I sketched this sitting outside Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Serendra. It’s the first sketch in a new but old, (because it’s been left unused for decades) Daler Rowney sketchbook with 150 gsm cartridge paper, given to me by my brother-in-law. I used sketchbooks like this in Australia and Cambodia in the 1990s. It takes a bit of getting used to the paper – but it’s nice and thin and challenging. I like cheaper paper – its less intimidating. This is Hotel 101 in the Fort Bonifacio – an exercise in ugliness and painted the gloomiest of greys.

Sat-12-Jul-2025