It’s safe to say that for most of us, the sound of the word “weekend” would light up our faces. It’s one of those things we wish could occur more often. The Weekend column, as established previously, is not limited to Saturdays and Sundays. It explores the concept of play, idle and rest. So what if we could create many little “weekends” for ourselves throughout the week? Would we be happier? Perhaps a good little “weekend” deed would create a ripple effect and reap other forms of positivity. Simple because good begets good.
In this edition of The Weekend column, we explore sketching as a “weekend” activity. No, we are not suggesting that you only engage in it during your official rest days. But rather, take it everywhere you go and get engrossed in it at every pockets of play or idle time that you have. How much space does a little sketchbook and pen occupy anyway?
To start off, we take inspirational reference from Erwin Lian, an avid sketcher who has recently launched a Kickstarter project called The Perfect Sketchbook. In case you can’t take obvious hints, Erwin is striving to construct a sketchbook ideal for all travel artists and art enthusiasts.
Feeling that sketchbooks in the market do not have the right features made for artists, Erwin dived into the project wholeheartedly.
“I went ahead and designed the perfect sketchbook. I told myself that I could do something about it and I should. The whole point was because I’m so sick of hearing artists complain about so many things like sketchbooks and art equipment but they don’t do anything about it. So I came up with some designs of the value charts, grey cards and all foundation that I have. I wanted to make something quality too. All other sketchbooks use 20% cotton paper, which wasn’t great paper… Nobody dares to do it, but I will dare to do it.”
Initiating The Perfect Sketchbook was only a natural progression for Erwin as he has been doing a great deal of travelling and sketching, which have spun off countless of meaningful and favourable outcomes. Not only did he meet many good people who stopped to appreciate his sketches, he was also offered a complimentary trip to Bhutan. His tour agents for Bhutan was so impressed by his sketches that they decided to use the artwork for their calendar.
These days, Erwin is based in Singapore, lecturing at the Film and Media Studies department of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. His passion for sketching has not ceased and he draws a lot when commuting on the train, mostly of fellow commuters.
Honest and introspective, Erwin is no stranger to senseless attacks online when he launched The Perfect Sketchbook Kickstarter Project, making him all the more inspiring.
“You need to step out into the light. But if you step out, arrows are going to shoot at you. And that’s part of the game. This is the story I want to tell people about. People are not only backing a sketchbook, they are backing a whole process. I have given credit to those who have backed me up. Hopefully the traction that I’ve gained will go back to them. It’s like a symbiotic system.”
Nookmag (N): Let’s talk more about your art. How do you approach sketching and what does it mean to you?
Erwin (E): I graduated from arts school and I got skills from there. You see, drawing people on the streets like a pastime becomes a very trivial thing once you have the skills. It’s almost like you’re a professional violist and you’ll not play to people, but you want to have a stage to prove that you’re worth something. So, something like sketching is very trivial for an art student who has skills. But I didn’t care, I just started doing it. This is the irony – when you’re in school, you see someone who has the skills and you want to aspire to be him/her. Someday, you actually become someone like that but you don’t want to do it anymore because you have this ego or pride that stops you and you’d be like “I’m meant for bigger things. I don’t want to draw on the streets.” This kind of happens to a lot of artists. I just want to go back to the simple mindset of being happy to be able to do something, instead of trying to achieve the best. For me, this is the kind-of happiness I’m trying to pursue from my sketches. There is no deep meaning, I just want to be happy. Happiness is really simple but people think it’s complicated. I improve my sketch as I go along, try out new materials and all those things that come along the way. It is true that sketching brings about people because when I sketch, people talk to me. I’m quite surprised. I would think that they would want to leave me alone. Some people just talk to you. I became friendlier as I go along. There’s no bad intention, people just want to know you.
A lot of people are reluctant to draw people. I read an article recently about how it’s very invasive to draw people in public like on the subway. I have been very lucky that when I got caught, people are actually happy about it. I guess it’s luck. I guess smiling back to people is always a good thing, but not like a creepy perverted smile. What drives me to sketch is liking what I do. And it doesn’t take that much because a sketchbook doesn’t cost that much.
I also paint extensively for shows.
N: What kind of painting?
E: I do every medium actually. I have a series on HDB landscape, which is done in acrylic. It was displayed in FAT Gallery for a while but it will be parked somewhere else. I try to do more local content these days. People are crazy about prosperity here, so I’m working on a “huat” series with a pop iconic style like a knuckle ring. It’s such a popular culture here but people don’t seem to want to acknowledge it because it’s not glamorous yet they are so crazy about it.
I’m more of a painter actually. You can check out my paintings on my website. I do watercolour as well.
N: What kind of mental or emotional effects do your art have on you?
