A Work In Progress: My Art Journey at Visual Arts Centre

By Stephanie Ng  

My love for art began as a little girl, but ever since academic pressure and the heavy toll of school work and projects set in, I never really had the time to explore my passion in art. Slowly, my enthusiasm towards art faltered and I forgot the joy of creating, painting and drawing.

After completing my major examinations, I decided it was time for me to dive into the world of art again. The only problem was that I had neither the art materials nor knowledge of how to get started. Naturally, I watched many Youtube videos on painting and sketching but for some reason, my works never turned out the way I envisioned. One day as I was about to buy more art supplies at Art Friend, I chanced upon a flyer from Visual Arts Centre advertising their art courses and finally decided to take up professional art lessons with the studio.

I started with drawing and sketching lessons as I wanted to build up on my foundational skills. I completed several still-life sketches under the guidance of the gracious art teachers and was more than satisfied with the way my drawings turned out. The techniques to add depth and dimension to a drawing through varied shading, as well as creating carefully measured highlights with an eraser – these were the skills I picked up that transformed my sketches beyond my imagination.

Ms Wu, the art teacher, knew exactly what I wanted to learn and thus her comments towards my drawings were always extremely helpful and concise. Instead of generic comments like “increase contrast” or “make it darker”, Ms Wu would give targetted feedback and actually demonstrate how I could improve my work. I am immensely grateful for her relentless patience and guidance.

This is one of my completed works – the third still-life sketch that I completed here at the centre. I still have a long way to go but I’m quite proud of how far I’ve come since I first started lessons!