When I started this personal project, I had no idea what lessons it would teach me.
Map drawing. Isn’t it just tracing roads from Google Maps, adding landmarks, buildings, and trees to fill the empty spaces?
Well, yes. But it’s so much more.
I thought sticking with this project would be simple. I was wrong. It challenged me in ways I didn’t expect, but it was exactly the challenge I needed. To. Stick. Through. It.
In total, I spent about 19 hours on this project—spread out over several days with breaks in between. What took me the longest wasn’t the drawing itself, but the decisions: choosing a style, a colour palette, the composition, and the finishing touches.
Initially, I wanted to try perspective drawing, but after a lot of back-and-forth (and repeated chants of “go with what feels natural to you”), the final outcome turned out differently.
And you know what? I loved it.
This process taught me to balance fast and slow gratification. When it comes to personal projects, I usually rush to finish quickly. Only because I want to learn, judge the result, and decide whether it’s worth pursuing before I invest too much time. I often stop halfway, realizing some projects don’t align with what I want to do.
But this time, it’s different.
Map drawing gave me a revelation. I noticed how I persevered, how I problem-solved ways to visualize landscapes and represent iconic buildings. It tested my patience and creativity, and I stuck with it till the end.
I’m so proud of the result—not just because of how it turned out, but because of what it symbolizes. This feels like the start of something new, something full of possibility.
Definitely, there will be many more like this.
I decided to draw my own town because it’s not commonly represented as how the world sees Singapore as a country. Singapore as many have known, is a jungle, smart city, a clean and green country. But she is also warm, slow-living, peaceful like this little part of Singapore called Sembawang.
This looks incredibly beautiful, mashallah