The Power of the Free-Hand Sketch: Part 5
Ming Pao Weekly, Hong Kong’s premier entertainment / celebrity / fashion weekly magazine, today (1st August 2010) use my sketch of Yau Ma Tei’s Reclamation Road Street Market, to highlight the Hong Kong Institute of Architects’ West Kowloon Cultural District Taskforce’s determination telling town planners that the local neighborhood cultural heritage is part of the future plans of the area. The district is not an island of “high culture”, but rather part of the old districts, such as Yau Ma Tei, to create a “Greater West Kowloon” precinct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Kowloon_Cultural_District
The use of my sketch in the article is also corroboration that architects still have a grass-roots fondness of natural and personal creative skills, as opposed to the notion that they are always affiliated with “powerful” developers and “large” urban development schemes.
The sketch depicts the hawkers using the street in a kind of “urban architecture without architects”. The street may seem chaotic but it is a characteristic embodiment of the natural response of the hawkers to their environment. Their creativity developed out of necessity relating to cost and speed of assembly of their stalls. Many street markets exists throughout Hong Kong; they illustrate Hong Kong’s culture, charm and inventiveness.
Sketchingjourney's Blog 
The English Translation is not a professional translation, but is the essence of the Chinese article.
This sketch was not done on the day of the Press Tour. Ming Pao Weekly called HKIA and asked if I could do another sketch. Of course I could! Daphne and I went back to Relamation Street where I completed the A5 sketch that I had started but did not complete. Then I decided that I should do an A4 sketch of another area along Reclamation Street. It was a bright sunny Sunday morning, I was on leisure time, so I sat down and meticulously drew this view. I was unaware that Daphne took a series of phototographs during the sketching process.
Hey, congratulations on all of the great press you are getting for your sketching! Pretty cool. 🙂
Hey Harlan, guess you’ve been busy! have not seen you here. Yes have now passed 3,000 hits. I’ll try to keep it up! Thanks.