Month: April 2025

102-3075 – Boac plaza

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In the afternoon of Tuesday 15th (on our Holy Week holiday) we went into town to see the Moriones gather in the plaza. The Moriones festival is held during Holy Week in Marinduque – the Moriones being men and women wearing costumes and masks depicting Roman soldiers, roaming around the town searching for Longinus (a centurion who had one eye, pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and then made a miraculous recovery when the blood and water got in his eye and consequently converted to Christianity). Just as I was starting to sketch this some students asked us to fill in a very long survey about visiting Marinduque, so I rushed this sketch a bit. The statue is, of course, of Rizal.

Tue-15-Apr-2025

102-3074 – The traveller’s cottage

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This day on our holiday started with a morning of doing nothing much except relaxing by the sea. This is a view of where we stayed (@BalaiLaHi) – just one room with a little kitchenette and shower/WC. There was a shared kitchen for cooking in a separate pergola…but we were the only one’s using it most of the time. Half way through sketching this I spotted a snake hanging in a nearby tree!

Tue-15-Apr-2025

102-3073 – Herald at St. Joseph Spouse of Mary Catholic Church, Gasan

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After our island hopping we had lunch in Gasan (when I had “chop suey”, and ham was suggested a couple of times even though we told the waitress that I don’t eat meat!), also spending some time fiddling about to find a new spare tyre (which my wife ordered and was due to be delivered from the mainland after 2 days). We then visited the church in Gasan which is quite high up and has great views over the sea. Although a church on this site was first established in 1609 the current structure is quite new (I found one site saying the church was destroyed several times including most recently in 1986 when it was rebuilt in concrete), but is tastefully done and was decorated (I assume) for the Moriones Festival.

Mon-14-Apr-2025

102-3072 – Gaspar Island

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While heading to the take-off point for island hopping we had a major flat tyre and had to change to the spare…this seems to be a regular occurrence on our island trips! We still made the island hopping round the “three kings” (Tres Reyes) islands though. The biblical three kings are Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and later on our holiday we were told (by our trekking guide) that the islands were formed from the wrecks of the ships of three kings who were suiters for a princess. This sketch was done on the first island. We didn’t stop at the second island, but stopped at the third for snorkelling (seeing clown and angel fish)…and then had a noisy pump-boat trip back to the mainland, for an hour or so.

Mon-14-Apr-2025

102-3071 – Bell tower at Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Boac

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After lunch (yummy miso soup) on our first day in Marinduque we went into Boac for a wander and visited the cathedral. It looks ancient on the outside but is modernised inside. According to the internet the cathedral was built in 1792 and served as a refuge against pirate attacks and during times of conflict like Moro raids in the Spanish colonial period. Several websites say the tower is built of “Adobe Stones” – i.e sun dried mud bricks, but to me it looked more like sandstone. While I sketched this, people came out of mass and looked at what I was doing, making friendly remarks, while my wife wandered about testing out the settings on her camera.

Sun-13-Apr-2025

102-3070 – Talisay at noon

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We had a nice lazy start to our holy week holiday beginning with an early (for me) snorkel, breakfast, browsing, coffee and sketching. This is the glorious view from where we stayed – peaceful and quiet, very few neighbours and a lovely verdant garden. No issues with the new paper – so far so good!

Sun-13-Apr-2025

102-3069 – First impressions

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Here is the first sketch I did on arrival at our AirBnb rental in Marinduque (for an Easter/Holy Week holiday) after our 12 hour journey. We set off at 4am to get to the port (In Lucena) and then waited for 2 hours to get on a ferry (roll-on-roll-off or RORO, which included the fun of backing the car into a space so narrow that I struggled to get out the door afterwards). I slept on the 3 hour ferry crossing and we made it to @BalaiLaHi after lunch having had something to eat in Mogpog on the way. First impressions of the resort: beautiful spot right on the beach and very welcoming hosts. First impressions of the new paper in a new sketchbook (Umae and Lady Bug 300gsm hot press): slightly more absorbent than Baohong – which I like – I will see later how good it is at blending and lifting, but my feeling is that it is a good, more affordable choice.

Sat-12-Apr-2025

101-3068 – Too many avocados?

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Here is another fruit sketch – this time of a huge pile of avocados that my wife brought back from Davao (this bowl full was not all of them!). There were so many that we took them on our trip to Marinduque (I am scanning the sketches I did there to post soon), ate some almost every day, froze some for smoothies and gave some to the owners and staff of the place we stayed in! They are delicious and creamy with a very thin skin.

Fri-11-Apr-2025

101-3067 – Mundane

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As I said in one of my earlier posts, I find that even the most mundane subject will do for a sketch – so even though I wasn’t in the mood for sketching, the other night I decided to sketch this bicycle pump. Its a replacement for a fancy one that I sketched some time ago (see sketch No.94-2847)…which turned out to be a bit useless. This one was pretty cheap and works a lot better! Doing the sketch cheered me up and made me feel like I had achieved even just a small thing that day!

Wed-9-Apr-2025