Registration and new friends

Almost there. The registration for all participants began at 2.30 pm on July 22nd and i was a little early so I walked around the block and did a sketch on Queen street to while away the time.

It's a narrow one-way street and the pavement is much wider than the carrieageway, something you never see here in Madras! There were these funky colourful concrete benches that looked like they were sprouting from the ground and I started out wanting to sketch them. As soon as I started I noticed a bright orange coloured building dominating the skyline above. That turned out to be the Oxford Hotel where many of the sketchers I was about to meet were staying.

Once inside the National Design centre, the queue for registration was very long. I started chatting with Julia from Costa Rica who was just behind me and Bindi from Kampala who was just in front. As we registered we were given name tags and goodie bags full of sponsored stuff. A new watercolour moleskine with the USk Singapore Symposium logo emblazoned on the cover was immediately opened and my trusty old moleskine was stowed away.

 By 4.30 pm we were all ready for the opening sketchwalk. Hundreds of us walked together to Purvis street to sketch the well-preserved shop-house facades.  The sun blazed onto the eastern side of the street throwing sharp shadows and all of us lined up inside the western arcade on the pavement, the steps, assorted street furniture and cafe chairs. You can see more photos here. We spent close to two hours sketching, chatting, generally being amazed by the fact that so many of us from all over were sitting there shoulder to shoulder.

Back from the sketchwalk I soon teamed up with Bindi again and bumped into Rohit Kulkarni from Bangalore. All three of us were attending our first symposium and decided to go get dinner together.

The workshops would start the next morning. We exchanged notes to see if any of the activities we signed up for overlapped. We also all pulled out our new sketchbooks and ended up sketching our way through dinner!