Atelier Whee Teck

Atelier Whee Teck These pages will be Whee Teck's sketches are other art-related postings! Hope you will enjoy them as he meanders in this beautiful world!

26/04/2026

What a beautiful evening.

and I had the privilege of attending the wedding dinner of Adli, son of Dr and Sadiah Shahal, at the last night. Mabrook to Adli and Aidah — may your union be blessed with joy and love.

The evening was everything you’d hope for in a celebration of two families coming together. The kompang set the heartbeat of the night. The silat performance was breathtaking — power and grace in perfect balance. And then, in a moment that absolutely stole the room, Dr Maliki picked up the guzheng and played. I don’t think many expected that. What a man of many talents.

The night was co-hosted with warmth and wit by and a wonderful Malay emcee (oops, forgot her name) — exactly the right energy for an evening like this.

Now, I have to tell you about the socks. Hossan ran a Singapore trivia game — and the prize? Limited edition socks, designed by Hossan himself. Naturally, the table I was seated at — the Docent tables, full of people who literally dedicate themselves to sharing Singapore’s history and heritage — went into full competitive mode. They were not letting those socks go without a fight. It got to the point where Hossan had to tell them to “pang chan lah”. 😂 Only in Singapore.

Our connection to the family is through YitPeng, who knows Sadiah Shahal through the Singapore Docent community. It’s fitting that this morning, the Centre is front-page news — a reminder of why the work that community does truly matters.

I shot some video through the evening and stitched it together — a little keepsake of a genuinely memorable night. Wishing Adli and Aidah a lifetime of happiness. 🤍

Late to the party but still made it count!Joined The Good Morning Sketchers at Victoria Street this morning to sketch St...
25/04/2026

Late to the party but still made it count!

Joined The Good Morning Sketchers at Victoria Street this morning to sketch St Joseph’s Cathedral. Arrived fashionably late, so ended up doing a quick doodle — but honestly, sometimes a doodle is all you need to shake the rust off.

Had a blast with Richard, Mac, Nyetzy, and Sherlee. Great company makes everything better.

There’s something I keep relearning: show up and draw, especially on the days you don’t feel like it. Especially then. The muse doesn’t wait for the right mood — you just have to start.

Sketching Creativity

Purple belt. Second stripe. 🥋A strip of tape on a belt — and behind it, nine years of winding road.January 2017, I walke...
21/04/2026

Purple belt. Second stripe. 🥋

A strip of tape on a belt — and behind it, nine years of winding road.

January 2017, I walked into Evolve. Two years of Muay Thai. Switched to BJJ in 2020. A few months in, an injury took me out for almost a year. Long enough to wonder if I’d ever come back.

But I came back. And from then until now, no looking back. 🙏

Bruce Lee said “be water, my friend.” I try. My body… has other ideas. More lukewarm syrup than water, hehe. 💧

He also said to fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. I aspire to this. Truly. Then I step onto the mat and suddenly I’m collecting every kick I’ve ever seen — half-guard sweep here, darce setup there. Before sparring, the mind is clear. The round starts, and it’s all a blur. Plan vaporised. Nothing remembered. Not one kick — all the kicks. 😅

BJJ is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. I train 3–4 days a week. Some days I give everything. Some days I give what I can. The mats don’t ask you to be perfect — they just ask you to come back.

And I keep coming back.

To Prof Gamal, Prof Tobbie, and the many professors who shaped me — thank you. 🙇‍♂️ To my training partners, for the reps, the laughs, the bruises. And a special word for Papa Rich — you don’t just teach technique, you teach a way of being.

I am not a good student. I forget. I repeat mistakes. I get tapped by people half my age and twice my skill.

But I try. I show up. I try. 💪

Nine years in. BJJ is a lifestyle now. And if I’m lucky, many more years of the long, slow, grateful work ahead.

