January 25 Sketch Walk at the Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila

Fort Santiago or Fuerte de Santiago in Spanish is the Citadel that protects the walled city of Intramuros in Manila. The ornate gate for the military barracks was built in 1714 and it was the most prominent landmark we sketched last Saturday.

Within the Spanish-era walled city of  Intramuros lies the main gate of Fuerte de Santiago. Historically, this were the Philippine National Hero, Dr, Jose Rizal was held captive until he was executed, and triggered the Philippine Revolution against Spain.

The wood relief on the upper part of the fort's arch entrance depicts the triumph of the Spanish occupation over the native Islamic people of then early Manila

In 1898, the American occupied the citadel signifying the start of the 30 years of American occupation. In World War II, however, the Japanese used the dungeons for as a prison where 600 American POWs eventually died of hunger and suffocation. Manila at that time was the 2nd most devastated city next to Warsaw, Poland after World War II.

Nonie, Ampao and Carlo sketching under the shade.

Lauren with an umbrella sketches the other side

Ige and Lauren

Charm (2nd from the left) finally joined a sketch walk. Others in this picture is Nice (left most), moi in green, Cesar in black (who managed to still sketch something in the last 20 minutes), Carlo in khaki shorts, new comer Nonie, Muffy, Ige and Lauren.

First sketch walk for the year.

July 20, 2013 Saturday Market at Escolta

Lauren Villarama, one of our active Urban Sketcher suggested that we join the occasional flea market in one of the old district of Manila along Escolta st. last July 20. This was organized by the 98B Collaborative who describe themselves as  a “multi-disciplinary art COLLABoratory” that aims to provide a venue where artists, curators, designers, educators, film makers, musicians, performers, researchers, students, writers, and other creative individuals can brainstorm, collaborate, and interact.

In April of this year, 98B starteda revival of  the vibrancy of Escolta, Manila by organizing the first “Saturday Market @ Escolta.” The venue was at barren ground floor area of the building.

The crowd who went there was surprisingly a lot, and USk Philippines enjoyed quite the exposure to a few hundred people who are interested in the concept of sketch walks. We got a few interested organizations as well for possible joint projects. Well, here's to hoping then coming true.

June 29, 2013 At the Pasig City Hall Roof Garden Sketching the Metro Manila Skyline

Carlo Martinez is an architect for the city hall's architecture division. For the past few years, this city hall die on was to implement sustainable designs, and one such project was their building to become an example. They've installed a rainwater re-use system and converted the rooftop as a usable events open space.

It also offers a nice vantage view of the other city skylines of Mandaluyong, Makati and Manila

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May 25 2013 Sketching at the Rizal Park, Manila

It was a clear day, and May's sketch theme was parks. It's also our 2nd anniversary for USk Philippines.

Hictorically, the part of Rizal Park we were sketching was planned to be the new Capitol of Manila, designed by American urban planner Daniel Burnham before World War II.Only 2 buildings got built - the Department of Tourism and Finance Building in the Neo-Classical style similar to the Washington D.C.and Chicago government buildings of USA. About 3 more government buildings never saw light, and it the planned reflective pool became a relief map of the Philippines, and in the 70s & 80s with a skating rink and a gigantic globe in the middle. The globe disappeared and presently has been replaced with the site of Datu Lapu-Lapu who killed Spanish Explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who claimed the Philippines for Spain in the 16th Century.

Sketching at the University of Santo Tomas last March 23, 2013

March is the start of Summer in the Philippines. It's now scorching to above 35°C! We decided to push through with visiting the oldest existing learning institution, the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. The 400 year old university has a museum. We had planned to sketch some of the collections in the morning, but had to postponed it to layer that afternoon due to a closed poetry recital. Naturally, we sketched what interested us at the campus.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants in the campus, and the 5 of us out of the 10 who attended that morning stayed to visit the museum to sketch.

We had a fun time sketching the Natural History section where the collection of animal specimens were found . They weren't moving which made them easier to sketch.