Here is another very quick sketch I did when I spent all day at the Bureau of Immigration. This branch of Starbucks seems to be built into the fortifications of the old city – in a long stone-vaulted space, a bit like a bomb shelter. I sketched this in just 10 minutes and added the colour at home.
Wed-16-Jan-2019
The Philippines was named after King Philip II of Spain – this is a statue of him in intramuros (the old walled city in Manila which was the seat of government during the Spanish Colonial Period). I do wonder what the Philippines was called before the Spanish ‘discovered’ it. Anyway I drew this for some mental relief during a long fraught day at the Bureau of Immigration, making my ‘annual appearance’ and processing the renewal of my residence permit. I must have queued up at a different window to pay or file documents about 5 different times. Still I can’t complain – I very much appreciate that I can live in the Philippines, whist it must be a lot harder for a Filipino to get permission to live in the UK.
Wed-16-Jan-2019
This is the second sketch I did yesterday inside Fort Santiago. The white building is where José Rizal was confined – formerly barracks that have been reconstructed and now house a museum. That’s a statue of him on the right.
Sun-11-Feb-2018
Today I joined an Urban Sketchers ad hoc sketch-walk at Fort Santiago (a citadel built in colonial times in Intramuros, which the Spanish also used to imprison the Philippines national hero José Rizal), where an Anthology Architecture and Design Festival was being held. However the lady at reception woudn’t let us in because we didn’t have an invitation, so instead my wife and I headed off to the nearby Cathedral and I sketched this…and fumed a little. Later a fellow urban sketcher – Janeil – made sure we could get in to the festival and I did a second sketch inside the fort (which I’ll post separately).
Sun-11-Feb-2018