sketchph

103-3114 – Café sketching

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Lights at High Grounds Café

After sketching #UskQuezonCity on Tomas Morato Avenue we joined a huge crowd of fellow sketchers in High Grounds Café for a bit of lunch, chat and an opportunity to test out Ohuhu Markers. I sketched the lights and the patterned wallpaper.

Sketch by Pamella S. Simioni
Líbero Badaró – Centro SP

The prompt for this day of International Urban Sketchers week was “giving”, which was appropriate as I finally received the sketches that I exchanged for two of mine with São Paulo, Brazil from the same time in 2024 (see post 87-2693 and 87-2692). The first sketch is by Pamella S. Simioni – I hope I got the right person. The second one was done by @andrawde and is of Rua Líbero Badaró a road in the centre of São Paulo. Each postcard had a nice little message on the back…I used google translate to try and understand what Pamella had said!

Sketch of me by al Vargas

I also exchanged sketches with my friend Al Vargas (@pixl8tor). I am including in this post the quick sketch he did of me.

Sat-3-May-2025

98-2970 – Yoghurt maker

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It might seem like there has been a gap in my sketching habit, but I’ve been spending my evenings finishing off partly done sketches, instead of doing new ones. It’s not a great habit to leave them partly done – painting from photos afterwards doesn’t work for me and the colours never seem right. I looked at the #DrawTipTuesday video of @KoosjeKoene on YouTube to get the inspiration for this – she suggested experimenting with some unused materials. So I picked up some old coloured pencils (not water soluble) and drew our yoghurt maker (it was my wife’s excellent idea to get one – it was quite cheap and makes lots of little pots from a starter).

Wed-22-Jan-2025

80-2520-2526 – How to case bind a sketchbook

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I have been meaning to post these sketches ever since I conducted a small workshop (with #UskQuezonCity) on binding your own sketchbook, way back in December 2023! I have posted a few of these sketches before, but here are all of them along with notes on what you need and how to do it. I have been binding my own sketchbooks since 2019, motivated by the high cost of sketchbooks with good quality paper (and even a few expensive ones with poor quality paper!). I have learnt how to do this by following the videos of @SeaLemonDIY on YouTube. If you prefer video tutorials she has plenty of great ones.

Fri-7-Feb-2025

98-2967 – Splurged

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While I was in Quezon City when my daughter got her tattoo, I couldn’t resist visiting #ArtWhale along Maginhawa street. I have often bought things fom them online but I think this may have been the first time I’ve been in their actual store. I do like #DanielSmith paints but I find these #HolbeinWaterColors perfectly fine (and they are bit more affordable)…so I stocked up. I also bought a pad of ready-cut Strathmore hot press watercolour paper…which is super expensive! I’ve used Strathmore once before (see sketch number 463 done in August 2017)…let’s see how satisfied I am with paper this time.

Fri-17-Jan-2025

98-2964 – Book No.1 2025

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I have myself set a resolution to read more this year and I plan sketch the books as I finish reading them (why not after all). This is the first I have finished – I actually bought it in the UK last summer, so that shows my pace of reading these days! This one was not bad – kind of a long build up to a surprise (no spoilers)…which was unexpected but not really that exciting.

Tue-14-Jan-2025

98-2959 – Second attempt

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Here is another Christmas present – that I got from one of my nephews. I tried to draw this a few days before this and made a bit of a mess of it (I didn’t get past a few ink lines and getting the shape all wrong). In this version I found it easier to use watercolour pencils, a more splashy style and focus on negative shapes (the brown table background) to capture the white thermos mug.

Thu-9-Jan-2025

98-2957 – TWSBI with Sailor

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After a lot of #UrbanSketching, with this sketch I am back to drawing some things at home – starting with sketching a few of the Christmas presents I got. My wife bought me this lovely pen. It’s a TWSBI “Eco T eggplant”, with a piston filled barrel. According to one website TWSBI comes from the Chinese phrase “San Wen Tong”, with Wen translating into culture and the Bi added to refer to “writing implements”. I have it filled with Noodlers black ink and it has a super fine nib.

Tue-7-Jan-2025

97-2922 – A beautiful moment

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Here is my last sketch done with with #UskManila at the Metropolitan Theatre, for the vaudeville “Samot-Saring Bida: Ang Bodabil ng Pag-asa” dress rehearsal. I did this one rather quickly standing at the back when the performers were in full costume, were finishing off their rehearsal and the when the director was giving everyone a pep talk…hence the title.

Fri-6-Dec-2024