We are all time-travellers journeying through life. My friend KC Lee has recently taken it upon himself to chronicle that journey. Given away while he was an infant, he traces the contours of his life and his struggles through his adventures as an artist and businessman, and through marriage and fatherhood in a 17.5 metre-long sketch-autobiography (the original being 88m long and featured in the Malaysia Book of Records). He tells of his long search for his biological family, and how by a strange twist of fate, his biological father was - unknown to them both - at one point a colleague of his.
Here are some photos of the book. Mind you it’s no small paperback, and it’s one continuous page so I can’t stretch it out in its entirety. It would be longer than the length of my flat!
Book with sleeve
Inside pages are “accordian-style” with one 17m page
Back cover
I enjoy biographies. This is probably the first sketch autobiography I’ve ever seen, and certainly the only one in my library. You can tell lots of love and effort went into this.
I came down with some slight cough and sore throat towards the end of March and was ordered to stay home for 5 days. If I was caught going out, I could have been issued a $10,000 fine. So I started drawing a comic a day, expecting to just do 5 days' worth of comics.
Then the Circuit Breaker happened. We were on semi-lockdown for a month. So the comics continued.
For this artist feature, we have my urban sketching friend, Alice Lim! Not too long ago shestarted creating videos about her sketching journey and they've been very interesting! She's quite prolific too! I got to know her when she first joined one of our sketchwalks at Punggol waterfront several years ago and we have traveled to several sketching events over the years with other sketcher friends. So without further ado, here is Eurekawanders Alice Lim!
Tell us a bit about yourself
Hello, I am Alice. I work full time as a regulatory inspector and an urban sketcher on weekends.
When and how did you start travel sketching?
I did my first travel sketch during my trip to Vienna and Prague in 2014. I was already urban sketching then and I didn’t want to stop so I brought my gear over.
It’s a good way to make full use of my waiting time and when I sketched a place I remembered it better than when I just take a photo.
Where have you traveled to sketch before?
Sketching trip: I have attended the Penang sketchwalk, all the asialinks (Bangkok, Kuching, Taichung, Hanoi) and there was also Amaravati.
Which country was your favourite to sketch and why?
For sketching subject I would say Hanoi cos the architecture was interesting with the different building levels built on top of each other in an unexpected way. For sketching experience it would be Taichung cos the food was great and people were friendly.
Where would you like to visit in future to sketchpack and why?
Any temperate countries in spring or autumn. Cool weather, beautiful flowers and colourful foliages. What’s not to like!
What is in your travel sketching kit?
Vacation sketching: moleskine sketchbook from 2015 USK symposium, 6 colour watercolour palette, pen, pencil and waterbrush
Sketching trip: full watercolour palette, watercolour paper (mainly Arches or Saunders), sketching stool, pens, pencil, brushes, water container, rag
Alice's travel kit
What is your usual process?
I normally do a pencil draft to make sure the perspective and composition is ok before inking. Then a quick watercolour wash.
How do you sketch when traveling with other people or on tour?
I have shared some tips in my YouTube video (https://youtu.be/ma0xExiIVTQ). Generally if it’s a tour or if my friends have planned the itinerary then I wouldn’t be so hard on myself if I don’t sketch. If I plan the trip I will sneak in a lot of cafe breaks at scenic places. I do get a lot of sketching done from around the hotels that I stayed in.
Can you share one memorable experience with us?
I can’t think of a specific one. I have made friends with people who stopped by to watch me sketch and I have received appreciation in a form of cookies and drinks.
Do you have any advice or tips for people who want to try travel sketching?
Start small with a A6 sketchbook and pen. Bring the kit with you in your carry on bag. Keep yourself inconspicuous (like while sitting in a cafe or park bench) and sketch. Remember to write down the location, sign and date your work to help you remember when you look back at your old sketches.
