January Sketchwalk at Quezon Memorial Circle

On the last Saturday of January, Urban Sketchers Philippines had their first official sketchwalk of the year. The sketchers gathered at the Quezon City Memorial Circle, a national park best known for its majestic mausoleum. A sarcophagus inside the monument contains the remains of Manuel Luis Quezon, the second official President of the Philippines. The monument has also been mandated as a National Shrine.

The Quezon Monument sketched by Carlo Martinez

Patts' sketch of the monument and park

The sketchers drew the area around the monument, including the many families and groups spending their weekend at the park. The park is a haven for families having a picnic, friends riding their skateboards and bicycles, school groups rehearsing dances, photographers honing their craft, and of course, sketchers who love drawing on location!

  

Cheddie

Jayson

Erwin

Nadja and Carlo

NiceNice and her dog Poypoy

Our output during Saturday's sketchwalk!

 

Great turnout!

After the sketchwalk, some of the sketchers headed over to Conspiracy Garden Cafe for the last day of the Rough Notations exhibit and egress of the show. We took the opportunity to sketch around the venue and draw each other over dinner.

It was a great day to sketch and just hang out. We can't wait for the next!

January 2015 Sketch Call

When: January 31, 2015 (Saturday)
Where: Quezon City Memorial Circle
Time: 4-7pm
Meeting/central area: Liwasang Aurora (in front of the Quezon Monument) Fountain area

We will be sketching in the vicinity of the Circle (monument, Circle of Fun theme park, playground, bazaar, gardens, shops, ambulant vendors, groups, families, etc.). Sketch anything that interests you! At 6:30 PM, we will regroup for show & tell and our group photo by the big fountain in front of/near the Quezon Monument.

As with all of our sketchwalks, this event is open to the public and is free of charge. Anyone can join, just bring your own sketching materials.

After the sketchwalk, participants are invited to head over to Conspiracy Garden Cafe at Visayas Avenue for the last day of the Rough Notations exhibit (and more sketching!).

Click here for the Facebook event page: January Sketchwalk

Urban Sketchers Philippines Celebrates Its First Year

A year has passed since we have become the Urban Sketchers' official Philippines group. Like our other country group counterparts, we have regular sketch walks at diferrent and interpret them. The sketching sessions give opportunities to get out and sketch as a group, with members not necessarily already skilled in illustration and with varied professional backgrounds.

Sketching on-location is not a new concept as we can observe from the many sketches through the centuries. The process and benefits has not changed so much, except perhaps in mediums. The process of the eye-mind-hand while sketching still remains to be the most basic effective skill for observating of what we see, feel and think. In an era where almost anyone has a picture-taking capable device in their pocket, sketching gives us a more integral, intimate and personal connection of what we are observing.  We MAKE the picture willingly on a blank sheet of something, permanently etched after it's done, and intantenously can be shown. This compiled or album of sketches will most likely be in the form of what we normally call a sketchbook. There's no extra process like developing the picture that you made, perhaps only scanning it or TAKING a picture of the sketch for internet sharing.

Looking through a sketchbook with the sketcher narrating is a definite delight as you know that every line, color and contrast was meant from his or her observation, with it layers of reminders of that one memory of what was observed.

For the first anniversary of the Urban Sketchers Philippines celebration, we had our regular monthly session at the Quezon Memorial Circle park in Quezon City, with some 25 sketchers in attendance. Some of us had lunch after at a nearby Filipino restaurant.

The following day later, Sunday, we caught the episode of Art 2 Art featuring Urban Sketchers Philippines on the RHTV channel, produced by the Manila Broadcasting Corporation and hosted by Lisa Macuja-Eliszalde. You can catch some snipets of the show via Youtube:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eleKQIWs8E8&sns=em

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmJ5Uz2s5w&sns=em

Happy anniversary, fellow Philippine sketchers. It has been a fruitful year. Let's continue sharing our sketches of what, when, who and how we are in the Philippines and in the world.

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