We stayed at Chatham on Friday to prepare our exhibition. Our event group was decided into small groups which responsible for different things. There are film making group, painting group and booklet group. I am in the booklet group and we discussed the layout and collecting sketches from event group members. We spend our afternoon to sorted out sketches and put them into Indesign to form our booklet.

We went to the Chorlton Arts Festival on Saturday. We all did our sketches on A2, and this is a much bigger scale compare to our A5 sketchbook. We also set up our exhibition sculpture roughly and hanged our sketches with some thread around the sculpture to see how it will look like. At the end of the Festival, we also had a chance to see the sketches from the urban sketchers. It has been a unique experience and great opportunity for me, live drawing diffidently challenges my sketching skill and made me learn faster.

Today was our second day at spaceport. We had a brief presentation on kl sketch nation's evolution and we then continued doodling on the exhibition boxes. Finally, we did a quick group activity. The fifth years explained that everyone could sketch with whatever material, so they gave us some paint with no brush. We were asked to sketch people sketching only by using our hands. We got really messy but we learnt that even with the most primary materials, we can keep sketching.

On Wednesday, we visited the Whitworth Art Gallery and joined a group of urban sketchers. We were able to see some great sketches from the urban sketchers and learned some great skills from them. One of the urban sketchers taught me to focus on the general atmosphere of the space and indicate materials with watercolour. Also it is important to keep the sketch simple and clean so it is easier to read. He told me to sketch quickly and frequently. This will help to find my own personality and style of the drawing I produced. So most of my drawings on Wednesday are coloured, I found colours are great to indicate materials and creating atmosphere.

The second day started with sketching on the Piccadilly Garden. Before moving to the Market Street, Hakim gave us a brief tutorial. He taught us how to frame the sketching by deciding the main subject of the drawing. He also suggest us to do a small sketch just focused on one small subject. Then we moved on to the market street. We did few 15 seconds sketching exercises and an interior sketching in the Arndale.

The first day starts with a briefing in Chatham by the event leaders. We received our sketchbooks, badges and t-shirts. Hakim taught us some basic sketching skills like the line weight, the shapes, the technique of drawing shadows and different perspective drawing methods.
In the afternoon, we walked from Chatham to the Central Library. We sketched the central library and the town hall. As it is the first sketch walk, my main subjects of the drawings are the landmarks, the drawings are focused on the outline of the building and the general environment around them. I also did another sketch to show the busy movement in the Albert Square.

On the second day we set off to sketch at more crowded places: Piccadilly gardens and the market street. Before starting we were taught using different composition (1-point, 2-point and 3-point perspectives) and medium to start developing our own style. It was in this session that I learnt about distorted perspective and it seemed really interesting. We did some 1-minute lightning sketches in which we had to pick a subject and draw a simple line drawing to represent, all within 1 minute!

I chose a different medium in sketching this day and I'm happy with how effective watercolours are in making my drawings look better.

On the first day we were given a brief on the Sketch Fest event (the aim of the project and the plans for the following two weeks) and some basics in sketching: line, shape, shade and perspective. We then had a quick sketching activity in which we had to draw a person's face without looking at the paper. Hakym explained that the purpose of this activity is to train our hand-eye coordination, which is important in urban sketching because it's about capturing the essence of the scene truthfully. It isn't about getting perfect lines or a perfect drawing; it's to draw what we see, not what we think we see.

In the afternoon we had our sketch exercise at the central library, the townhall extension, and Albert square. I find it difficult to plan the composition of my drawings within such short time frame but still I decided to just sketch without thinking too much. I think that's when the fun starts!

When preparing for our final exhibition we spent two days at the Spaceport, in the Northern quarter, decorating our cardboard boxes with patterns and sketches.

We spent the fourth day deciding on how to display our sketches as a final exhibition. As a starting point we were given 25 plain cardboard boxes, along with string and orange and white paints. This limitation of materials forced us to be more creative and come up with innovative ways of displaying our work in order to maximise its aesthetic value.

On our last sketching session the whole day was spent at Whitworth art gallery, where we were accompanied by the Manchester Urban sketchers. This was a good opportunity to network with people who are much more experienced in sketching and gain an insight into some of the techniques they have picked up over the years.

The second sketching session took place around the busy location of the Arndale centre. We were given short tasks in which we were allocated only a few seconds to sketch an element of our surroundings. This forced us to become efficient in sketching a moving environment quickly and accurately; preparing us well for the remainder of the day, which we spent sketching inside the busy shopping centre.

During the second part of the first session we spent a few hours utilising the tips we had learnt from the event leaders, whilst sketching the central library and various buildings close by. In my sketch I tried to use the technique of maximising the imperfections by purposely avoiding the use of straight lines, as we were taught in out first tutorial.

On our first session we were given a short induction which told us about the background of the sketchfest festival and its foundations in Malaysia. We were then given tutorials on the basic elements of sketching including; line, shape, shade and perspective. The drawing above shows my attempt at the first task set, whereby we had to draw the person in front of us without looking at or taking our pen off the paper. I feel like my blind drawing of the event leader was quite accurate. :)

Day 3: On our final day sketching we were joined by the Manchester urban sketching group at the Whitworth art gallery. We added more sketches to our books ready for the exhibition and got advice from the urban sketchers.

Day 5: Today we worked at the exhibition space in the Northern quarter. We continued to work on the exhibition boxes by covering them in sketches and doodles. We also participated in group sketch activities such as the 'sketch-jam' where we each added to a drawing then passed it on.

