Tangled Dreams

CHAPTER 5: THE SKETCH OF A DREAM (Part 2) | Syaiddah Mahmood

For one month now, London has been my home, albeit temporarily. I have not fled my homeland, Malaysia, but the latest project I have accepted has brought me to this historic city. This time, the project is entitled "City of London".

I was commissioned by their government to sketch images of Londoners' daily lives. The objective was to record every aspect of life, especially in well-known locations such as Kensington Gardens, the British Museum, the Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, the London Eye, Big Ben and Hyde Park.

Initially, a government representative would bring me out each day to various places and narrate the history behind each location. After the first week, I requested to go alone. I thought it would be better to observe everything through my own eyes. I wanted to record every aspect of life as I saw it and not as narrated to me.

All the illustrations would then be compiled into a glossy book whereby readers could experience London through pages that told the story of its residents. In addition, 20 sketches from this collection were to be selected by Queen Elizabeth to be exhibited at the National Gallery for one month. This would be the greatest project of my career as an artist.

The contract for the project was to produce at least 100 works of art. The agreed time-frame for completion was three months. Throughout this period, all expenses such as meals, transport costs and accommodation would be borne by the government of the United Kingdom. Why was it for just three months? This was because I was famous for sketching digitally.

My canvas was the iPad that was less than 10 inches long. Through the use of the Pen & Ink application, I could create watercolour paintings digitally. Regardless of whether the subject was inanimate or alive, my fingers danced on the iPad screen to produce a drawing in the blink of an eye. Each painting only took a few hours to complete; nothing more than that. I had practised many years to reach this level of expertise, and I was proud of my skill. It became my unique selling point as an artist.

When I started drawing professionally several years ago, there was no state-of-the-art technology similar to that available now. A large canvas had to be nailed onto a wooden frame before colours could be laid down onto the canvas. After the painting had been completed, I had to set up a digital camera on a tripod and ensure that an image of the painting was captured precisely. It was difficult working as an artist in those days.

However, something good came out of it in spite of all that tedium. Painting on a piece of canvas taught me patience as an artist. It could take a long time and incur high costs depending on the required canvas size. If mistakes were made, I would sometimes have to redraw on a new piece of canvas. Such occurrences improved my ability, making me a better artist after completing each work of art.

Such were the tales of the old days. Now, everything had changed with the advent of technology. Digital art had become more popular as a higher quality image was guaranteed with each work of art. The image resolution could be specified prior to drawing, thus enabling the painting to be printed in various sizes without resulting in poorer quality. If I used the wrong colour or inadvertently used a colour excessively, these mishaps could be easily rectified with the undo button. Extremely simple. Technology had allowed me to focus solely on the image that needed to be drawn; the old issues were no longer problems.

These days I went everywhere with my iPad in my shoulder bag. Whenever I saw something of interest, I would take it out and immediately start drawing, no matter where I might be. After finishing the drawing, I could share it with friends via Facebook, or email it. It was so convenient. That was why I had no qualms about taking up this project. In fact, I accepted this assignment wholeheartedly. Furthermore, they approved of my relaxed watercolour style. There was only one challenge remaining: to find the inspiration behind the daily lives of Londoners to be sketched into watercolours.