The above represents my mind or how I see myself, learning and changing all the time. This was drawn in Photoshop and made into a gif also in Photoshop. I still find it hard to pronounce "phenakistoscope"!

I'm teaching a Sequential Art course end of April

2026-04-08T17:13:00.004+08:00

If you want to learn how to draw comics I'm going to be teaching a 6-week course on that at Brahm Centre starting 28th April. It will focus on learning how to use multiple pictures (instead of one) to tell clear narratives. We will be learning the princples involved in this format and also exploring different ways to use sequential art. We will keep it meaningful by using it to record stories from our lives. If this interests you, sign up today using this SIGN-UP LINK on eventbrite. Seniors above a certain age get a subsidized rate. All materials are provided. This course is held in Singapore, so only if you are based here. Seats are limited.

Here are some samples of what we will be learning to do:

Being an amateur

2026-04-07T19:24:00.004+08:00

I'm not sure where I heard or read it, but it's about when we get to a certain level of expertise, we tend to stick to what we are good at. And we might be afraid to try new things because we don't want to look like an amateur again. Perhaps we want to maintain that expert image.

After years sketching small and drawing in a certain way, I feel like I have little problem making things look good in that small comics-like format. I'm pretty confident in that area. But like I've been saying on this blog, sketching big is something I've not done very often and it's an area I feel I've still got room to improve in. With so much more room to fill, I've to remember to compose it like I compose a smaller drawing. There is more space to fill in the details but I've to remember to simplify or I will get lost in the small details and forget about defining those bigger shapes that hold everything together. It's easy to get lost in small details when drawing bigger.

Gouache and colour pencils. Was rather unsure of the process to nail this image.

Watercolours and colour pencils. At a food centre. A little muddy.

Watercolours and colour pencils. Outside a Temple. I could have shown a clearer subject in this picture.

Anyways, the above are some bigger sketches (a little bigger than A4) I've been doing on location. I didn't do thumbnails for these. (I was skipping that though it does help). There are things I like about them. But they aren't great. I could point out things that can work better. I was fumbling around while working on these. But I'm putting aside my wanting people to see me as "a great artist" and just be a amateur and keep learning. I think that's a great place to be.

I think I picked thoughts like that from this book I borrowed from my wife. I don't read many of these books. But I liked this one. Here is two of the quotes:

“Perhaps we'll never know how far the path can go, how much a human being can truly achieve, until we realize that the ultimate reward is not a gold medal but the path itself.”

“To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.”

― George Leonard, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

How I used a thumbnail to do a bigger sketch

2026-03-09T12:16:00.006+08:00

Yep, I'm super late in posting again. I'm still juggling between doing so many things (parenting, being an adjunct lecturer, personal artwork, creating classes I want to create on Skillshare, showing something valuable on Youtube and Patreon). It's quite a lot. I've a feeling I'm doing too much. I'm still deciding where I should be placing most of my time and why. I still enjoy posting in this blog and just showing what I've been up to.

I've been teaching Urban Sketching with the gang again at a university. Although I teach, I also get to sit in on the other lecturer's lessons. Jeffrey was teaching the students to do thumbnails before doing a bigger A4 drawing, something I hardly ever to. I like going ahead and "attacking" a scene head on. And that's perhaps why I do a lot of cropped scenes and I seldom attempt larger, wider scenes.

I noticed that, among the students, the concept of thumbnails is something not so easy to grasp. I still see many students draw very detailed sketches that can be considered small finished illustrations. And they can often take up to 1.5hrs to do a thumbnail! Something is off about that.

So this is what I understand a thumbnail to be:

It is small.
It is drawn very quickly. I usually take about 5 minutes to draw it. Maybe less.
I simplify and capture the scene in blocks of shapes. So I outline these shapes and place them in a pleasing order. What makes it pleasing is often the rule-of-thirds and having something in the foreground, mid-ground and background, which creates depth.
Then I quickly shade in 3-4 values- highlight (white), light midtone, dark midtone, and dark.
I make sure the highest contrast is where I want the focus to be.

Then I start drawing my scene loosely based on my thumbail. I drew the lines lightly with a light orangey colour pencil first. The thumbnail helped me know how the scene should be cropped and how I should colour it based on the tonal value information in it. Then I added the paints and lastly the lines.

I've been liking gouache again. I bought this deep palette from ArtFriend in Singapore for about only $4. It has a rubber cover that keeps everything moist even after a week. If I leave the paint too long, it does grow mold in Singapore. So I have to be a little careful about it. I like gouache because the colours are bright and I can cover over things, even white over a dark colour.

To keep things portable, I used it with a waterbrush. For the lines I used a Derwent Lightfast Midnight Black colour pencil. The above scene is Tekka Food Centre in Singapore. It is soon going to be Hari Raya and the place is decorated.

The above sketch took me about 2 hours to complete. I was drawing with the students and also guiding students in between. That's longer than I would normally spend on an urban sketch. I usually take 10-20mins because I often draw small. But doing the thumbnail first and then using it to achieve a bigger complex drawing was rather satisfying. So I'm starting to see why some urban sketchers like this slower approach to sketching!