Oss. 🙏

STANDING TALL ON TANK ROAD SINCE 1910, THIS FRENCH BAROQUE BEAUTY REMAINS A CALM ANCHOR AMIDST SINGAPORE’S EVER-CHANGING...
18/04/2026

STANDING TALL ON TANK ROAD SINCE 1910, THIS FRENCH BAROQUE BEAUTY REMAINS A CALM ANCHOR AMIDST SINGAPORE’S EVER-CHANGING URBAN SKYLINE. THE SUNLIGHT FILTERS THROUGH VIBRANT STAINED GLASS, CASTING ETHEREAL HUES ONTO CENTURY-OLD TEAK PEWS THAT HAVE WITNESSED DECADES OF FAITH. BETWEEN THE WHISPERS OF THE NEARBY FORT CANNING HILL AND THE STEADY HUM OF THE CITY, THE CHURCH BREATHES IN QUIET REVERENCE. EVERY LINE OF ITS ICONIC SPIRE TELLS A STORY OF CHINESE PIONEERS WHO LAID THESE BRICKS WITH SACRIFICE AND SPIRIT. HERE, THE RUSH OF THE TROPICS SLOWS TO A PRAYER, PRESERVING A FRAGILE PIECE OF OUR SHARED HISTORY IN THE HEART OF THE ISLAND.

The Lens as a WitnessThere is a profound democracy in the garden; beauty does not reserve itself for the rarest orchid b...
18/04/2026

The Lens as a Witness
There is a profound democracy in the garden; beauty does not reserve itself for the rarest orchid but dwells equally in the dust of the undergrowth. It is an omnipresence we often overlook in our haste. Only when we narrow our focus, tilting the lens to exclude the noise of the world, do these miniature heavens reveal themselves. In the macro, the mundane evaporates, leaving behind a structural elegance that feels both ancient and terrifyingly fragile.

Hanoi, Day 4. The Last Morning. 🇻🇳I packed in the dark while James slept.There is something contemplative about packing ...
12/04/2026

Hanoi, Day 4. The Last Morning. 🇻🇳
I packed in the dark while James slept.
There is something contemplative about packing before dawn. The trip already becoming memory before it has quite ended.
Breakfast alone. Coffee, serious and excellent as always. Dragon fruit, rock melon, watermelon — tasting of yesterday’s sun, vivid and unhurried. I sat above the lobby and let the day’s last lesson assemble itself quietly.
Sandra passed by, bread in hand, mumbling about mass. St. Joseph’s, first service. Some mornings are exactly right as they are. 🕌
By nine we were all gathered for the final session. Q&A, recap, and two last exercises to carry home.
First: name three things you will work on. Not wishes — specifics. Shapes. Shadows. Neutrals. Naming what you intend is half the practice.
Then the morning’s gift — wet on wet. Blue and orange wash, laid down fast. A juicy purple silhouette of buildings pressed into damp paper. Sunrise. Sunset. Both. Neither. 🎨
A few of them looked up with that expression. The small, stunned elation of someone who has made something better than they expected.
That moment. That is why I teach.
Hem Joo organised a beautiful farewell lunch at Nét Huế — her quiet, gracious way of saying thank you. We ate well and at length.
Then the goodbyes. James vanished into the Old Quarter hunting for his carver — the craftsman who presses a face into wood, a life into a stamp.
By three we said goodbye to the Silk Path staff who had cared for us so well. Hanoi released us without fuss. It always does. ✈️
Airport doodles. Last coffee. Boarding SQ193.
Four days. Thirteen students. One city that keeps teaching me how to look.
I will be back. 🙏
Day 4 of 4 | Hanoi Travel Sketching Workshop — Complete

Hanoi, Day 3. 🇻🇳Breakfast with a sketch. Phone propped against the coffee cup, drawing from a photo of a street vendor t...
11/04/2026

Hanoi, Day 3. 🇻🇳

Breakfast with a sketch. Phone propped against the coffee cup, drawing from a photo of a street vendor taken days before. Some images keep asking to be finished.

By 8.30am we were walking. Hanoi’s vendors were already at it — fruit arranged, poles balanced, the city composing itself into photographs without trying. I raised my camera more than once.

