Little India sketchwalk (8 March 2014)

It has been months since I went back to Little India for sketching and there have been quite a few changes. Since then, we had the Little India riot on the 8 December 2014. I've also noticed new developments going around the area, such as the building of a tall apartment building in the middle of the shophouse district. Some shops have also moved out.

You might not be able to see clearly but this strand of flowers are so fresh there were bees flying around.

I wonder who gave the green light for that apartment to be built in the middle of the shophouse district. It's already out of place before it's even completed. The only consolation is that no shophouses were torn down as the land there was empty in the first place.

Why can't they build it elsewhere like at the outskirt of the area like Chinatown and Joo Chiat area?

Old and the new behind

This god altar used to be under some big tree. The land behind was empty and now it seems there's going to be some building coming up.

I would not have remembered if I had not I sketched that place before.

One of these days, I'm going to try drawing big pieces. Maybe 16 by 12 inches. Why that size? That's the size commonly used by Paul Madonna in his All Over Coffee sketchbooks. The ratio is what I normally use, I just have to draw bigger.

By the way, Singapore just increased the alcohol tax by 25% and cigarettes by 10%. A pack of cigarettes in Singapore cost more than SGD$10 and is going to cost more.

Wide formats are quite fun to draw with too.

While I was drawing, someone came over and gave me this. "Boss give", he said.

This shophouse used to sell antique furniture and now is just one of the many coffee shops now.

That's my sketch at the bottom right.

WN watercolours on Fabriano 25% cotten paper

I ended up using too many colours for mixing and somehow the colours don't work well together. The sky should have used some wet on wet just like the road to make it more interesting.