I decided to celebrate a new sketchbook – which I made from Clairefontaine Aquapad 300gsm cold pressed paper – and a larger format, with a double page sketch of the kit I am bringing on our holiday in the UK and Spain. In addition to this I also have a couple of sketchbooks of course, plus a small ‘backup’ pouch with more ink, another small watercolour palette, my penknife and some brushes, for check-in baggage.
Tue-16-Jul-2024
I finished my #Potentate concertina sketchbook pretty quickly so now I am going back to using Clairefontaine Aquapad 300gsm cold pressed paper in a new home-made one. On the weekend we went for a hike up Mt. Daraitan in Tanay, Rizal Province. The first leg of the hike (just a few hours) took us up to a campsite below the peak and we pitched our tent with this lovely view. We have been using our #Hilleberg tent since we lived in Bhutan. The poles have become a bit bent but it still does the job.
Sat-8-Jun-2024
“If you are going to live to 100, you might as well be happy” – this is a quote from Rhee Kun Hoo from an article I read in the Guardian. I thought of his philosophy of life and how to be happy, while I was sketching this. These are those mini tubes of toothpaste that airlines sometimes give you. I didn’t realise we had accumulated so many…so I’ve started using them – though some don’t taste so nice!
Thu-9-May-2024
Here is another long lost sketch from the time I spent working in Turkey last year. This one was done while I was waiting in a restaurant called Timboo Cafe in the Kuzu Effect shopping center, for my dinner. They served very quickly so I added the colour at home.
Tue-13-Jun-2023
On Saturday 23 March we went for a short hike with some friends, visiting from the UK, along the Tinipak River, ending at these beautiful rock formations. We’ve been there before and of course I sketched a very similar scene then (see No.970 done in January 2019)…I think my sketching ability has improved since then. The ‘beach’ area at the end of the walk started to fill up pretty quickly after we got there (it reminded me of our trip to Mt. Pinatubo), and it started to rain lightly, so I had to finish this off a little at home.
Sat-23-Mar-2024
On our journey back to Manila, we stayed one night on Mactan Island (where the airport in Cebu is), in an out of the way, tiny little AirBnb house. My wife took the opportunity to meet with some colleagues on the mainland…and I went to pick her up in the evening. I did this sketch while waiting for her in a car park. I enjoy drawing cars, but this time struggled to get the proportion right and it ended up looking a bit sausage-like!
Thu-4-Jan-2024
This sketch was done on the ferry from Sta. Fe on Bantayan Island to Hagnaya Port in northern Cebu. We got on quite early so could take some of the bunk-beds (the two other decks just have hard wooden seats)…where everyone seems to get in a quick nap. I think there are at least 5 people in this sketch. The person in the foreground had a photo taken together with me and the sketch…it’s always nice when people want to do that.
Thu-4-Jan-2024
Here are some more vignette sketches from our last day in Bantayan Island. We decided to go to Paradise beach again…and this time on a relatively quiet day, early enough to nab a good shady spot. My daughter is reading ‘On Beauty’ by Zadie Smith…and the cacti around us (which have all all lost their thorns) were covered with carved-in graffiti!
Wed-3-Jan-2024
Having enjoyed doing faster vignette sketches the day before, I continued this on the day our daughters went scuba diving. While they were doing that we went to get a coffee…at a tea shop (top sketch). The second sketch was done while we waited at #DiveXtension. Afterwards we had lunch at Tristans’s Pizza Hauz (yes, pizza yet again – we failed to find anything else with veggie options), on the coast not far from the port.
Tue-2-Jan-2024