I have a certain fondness for Melaka (Malacca). Its history is closely tied to Singapore’s history. It is said that the last king of Singapura (Singapore’s old name), Parameswara (Sultan Iskandar Shah, but historical records vary) fled an Majapahit invasion and founded the new city. Like Singapura (meaning “lion city” being named after it was founded by a Palembang prince who reportedly saw a lion after surviving a storm en-route by casting his crown into the sea), Melaka got its name from the Melaka tree Parameswara was resting under when he saw how a brave mousedeer kicked his hunting dog into the water. He took it as a good omen (probably after having to flee a powerful enemy) and the rest is history. That was in 1402. Over the years, it grew into a regional power establishing alliances with China during the Ming Dynasty
Over the centuries, Melaka’s spice position along the spice trade route became the desire of European powers. The Portuguese were the first to conquer the city in 1511, followed by the Dutch in 1641, who later ceded the city to the British in 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. In 1948, Melaka became part of the Federation of Malaya (today Malaysia) which gained independence from British rule in 1957 after World War II.
Vestiges of colonial and pre-colonial Melaka can still be seen, including the tombs of its early heroes. Historical records and verification can be rather sketchy at parts, but interesting nonetheless. In recent years, a book was published documenting pre-1402 Melaka. The findings are controversial to some, but others think the writer builds a strong case.
I visited Melaka as part of my school history trip in 1993. I have fond memories of that trip. It was probably the first time i got to design a T-shirt for a school activity, and I drew the Porta de Santiago gate below. I don’t remember where I got the reference photo from, since those were pre-Google days. I wish I still had that shirt.
There are currently 3 sketches in his post which I did over 2 trips. They were done in simple linework using Platinum Preppy fountain pens. I will update with more should I get the chance to visit again. There are other places I would like to draw such as Kampong Morten, Bukit Cina, Jonker Walk, and other historical sites and places of interest.
This gateway is almost all that remains of the once impregnable Portuguese fortress, the A’Famosa, whose walls once circled the city. Behind the fort is St Paul’s Hill, on top of which is the remains of St Paul’s Church which I sketched in the third sketch below. This is a popular tourist spot, but less crowded on weekdays. There’s a mall opposite if you need respite from the heat. I took cover under a tree while sketching this and a bird bombed my sketch pouch. Fortunately the drawing was unscathed.
Red is the colour of the Dutch Square. On the left is the clocktower. Christ Church (an Anglican church) is in the middle, and the Stadthuys (an old Dutch word for "Town Hall") is to the right, said to be the oldest and largest surviving Dutch colonial building in the East. Once the official residence of Dutch governors and officials, it now houses the Museum of History and Ethography. Services are still held in the church, which are open to public. This square sits at the gateway to the famous Jonker Walk, which has become a very touristy shopping street. Jonker Walk comes alive from Friday nights all through Sunday as street stalls ply their wares and feed visitors. Garish trishaws decorated with cartoon characters and plush toys while blasting loud music (if you can call that music) crowd around the Dutch Square where they pick up and drop off passengers.
On a hill behind the Porta de Santiago is the roofless St Paul's Church. I drew this piece on a different trip. To the right is a white statue of the Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier. You may notice he is missing his right hand. Legend has it that it was sculpted with the hand, but the sculptor didn't realise that the saint's hand was removed for him to be canonized. "Miraculously", during a thunderstorm, a tree fell and lopped the hand right off the statue. That was the story I was told by our tour guide when I visited in 1993. It was one of several stories of the miracles of St Francis Xavier. Inside the church, you will find a burial vault and several large tombstones.
It’s almost a year since I collected the keys to my first and very own flat. It’s a small 2-room flat with a floor area of 45 sqm. Renovating this space would be the most expensive and largest project I had ever undertaken. Needless to say, a lot of planning was necessary, and being able to draw was a huge plus. My concept sketches were not exactly to scale, but roughly based on the measurements I took at the showflat (which was larger than the actual flat, I think), but the idea was there and I could use them to show my ID what I wanted. You can take a look and see what compromises I had to make due to space constraints in the end.
Living Room
Bedroom
Kitchen
Bathroom
Maybe I'll do another round of sketches of my flat now that it's completed, but being able to draw was really helpful. You don't need to draw well to communicate your ideas. A few fundamental skills (eg. proportion, perspective, texture, tone, colour) will get you a long way and these are things that can be learned.
