Urban Sketchers Philippines Turns 3!

It was a sunny Saturday morning when the Urban Sketchers Philippines trooped to Makati to do some sketching. The Salcedo Community Market is where you can find a wide variety of food products, handicrafts, and plants. It is held every Saturday at the Jaime Velasquez Park, a beautiful patch of green at the heart of the central business district. The market is a good source of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables, organic ingredients, cool beverages, freshly-baked pastries and other sweet treats, and even flowering plants.

The event poster made by Ige Trinidad.

The May 24, 2014 sketchwalk was extra special one because it was the day we chose to celebrate the third anniversary of the group. Around 20 sketchers came to celebrate despite the stinging summer heat.

Here are some of our sketches!

As we sketched, some of the market-goers and vendors took interest in what we were doing. They asked if we were students (some us are) and if it was part of our assignment. We said no, we just like sketching, and we gather once a month in different places to draw together. "That's wonderful," a nice elderly lady said.

We often have encounters like that and we always take the opportunity to tell others about Urban Sketchers. It's fun to engage people in conversation (though they usually start first) about drawing what we see, and we end up asking them to join us in our future sketchwalks. "But I'm not an artist!" some would say, and we just respond, "You don't have to be one to enjoy sketching!" 

The weekend market was bustling with activity and it was a challenge to capture the market vibe on paper. The sketchers had fun perusing the stalls, people-watching, and of course, eating!

We took Instax photos of each of the sketchers so that they can have something they can put in their sketchbooks as a memento.

Cheers and here's to more sketchwalks!

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