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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