This short article was the first feature article that I wrote for class, the main subject being Hannah Tan, a fellow student in my class
“It’s my favourite type of drawing, being able to capture their expressions in pencil really brings a smile to my face.”
Stroke after stroke, Hannah, with her single-minded focus, continued to sketch out a figure of a dark-haired boy. Alone, Hannah was nested in the red sofa seats of the third floor of the library. It was half past eight in the morning and there was not a soul in sight.
Hannah, in a ruffled-sleeved shirt barely visible under her orange-chequered pinafore, usually comes to school a little earlier before her nine o’clock classes to prepare for the day’s activities. However, today, having come earlier than usual, she was passing her time sketching a portrait, after completing her preparations for class.
Hannah Tan is a freshman at Temasek Polytechnic, pursuing her studies in Communications and Media Management (CMM). Her studies include journalism, photography, and scriptwriting – just to name a few. Her love for the fine arts had also driven her to take up freehand drawing as a cross-disciplinary subject. However, the portrait she was drawing was not for an assignment – she had already submitted her’s last week. Hannah, amidst the pressure and demands of school, has always found the time to express herself through ink and graphite on paper.
Hannah glanced at her watch – eight fifty. She slid the half-finished portrait into her laptop case, packed her bag, and scampered downstairs. Tuesday morning is her favourite morning of the week, with her photography tutorial heralding the start of a long day at school.
Aside from freehand drawing, photography was her favourite subject this semester. Having enjoyed photography from a young age, Hannah was always taking pictures with her phone, but taking photos with a professional camera is a whole new ballgame.
However, Hannah’s love for photography pales in comparison to her passion for the fine arts.
“When drawing, I feel like I can control the expressions I want to portray, more than compared to photography, where I am less in control of the expressions of my subjects”, explains Hannah, as the shutter in her camera goes off.
Hannah’s next lesson was Media Management Principles (MMP), her most detested subject. She scurries off with her group of friends to find a place to have their lunch. They finally settled at one of the benches located at the concourse of the School of Business. After buying food from the nearby canteen and finishing their lunch, her friends unsheathed their laptops from their cases and began typing furiously.
They had a little less than two hours till their MMP tutorial, with many of them having partially completed their work for that lesson. However, Hannah, who had already completed all of her MMP tutorial activities ahead of time, simply pulled out her half-finished drawing and began to outline his lips, nose, and eyes.
A journalism lecture was the last order of the day. To Hannah, she found journalism to be rather interesting. Previously, during the last semester, she was never too fond of attending lectures, she would often doodle and draw, but this year saw a change in her attitude.
“After a while, I realised that there is a place and time for everything and that I should focus during my lectures”, explains Hannah, packing up after her lecture.
The sun set, signalling the end to a long day at school. It was five in the afternoon, Hannah slumped into the library’s red sofa seat, surrounded by the incessant chatter of her friends. She was utterly exhausted. Even so, she fished out the unfinished portrait of the dark-haired boy and began shading his lips, his eyebrows, followed by his nose.
Hannah draws not because she was procrastinating, nor was it because she was giving up on her school work. To her, drawing has always been her way of unwinding and recharging, especially after a today’s hard day at school.
In her words, “art is a way for me to relieve my stress. It is something that calms me down and frees me from my worries, it is my way to escape from reality.”
She rubbed her thumb over the portrait that she drew, smudging the pencil markings, smoothing out the shading of the figure in the portrait. At six, she added her finishing touches to her drawing.
A few minutes later, a young man walked over to Hannah. He wore a cap, endorsed by Nike’s swoosh, a black hoodie, with ripped jeans plastered to his legs. Hannah, beaming with joy, passed her drawing to Andy, who towered over the petite girl.
“Happy one-month anniversary, Andy”, uttered Hannah, as she embraced Andy.
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