St. Joseph’s Cathedral stopped us in our tracks. Built in 1886 by the French on the site of an ancient Buddhist pagoda — Gothic towers rising above the Old Quarter like a memory that refused to fade. One of those places that seems to be actively remembering. 🕌

We took over the top floor of 9981 Coffee next door and got to work. Today’s lesson: figures. Not portraits — figures. The weight of a shoulder. The angle of a wait. Hands drawn as mittens, not anatomy. Lose the detail. Keep the truth.

James demoed a scene from the day before — kindergarten graduates at the Temple of Literature, tiny figures holding still with great seriousness. I coloured it in layers. Then came the lucky draw. 🎉

Julie won. Her face — pure, unguarded surprise. Worth the whole morning.
Lunch was Bánh Mì Hương Nga. Since 1995. Last year she served us in her pyjamas. Today, dressed for the occasion, she gave us a proper photo. The bánh mì remains magnificent. 🥖

Afternoon: shadows, whites, a single tea cup that taught everyone more than they expected.

By 3.45pm the heat had won. We surrendered gracefully.

Dinner at Quán Ăn Ngon. Twenty minute wait. Worth every second. Five of us. An absolute feast. 🍜

That is how the best days end.

Day 3 of 4 | Hanoi Travel Sketching Workshop

Hanoi, Day 2. 🇻🇳The coffee alone is worth the flight.We walked to the Temple of Literature in the early morning quiet — ...
10/04/2026

Hanoi, Day 2. 🇻🇳

The coffee alone is worth the flight.
We walked to the Temple of Literature in the early morning quiet — one of Asia’s oldest universities, built in 1070, where scholars once carved the names of the learned into stone. It receives you with the patience of something that has watched centuries pass without alarm.

On the way, a street vendor stopped me. She sold Buddha’s Hand — that strange, fingered citrus used for prayers and tea — and looked at us with the quiet hope of someone who has learned not to expect too much from strangers. I raised my camera. She let me. 📷

Morning class was about big shapes. Squint until the world simplifies. Seven shapes maximum. Then let the details earn their place. Thumbnails, compositions, layers of light.

Afternoon brought colour — mixing neutrals, complementary schemes, and a single cherry that turned out to be the hardest thing they’d sketched all day. That’s always where the real learning hides.

In between, an old contact pressed a beautiful sketchbook of Vietnam into my hands — inspired in part by my own Bangkok In Ink. Watching an idea return to you in a new form is a quietly moving thing.

Ended the day with crab noodles at a restaurant that understands broth the way certain people understand silence — carefully, and without rushing.

Then a night walk around the lake with James, Lina, Boon Kiat and Valerie. Hanoi at night is softer. More willing to be looked at.
Grateful for this city. Grateful for this troop. 🙏

Day 2 of 4 | Hanoi Travel Sketching Workshop

Hanoi, again. 🇻🇳Singapore released us quietly this morning. By afternoon, thirteen students — bankers, teachers, creativ...
09/04/2026

Hanoi, again. 🇻🇳

Singapore released us quietly this morning. By afternoon, thirteen students — bankers, teachers, creatives — were sitting with me in Hanoi, learning not just to look, but to truly see.

Today’s lesson: follow the lines. Forget what your mind thinks it should be. See what’s actually there. And for the brave ones — chase the light. That’s a lifetime’s work right there.
James Leong is back as my teaching partner. Our third expedition together. There’s something that happens by the third time — a shared instinct that the students can feel. Grateful for this partnership.

Evening ended at Bún Chả Đắc Kim. Charcoal smoke. That broth. A year’s absence erased in one bowl.

Good to be back, Hanoi. 🙏

Day 1 of 4 | Travel Sketching Workshop

Teaching. Travel sketching workshop. Hanoi here I come!!
09/04/2026

Teaching. Travel sketching workshop. Hanoi here I come!!

Donkey or Horse? It’s really up to you…
06/04/2026

Donkey or Horse? It’s really up to you…

Doodle to prepare for next workshop….
04/01/2026

Doodle to prepare for next workshop….

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