E: When I paint, I can transcend from thinking about some of the nonsense around. Sometimes when I teach, I get really stressed, so I just draw and not care about my students for a while. My students know about it because I draw my students when I’m in class. They’re happy about it, at least I hope so. These are the things that put me in a meditative state. One thing, I can remember better when I draw. During grad school, I would draw on my notes and sketchbook and until today, I can remember the precision of the scenario, what happened and the whole environment. I told my friend about it, but I don’t know if there’s any scientific proof to that. When I look through my travel sketchbook, I remember precisely the people I met on the trip and what happened on that page itself. It’s interesting.
N: There must be an emotional connection as well?
E: I guess you couldn’t discount that even though I don’t really want to acknowledge the emotional aspect. When you’re drawing, you’re really in focus and you’re paying attention to everything. Then again, I got to the point where it became like driving, I don’t really pay attention to making a move with the strokes. When I’m drawing, I’m paying attention to my subject but not what my hands are doing anymore. It’s like second nature now. This is the state that I’m in.
N: Do you think your art brings people together?
E: When I first started sketching, I wanted to get away from people. That’s the irony of it. I graduated from a fine arts school and I understand that fine artists are very competitive and everybody wants to make it. There’s always this vicious competition in the art industry. I want to stay away from that for the longest time, that’s why I never get into galleries. Plus, I didn’t know anyone in Singapore so it’s tough for me to break in as well. When I found Urban Sketches, I thought the people there were really friendly and there’s no-barrier. Anybody can draw whatever and it was fun. So I started anonymously posting stuff there and people started to know who I am. Slowly, I came to know them and became good friends. They are really supportive. This is the irony.
Sketching was a meditative thing for me. I felt peaceful and I want to retain that as much as possible. Often I’m reluctant to go out sketching with people, not that I’m trying to be emo or solo but I just don’t want to deal with people. But interestingly, I have a lot of friends and I enjoy hanging out with them. I recently went to Penang with the Urban Sketches. It was fun.
A lot of people ask me how long it takes to draw a person. But you cannot really predict. Some people leave in 30 or 40 seconds, or 5mins. Overtime, you get a feel of the crowd and audiences. Some people will stay longer, some people will be fidgeting. In general, most people will stay still for three minutes. It really doesn’t matter because if they go, they go. I’m not going to cry about it.
N: Do you leave it up your imagination to finish the drawing then?
E: I don’t usually do that. I like to record that moment. I don’t want to make things up. I could but that’s not the whole point of doing it. When I first started, I thought that it was really good practice for me because I teach drawing at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I need to make sure I have my skills covered. If I don’t, it may get rusty. It really helps when I show my students that I do what I preach. I tell them to go practice.
N: How can we encourage people to pick up sketching?
E: I guess if you like it, you’ll do it. Years of teaching has taught me not to use words like inspire or motivation. The worst thing as a teacher is to see a student join a program that they did not choose and get stuck in it. If you don’t like to draw, forget it. If you’re inspired, you’ll pick up a pen and draw. It’s not about whether you can draw or not. I have students come up to me and complain, “Can you inspire me to draw?” I’m like, “Dude, I draw everyday. Is that not inspiring to you at all?” I really dont know what to do. I don’t think I can inspire. I’ve done what I can. If people like it, they’ll pick it up. Inspiration and motivation have to come from within.
N: How has sketching opened up the world to you?
E: The good thing about it – I would not have gotten a free trip to Bhutan if I have not sketched; I would not have done this project if I haven’t sketched. I mean it is instrumental because I’m doing this sketchbook project and I have to start hustling. Think about it, I would have stayed in my cage, I wouldn’t have talked to people. I hate hustling. It’s so showy, in-your-face and contrived. On the flip side if you don’t go out there and tell people, people are not going to know about you. You’ll have your pride intact but so what?
N: Does positive outweigh the negative?
E: 100%. You see, when you get a person with authority in illustration saying, “Hey I’m going to spread this link.”, you feel like you’re being airlifted because you’re being acknowledged for doing something. All these negativity that you’re dragging, it’s like someone cutting off the string. There’s nothing worse when you put in 100% and all you get is criticisms. They’re punching you for no reason and you’re not even asking them for anything.
The positive really outweighs the negative. If you send out 10 emails and nine of them are negative, you’ll start to doubt yourself because you’re human. And when one comes in and acknowledges your work, the nine negative ones are just immediately erased.
N: Any tips you can share about sketching for people who want to pick it up?
E: You may like to start small. It’s one of those things where if you haven’t got to a certain level, people will judge you. And this is what stops people. I told my students the same thing. It’s the resistance. You have to start somewhere to get somewhere. You have to face the resistance of people laughing at you – that’s part of it. There’s a methodology out there where you can learn and draw better. You start small. If you can’t draw somebody’s front view, you draw their back view. If you can’t draw someone in reality, you can start by drawing them from photographs. But it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s a process.
Pledge your support for The Perfect Sketchbook Kickstarter Campaign now. Funding ends 21 August 2014. Follow Erwin Lian on Tumblr.
The Weekend is a fortnightly series that explores the concept of rest, idle, and play during the weekends.
