January Sketch Call!

It's a new year, and we go to the Harbour (or Harbor) Square this Saturday, January 21, 2012. Let us do a retake of what Ryan has done previously when he was last there. It was an interesting visit for me last week and I thought of having drawing the Manila Bay at this vantage point and some of Manila's neo-Brutalist building nearby. Hope to see you early at 8am to get more drawings done! It's also convenient for getting breakfast and coffee with new restaurants and cafes there. We can even all have lunch there after our sketches.

December Sketching at the Ayala Triangle, Makati

This month's sketching session took place at the Central Bussiness District of Makati, Metro Manila. The Ayala Triangle park had a few newly opened restaurants and cafes and adds amenities for people to enjoy a green breathing space within an urban setting. One interesting structure we had wanted to sketch was the former air tower turned heritage library in the 1990s. We were barred from sketching within the library's premises, but that did not stop us sketching it from the adjacent Ayala Triangle park.

I had a chance to further explore sketching with the 5.3" Samsung Galaxy Note smart phone. Using the application Sketchbook Mobile Express, I was able to just get some satisfactory sketches. I see the digital sketching capability as the future common standard for smart phones. Bare in mind however, that this is merely a  high tech tool, just like the essential blank paper and pencil/pen/brush. The artist makes the art, not the material and medium making the art. The process of observation through sketching than just taking a picture is the main essence why we have these regular sessions.

6 year-old Ampao had a fun time recording what she saw. Children have a natural ability of sketching honest impressions of things, places and people. We adults sometimes forget it.
Other people who came and joined the sketching were Buz, Cesar, Pinoy, Muffy and Ryan.

Sketching this coming December 17

Our theme for this month will be the Makati CBD area, from 9 am to 12 pm at the Ayala Triangle Park. This is usually open to the public but we can just walk about seeing what interest our fancy to sketch. At around 1 pm, we can attend the free Heima arts and design at the LRI Plaza at 1 pm, as suggested by Cesar, the birthday boy.

Villa de Acuzar Resort

Philippines is rich with heritage structures from the influence of  European and American colonists. But with poor policies, we lose old houses and buildings to new high accommodating structures.

Villa de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan is a resort with the concept of using transferred old houses and buildings to its site for leisure stay. This concept is more for business than conservation and I have mixed reactions towards this issue - yes, at least they are not gone forever but they were modified somehow from their original construction. I've learned proper conservation adhere to certain strict rules to the way a heritage buildings should be handled and cared for.

With my 3 day stay at the resort due to my work, I have managed to get some impressions of how these buildings were seen and felt before. Just their essence since these uprooted buildings are not in their original context of how they responded to their original environment.

Pasig City Sketches

On the veranda of Bahay Na Tisa, in Barangay San Jose, Pasig.


The "azotea" - original main entrance to the house.


A street scene in Pasig City - I first noticed the leaning power poles with its' cacaphony of electrical wires.

Due to a late announcement, the November 26th monthly Sketch Walk in Pasig City was only attended by Carlo Martinez and Buz (me). We started with some sketching in the original city center, in Rizal Plaza. After a visit to the Pasig City Hall & lunch, we sketched on the grounds of a 160-year old house, Bahay Na Tisa, in the Barangay San Jose. The house design & interiors gave me a peek of what life in old Manila would have been like.

Quiet Views of Manila

The Santuario de San Antonio Parish Church


The Manila American Cemetery

Several recent sketches from the McKinley/Bonifacio area - drawings done during the past holiday weekend & on a warm Tuesday morning.

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.