Sunset Sketching at the Harbor

Our official sketchwalk for the month of October was held on the 18th at Harbour Square by Manila Bay. For a change, we scheduled the sketchwalk in the afternoon, hoping to catch the famed Manila Bay sunset. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy that day, but that didn't dampen our spirits, and we sketched away!

It was the Urban Sketchers' second time to sketch as a group at Harbour Square; the first time was in January 2012, when USk-PH was only a few months old. That time, ten sketchers attended the event; this time, we had 30 members sketching the scenes at the harbor. We welcomed a lot of new members, many of which we met during the Art Mart in September.

Janeil was able to be at the venue early, thanks to postponed graduate school classes, and lost no time trying out his new Lamy fountain pens.

The urban sketchers found their own spots around the area--some sketching by the coffee shop at Harbour Square, some seated at the very edge of the bay.

Happy faces!

Here are some of the sketches we made that day.

Ige's

Luigee's

Manuel's

Erwin's

Cherisse's

Jo's

Kat's

Cynthia's

Everyone's! We gave everyone stickers that they can put on their notebooks, sketchpads, and pencil cases.

It was a great turnout, and we're all looking forward to the next sketchwalk!

Manila Bay

I spent quite some time sketching in Manila Bay a couple of weeks ago while my was taking care of a work event. The sketch above is probably one of the most polished I've ever done, which makes sense since it took me about an hour to finish it.  I was actually sketching it outside in the wind and rain until some employees of Yellow Cab Pizza took pity on me and invited me to stay inside since there weren't a lot of customers that day. I wanted to order something in thanks but I was really full after one and a half sandwiches at Starbucks, so I sheepishly sneaked away after I was done with my sketch.  This one was done with a pencil outline, then brush pen and gray marker brush for shading.  The little squiggles on the upper right were supposed to be birds flapping in the wind, which I wasn't quite successful with.

This sketch was done in the aforementioned Starbucks.  I must have looked suspicious to the Starbucks crew and customers because I spent maybe 10 minutes just walking around Starbucks trying to find the best view.  These were all sketched in Harbor Square opposite the CCP complex.  I'd actually had no idea that this structure existed before that Saturday, but it's a pretty nice place to go and view the sunset or the boats and yachts moored in Manila Bay with skyscrapers and the piers in the background.