AsiaLink Sketchwalk 2024 Penang report and a short history
I've just came back from AsiaLink Sketchwalk 2024 Penang (Aug 1 - 4) and it was an incredible experience. If you are an urban sketcher, I highly recommend you go to at least one international sketchwalk in your lifetime because I can assure you it's gonna be an experience you will never forget.
The two two big international sketching events each year are the Urban Sketchers Symposium and the AsiaLink Sketchwalk.
The history of AsiaLink Sketchwalk
The first AsiaLink Sketchwalk before it was called the AsiaLink Sketchwalk was Sketching George Town which happened from 6 - 10 July 2012. That was two years after the first Urban Sketchers Symposium that happened in Portland, Oregon, USA. A group of Asian urban sketchers felt that Asia should have a sketching event that brings people from different countries together and that was how first Asian international sketchwalk happened.
I started urban sketching in 2009 and Sketching George Town was my first international sketchwalk. I still remember the good times so vividly I don't need any photos to remind me. Below's a video I made of the event.
Here's the list of international sketchwalks from the past:
- 2012: Sketching George Town, Penang, Malaysia
- 2013: Sketchwalk ChaoPhraya, Bangkok, Thailand
- 2014: Sketching George Town II, Penang, Malaysia
- 2015: Urban Sketchers Symposium, Singapore
- 2016: Bangkok, Thailand
- 2017: Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
- 2018: Taichung, Taiwan
- 2019: Hanoi, Vietnam
- 2023: Suwon, South Korea
- 2024: Penang
I went to to the ones in bold.
Difference between Urban Sketchers Symposium and AsiaLink Sketchwalk
The USk Symposium is more formal while the AsiaLink Sketchwalk is more of a gathering of friends. USk Symposium has workshops and demos so it's geared towards teaching and the international community. The AsiaLink Sketchwalk has mostly demos without the 1-to-1 feedback for participants, and there are public sketchwalks everyday that anyone can join.
Prices for the workshop passes for the USk Symposium are high. For the 2023 USk Symposium in Auckland, Workshop passes were USD 450, Sketch passes were USD 260 and Partner passes (for opening and closing reception) were USD 20. For the AsiaLink Sketchwalk in Penang, it was RM300 (USD 68). The money raised goes towards hosting the event.
The AsiaLink Sketchwalk started with just a small group of urban sketcher friends who only knew each other through sketches found online. So it was great to be able to meet some of the sketchers in real life. At the sketchwalk, I was going "OMG, that's _____" all the time in my mind. Many people I've met have become my good friends that you can call upon to give you tips when travelling to their countries.
As urban sketching became more popular, the number of attendees increased. For recent AsiaLink Sketchwalks, we had to set a limit to the number of passes we can sell because of venue capacity limits. The event has become so popular that passes are sold out within hours on the first day.
AsiaLink Sketchwalk 2024
USk Penang has done, yet, another fantastic job with hosting a large scale international sketchwalk. It is not easy handling the logistics for 400-500 urban sketchers. There are so many things to do, such as finding the venue for the hub, inviting instructors, planning the sketchwalk locations and programmes, getting volunteers, finding sponsors, marketing and more. They even hired an ambulance and there are security guards at the hub.
The hub was located at Loft 29 which is a warehouse that's large enough to have all the sketchers gather. We had opening buffet there, and it was the gathering point for the attendees before the demos. They even have a huge rather high quality projector and screen.
Demos
The morning demos started at 9am, and the afternoon ones started at 2pm. The weather in Penang was humid and so hot. Morning demo is still manageable, relatively speaking, despite the heat. The afternoon demo was tough with the sun almost directly above. We have a good variety of instructors, from Asia of course. Urban sketching in south-east Asia can be challenging. The few Mandarin speaking instructors had translators.
Since not everyone can purchase the Sketch Passes, there were also public sketchwalks organised alongside the demos, in the morning and afternoon.
Many would even sketch into the night such as this huge group at the junction of Chulia Street and Love Lane. Penang
Night sharing
Several instructors and sketchers were invited to share urban sketching related stories. Darman Angir talked about what it's like to be a brand ambassador for Stillman and Birn. Khoo Cheang Jin shared how he documented the last few days of the iconic Penang ferry that had operated for 126 years. Manish drew a few laughs with the different types of sketchers.
I like the stories but unfortunately I had to rush back to the hotel to edit my videos.
Art market
The art market selling art supplies and tools was of course very popular.
Official partners are
- Loft 29
- Penang Global Tourism
- GrandArts
- Daniel Smith
- Winsor and Newton
- Premier Art
- Clairefontaine
- Stillman and Birn
- CzipLee
- Etchr Lab
- Le Art
- Pierre Cardin Writing Instruments
- ArtFriend
- Sinours (watercolour)
- Hahnemuhle
- Pallas
- BSG Property
- Charlie's Urban Sketch Factory
The goodie bag with supplies provided by the sponsors weighed 2.85kg.
My coverage
Here are all the videos I made for the event
Sketch exchange
There were close to 200 sketches submitted for the sketch exchange.
Each sketcher who has submitted will get to choose a random sketch and it was quite funny watching the emcee calling out whenever a sketch from a popular artist gets drawn.
And after that, people were holding the sketches walking around trying to find the original artists to take photos with them.
Photos from the event
Here are all the photos and sketches from everyone
https://www.facebook.com/groups/USkPenang/media
Other things
There were so many sketchers who were giving out postcards and stickers.
Stickers are definitely more popular and very practical because one can just stick it in the sketchbook. I will have to go make some too. My sketchbook was filled with four pages of stickers. I probably could have gotten more but it's not quite possible to meet everyone to get stickers from them.
My sketches
I had brought along a Baohong sketchbook, made around two sketches each day and managed to fill more than half the sketchbook. The quality of the sketchbook is pretty good. Watch out for my full review soon.
The next AsiaLink Sketchwalk
The location for AsiaLink Sketchwalk 2025 will be in Phuket, Thailand.
When the location was announced at the closing dinner, the response was almost similar to that you get from a movie trailer release at comic con.
If you want to go to the next AsiaLink Sketchwalk, look out for more information, whenever they are released, from the USk Drawing Attention e-zine and USk Thailand Instagram page.
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