Day 2: Today we had our second sketching event in the busy Market Street area of Manchester. We were allocated a specific amount of time to complete the sketches and learnt how to sketch effectively in a busy environment.

Day 4: We spent the afternoon designing our exhibition set up, thinking of ways we could use the limited materials we had which included 25 cardboard boxes, paint and string. Arranging the boxes in various configurations and adding paint meant that we could create a suitable area to display our sketches.

Day 1: We visited the central library for our first sketching session where we were set the task of creating quick sketches using our choice of materials and styles.

In Session 5 we were based in our exhibition space in Spaceportx for the first time. We considered the idea and discipline of 'doodling'. Joined by members of the public and fellow sketchers, we each decorated one of the boxes we had created in session 4 with our drawings. We also participated in group sketching activities. This workshop gave me the opportunity to develop my drawing style and be bold in the way I worked.

In the final session of our first week we prepared for the exhibition that we will be holding at the start of week 2. 25 cardboard boxes, string, and paint are the materials we will creatively use to create an installation which is effective, yet temporary and able to be packed away and transported easily. After discussion and experimentation, as a group we decided to create columns from the boxes: varying in height, and skewed in arrangement; on which sketches will be displayed.

On Wednesday we focused on a singular subject: The Whitworth Art Gallery. On this day we also joined Urban Sketchers. This was a great opportunity to meet with people who were more experienced in sketching, and we were able to watch and talk to them as they also produced work of the gallery. The important thing I learnt from this workshop was diversity. Each piece had different mediums, styles, compositions, and subject. It has encouraged me to consider what I would like to portray in my work, as some focused on colour; others detail; and some the atmosphere of the environment.

In the second session we sketched around Piccadilly Gardens. My sketching skills were challenged further as we varied the length in time in which we had to sketch (from 15 seconds to 45 minutes), and experimented with the mediums used. I discovered how using watercolour to render my sketches could convey atmosphere and pace of the surroundings. We also considered the use of framing and composition in our sketches to create a focus to our drawings.

Day 5
Sketch Event with Manchester Urban Sketches - Chorlton Art Festival

Listening to live music, feeling the atmosphere of the festival and sketching. Stimulating experience.
There was a lot of people walking past. I had to be confident about what I am doing and answer the questions of people. This was hard for me.

Week 2 - Day 1 of Exhibition in Spaceport

We started with doodling on the boxes we have been using to exhibit our work. As part of decoration.
We have also did a quick task where everyone was split into groups of 6 with an a4 paper each. One of us had to say a word, then draw it and pass our paper clockwise to the next person. We had to make the words fit together to create an image/story. This task stimulated us to think and come up with new possible ideas.

Today we went to the Spaceport. We first doodled on the exhibition boxes to decorate them. We then did a quick excercise in groups of 6 were one of us had to say a word and all the group had to sketch it. We then exchanged papers and repeated the excercise until we had a small story by doing a sketch collage. With this activity we saw how different people interpreted the same word in a different way.

Day 3!
Whitworth Art Gallery
Today we were sketching together with the urban sketchers. We also have questioned them and asked for tips. "Sketch and never give up" Was the answer I have received.

Day 2 Ends...
Selfie with our sketches...

Day 2!
Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street.
Cold and productive day, experiencing how to make quick sketches of busy places.

Day 1 (11/5/2015)

We started off the day with a briefing at Chatham 513 by the 5th year students, Hakym, Akmal and Siew. They told us the aims and plan for the whole two weeks of SketchFest. We also received our sketchbooks, badges and t-shirts to represent the group. Hakym taught us the basics of sketching aspects such as lines, shape, shade and perspective.

After lunch, we gathered in front of the Central Library to do our first sketch walk. Having the Central Library and its surrounding as our main subject, we did our first sketch there before moving on to Town Hall area and Albert Square. The target is to do at least 3 sketches a day. Looking forward to the next sketch walk session!

Saturday at Chorlton Arts Festival. We spent the afternoon sketching with some urban sketchers again. After a few hours we prepared an exhibition by hanging our sketches with some thread around a sculpture we prepared with boxes. We had some trouble because there was a lot of wind but we finally managed to make it stand up.

Day 2
12-05-2015
The second day started with a landmark: Piccadilly Gardens and followed with the always crowded Market Street, and as the weather got bad we were forced to end the day sketching inside the Arndale Centre from where we got chased away by security.

Day 1
11-05-2015
We started our week with the brief for the following two weeks of the Sketchfest event, after which we went into the city centre at the Central Library and Albert Square to start drawing.

DAY 4
Today we were given string and 25 boxes in order to arrange them and prepare a portable exhibition. We will eventually paint these boxes and sketch on them!

Day 1!
On the day one we have received our sketchbooks, t-shirts and badges!
We have also been briefed about the projects and the aims of the SketchFest.The 5th years have given us some tips on how to create some great fast sketches.
Looking all professional we have headed with the group to the Central Library and the Albert Square to do some urban sketching. Exciting !

On the first day, we were briefed on the aims for SketchFest Manchester 2015.We are to participate in sketching workshops with the end result being an exhibition curated by the group in the Northern Quarter next week. We ventured to Central Library to participate in our first sketching workshop; and captured the infrastructure from the Library entrance to Albert Square. I found capturing the movement and ambiance of the city challenging, especially considering the time restraint placed on us. A useful technique I learnt was using a horizon line to ensure that the figures in the sketch were in perspective.

Today we had our third sketch walk. We went to the Whitworth Art Gallery with some urban sketchers so they could show us some tips. This photo shows our final sketches drawn in different media.