Workshop F: Capturing Singapore’s Lively Urban Spaces

Location: Bugis Junction

Workshop description

Singapore’s public spaces—its squares, streets, plazas, and parks—teem with the energy of the city’s rich public life. Capturing the scene in a way that conveys that energy is a challenge, but can result in exciting compositions that are “truer than literal truth.” The focus of this workshop is the public realm that acts as the connective tissue between buildings, where the life of great cities takes place. Here, architecture acts as the backdrop of a stage set, and the “players” in the space—people in motion, vehicles, street furnishings, trees, birds—act in concert to bring life and energy to the scene. We’ll explore a step-by-step approach to capturing this urban exuberance and Singapore’s unique “personality of place.”

This workshop will focus on creating energetic yet visually coherent sketches of lively urban spaces using a combination of strategies:

Dynamic composition and a strong overall shape,
finding the eye-level line,
drawing people first,
“drawing with abandon,”
using exaggerated perspective and “creative lean,”
connecting dark shapes to create rhythm and unity, and
focused use of color to create emphasis and suggest a mood.

Learning goals

To understand timeless design principles that create a lively urban space, in terms of individual elements, their relationships to each other, and how they collectively convey a “personality of place.”
To explore a Cubist approach of walking around a subject, looking at it from all sides, and showing many facets of it in the same picture.
To learn an accessible, step-by-step approach to editing a scene—choosing what to emphasize and what to leave out—to consciously simplify and communicate our impression in a strong composition.
Creating a sense of realism and depth through use of perspective, overlapping, diminishing figure size, the “fading out” of detail in the foreground.
Simplifying complex elements by seeking to capture their visual texture rather than literal details
Developing confidence and speed with short exercises and “drawing with abandon.”

Workshop Schedule

Travel to workshop site

First hour:

Introductory remarks/key concepts/demonstration (20 minutes)
First speed exercise
Second speed exercise
Sketchbook throwdown, review and comment

Second hour:

Introduce step-by-step approach to “capturing the energy”
30-minute sketch exercise
Sketchbook throwdown, review and comment

Third hour:

40-minute sketch exercise using all the principles taught
Sketchbook throwdown, review and comment
Group photo
Return from workshop site

Supply list

No special materials are required beyond what most attendees carry with them:

Watercolor sketchbook–size per personal preference
Sketching pencils and waterproof ink pens (technical or fountain pens)
Travel watercolor set
Waterbrushes or traditional brushes, one large flat, one medium round
Small rag
Small leakproof plastic container of water
Small lightweight folding stool (optional)
Drinking water, hat and sunscreen are always a good idea

“In my view urban sketching isn’t about art, per se. It’s more about authenticity—showing up, being in the moment, honestly recording what’s in front of you, and gaining a deeper awareness and appreciation for the magic of the everyday. Mostly, it’s about experiencing the joy of the creative dance of the mind, eye and hand.”