My habit is to just sketch what is in front of me, so here is what happened to be on our coffee table one evening. I read this series of books (the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini) years ago but my wife has been enjoying them recently. Paolini started writing the first book in the series (Eragon), when he was 15!
Thu-31-Jul-2025
I doubt this will be my only cat sketch in this sketchbook. Here is Captain Haddock sleeping next to me on the couch with his face buried in the blanket. I draw a lot of still life sketchers, but prefer to sketch what is around me. At the time I sketched this, it had been raining steadily for days and there was flooding all over the city.
Tue-22-Jul-2025
I sketched this as I waited for my wife to come back from her operation in PGH. The doc gave me a scare when I was called down to the OR. But it turned out it was just so she could tell me that everything went well! Now it’s just recovery time. After I did this sketch I realised the chair actually folds out into another bed…for a second watcher! Somehow I keep extending my sketches onto the next page…maybe I should switch to a square format sketchbook?
Wed-16-Jul-2025
I sketched this the day my wife went in for an operation at Philippine General Hospital (PGH). We had checked in the previous day and then had a sleepless night with doctors and nurses continually coming into the room to take her vitals, check she has taken her preparatory meds and put her on a drip. I was the official ‘watcher’ – that is a person who stays with a patient in hospital to provide support and assistance – mostly because hospitals don’t seem to have sufficient resources to constantly monitor patients.
Wed-16-Jul-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
Sometimes I feel a bit stuck for subjects and motivation for sketching – so my solution is often to turn to the #DrawTipTuesday advice of @KoosjeKoene, which is alway a good source of ideas and encouragement. This sketch is of some baked beans I made, plus a left-over baked potato.
Thu-10-Jul-2025
I sketched this when accompanying my wife for her consultation at PGH. We sat on hard benches in corridors and there was lots of waiting. We thought we were ½ hour late, but the doctor hadn’t even shown up by the time we got there.
Tue-8-Jul-2025
On the day I did this sketch we went out for breakfast (lugaw, tokwa, boiled egg and gulaman) at Goto ni Juan in the local supermarket and then had a wander though this little market. Mostly they sell veggies that you can already buy at the wet market the same distance away (in the opposite direction)…but probably at exaggerated prices. We did buy some spuds and avocados though, while we sheltered from the rain under one of the umbrellas.
Fri-27-Jun-2025
I wasn’t planning to sketch our cat (Captain Haddock) on this particular evening, but thought why not? He’s getting bigger and bigger and hogs the footstool most evenings.
Fri-27-Jun-2025