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 should have had more time to sketch my wife getting a haircut (as it was I finished this at home and left it fairly simple)…but social media briefly distracted me. I just reminded myself that it really doesn’t help me these days…especially Facebook which I post on but rarely spend any time on.
Sat-8-Nov-2025
After our trip into Makati my wife insisted we get our car cleaned …the grime on the hatchback was admittedly rather thick! I had only a few minutes to sketch this while we waited. This little food stand is part of “Paul’s” car cleaning operation. Pares is a popular beef stew…which of course I’ve never tried. There are just a few lines from a sketch I started in Makati, mixed up in this sketch…I didn’t want to finish it from a photo or waste the paper, so I just drew over them.
Wed-5-Nov-2025
At last I got outside – not far, but at least I got some fresh air. While I sketched this I listened to an Ajahn Brahm Podcast who was saying that when you pause or stop and meditate, the greens are richer. The pool was empty at first but by the time I finished it was full of noisy kids…I haven’t been swimming for ages because of blocked and infected ears.
Wed-3-Sep-2025
Late in the day on the weekend I sketched this, I got my wife to leave her desk and go outside to sketch trees (there was a sketch-walk going on to sketch threatened trees in Pampanga…but we opted to sketch some trees closer to home). It rains on and off during the day at the moment, so we sat in one of the cabanas (gazebo). I ended up sketching not only trees but the basketball court (which I’ve sketched many times before (see sketch No.77-2451, 1787, 782…and several others)…I find the reflections and the colours always catch my eye.
Sat-30-Aug-2025
It was my duty/pleasure/turn to drive into town with my wife on the day I sketched this…plus I knew I would be travelling (and be away for a while) soon. We drove to the Taguig Comelec Office (a branch of the Commission on Elections in the Philippines, which deals with voter registration and certification), which is peculiarly housed (temporarily I assume – or at least it looks temporary), in a parking structure near Vista Mall. In fact the whole structure looks like it is not used by the mall but by the local government. Anyway the whole process was over very quickly so I finished this sketch at home. I think speed helped and this is one of my better sketches of the backs of peoples heads (a common subject for me)!
Fri-15-Aug-2025
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