I sketched this in Starbucks in a Robinson’s mall after a morning spent in the bank, dropping off my wife in Muntinlupa and picking up my hard drive in Las Piñas. We stopped as traffic was dreadful and the car was getting hot (with the AC not working well) and needed a coffee refuel – especially as we had picked up our youngest daughter from the airport at 2:30am the same day!
Thu-11-Dec-2025
Here is a quick sketch of one of our cats (General Tapioca) in his usual evening spot.
Wed-10-Dec-2025
I finished wrapping advent calendar presents (we have a home made one with pockets that are far too big). I think the #Usk prompt (recently) was something to do with gift wrapping to I quickly sketched our bag of reused wrapping paper scraps…some of which have been used multiple times and have names in marker pen crossed out!
Tue-9-Dec-2025
I convinced my wife to come with me to Art Caravan in BGC for this figure sketching session. The model was Mia Aquino – she was a good model and it was a nice session. We even got some freebies from Art Caravan (pencils and a sketch pad).
I used an Ulson pencil (5B), given by Art Caravan as a freebie (along with a sketch-pad), for the second sketch. She looks a bit too skeletal I think!
On the third sketch I tried out one of my Sakura Glaze gel pens. I like the way I get very luminous lines.
For the last sketch I went back to my comfort zone – using watercolour pencils, watercolour and a little ink.
Sun-7-Dec-2025
I did this sketch on a full day of shopping for Christmas presents in Bonifacio Global City. I stopped for a coffee/snack break in Figaro and this was my view. I don’t often think too much when I am sketching but it’s good to have a focus – and in this one I made the Christmas tree bolder, trying to make the rest of the scene simpler and fade into the background.
Fri-5-Dec-2025
I watched two very good films recently, so I thought I’d sketch scenes from them. The first (at the top) is “On falling” about a picker in a warehouse somewhere in the UK. It was very poignant and makes you think hard about buying from exploitative companies like Amazon. The second was “Anniversary” – it was very American-centric but quite scary and prescient. Sketching this also gave me a chance to sketch faces…which you can see I need a lot of practice at!
Thu-4-Dec-2025
I sketched this at the hospital while waiting to see my urologist. I used a continuous line approach to draw (most of) this and kept it fairly loose as I only had a few minutes.
Wed-3-Dec-2025
For me sketching is about practicing, and drawing even the simplest thing helps. I think I need to improve sketching folds and shadows in fabric so why not this (folded pair of hiking trousers)?
Mon-1-Dec-2025
As I sketched this I was listening to Ajahn Brahm talk about the “Happiness Industry: Joy at Last” – his point being that the looking for it stops you getting happiness. He said the joy is giving up looking – and achieving peace at last. This sketch is of some Lumpiang Togue which is a type of deep fried spring roll, but instead of meat, Mung bean sprouts are used as the major ingredient.
Sat-27-Nov-2025