116-3419-21 – Tomas Morato, Centris and Art in the Park

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Breakfast along Tomas Morato Av.

Here are the sketches I did when I joined Urban Sketchers Quezon City at the Car Free Sunday event along Tomas Morato Avenue. I first met up with my friends @the_uban_sketcher and @pixl8tor for breakfast at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Where are the people?

Then after the latag we went to Centris Mall where we bought some second hand paint brushes from a little stall in the market called – more about that later. I sketched in Centris in 2019 (see Sketches 1016, 1017 and 1018)… one of the first gatherings of Urban Sketchers Quezon City. As I sketched a little boy came up to me and looked at what I was doing…and asked why I hadn’t included any people in my sketch…so I added one very small person!

Lastly after lunch, I headed to Art in the Park 2026 to say hi to my fellow sketchers from Urban Sketchers Manila. My sketch is of the entrance to the park where it takes place – somehow the person in the foreground ended up looking really tall…but they were actually just a lot closer to me.

Sun-15-Mar-2026

116-3418 – Spider vibes

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This is a little souvenir (a fridge magnet) that my daughter bought me in Boracay. It’s legs are on little springs. When I opened the package up it made me jump a little as it has spider vibes and I am terrified of spiders! It’s clearly an octopus though.

Fri-13-Mar-2026

116-3417 – Bread maker troubles

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The day I did this sketch I had made pizza in the evening – making the dough in our ancient bread maker, which is failing fast. During the part where it kneads the dough with a paddle it constantly jumps up and down with the bucket popping up and out. I have to jamb spoons down the side to try and stop it…but I have had to try bigger and bigger spoons!

Wed-11-Mar-2026

116-3416 – Reading helps me to get to bed earlier

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I managed to eek out some blue ink from my Platinum Preppy to do this sketch, but now I give up. It constantly blocks (it’s not the pen it’s the ink). These books were left behind by my daughter – she finished them on the beach. A nice easy read like Stephen King is helping me get back into reading (I was far from my goal last year)…and is great for reading in bed.

Tue-10-Mar-2026

116-3415 – If you leave it, I will sketch it

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Here are some keys accidentally left behind by our daughter’s partner when they went back to the UK. I was thinking of sketching some keys but this key ring is a lot more interesting than mine …with lots of dangly little tags and pouches, several of which, I think, were recently bought from the ArtWork store in Market Market!

Mon-9-Mar-2026

116-3414 – Flip-flops left behind

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Here are some flip-flops (or slippers as they call them here) bought from Primark by my daughter for her beach holiday (on Boracay), and not needed in cold wet UK. They are of super poor quality – certainly not up to the standards of the “Islander” or “Havaiana” (actually Brazilian) brands that you can get here.

Sun-8-Mar-2026

116-3411-12 – Waiting for our guide at Alitaptap Art Cafe

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Waiting for our guide

My daughter and her partner had an extra day in Manila (after their trip to Boracay) because their flight (via Doha) was cancelled and they rebooked a flight going through China …and then over Russia (not much better in my mind…the world is an unsafe place at the moment). Anyway we took advantage of the extra time and visited Tagaytay and then went to Alitaptap Artists Community in Amedeo. My first sketch is of my daughter.

Alitaptap Art Cafe

After a fascinating tour round the community visiting various artists studios and encountering huge dogs, turkeys, tortoises (also huge) and a white (albino) carabao, we rested in the art cafe and had some refreshments where I did another sketch. The community is well worth a visit and the artists and apprentices (one of which guided us – Eric) were very friendly and welcoming.

Thu-5-Mar-2026

116-3410 – Compelled to sketch everyday

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If I don’t use my preppy pen (with the blue sludgy Kung Te-Cheng Noodlers ink) every day, it dries up (update….even every day is not enough…it just dries up anyway). I had to work hard to get the ink flowing when I did this sketch…I next tried a little bit of damp tissue in the cap but that didn’t work either. This is one of the plants (one of the few that grows despite our “black thumbs”) that grows well on our balcony.

Tue-3-Mar-2026