UrbanSketchersManila

122-3539-41 – Poblacion Barangay, Museo ng Makati and people

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Poblacion Barangay

Here are the other sketches I did when I joined Urban Sketchers Manila at the Rosas ng Sampiro festival in Poblacion Barangay of Makati City. This is an annual cultural and street-dancing celebration by local schools, that honours the city’s patroness, the Virgen dela Rosa de Macati (an 18th-century statue at the Saints Peter and Paul Parish, apparently brought from Mexico via galleon in 1718).

Museo ng Makati

I first drew a group of fellow sketchers and then went up to the balcony of the Barangay Hall where I sketched the view and the crowds of people. The costumes and performances were fantastic, but they moved so fast that I couldn’t capture them in a drawing.

People at Rosas ng Sampiro

Sat-27-Jun-2026

122-3537-8 – Powerplant outside Dunkin’ and people at The Grid

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Powerplant outside Dunkin’

These are the first two sketches I did when I joined Urban Sketchers Manila at the Rosas ng Sampiro festival in the Makati Poblacion Barangay (more about that in the next post). I first met up with my friend @the_uban_sketcher at the Powerplant Mall (it’s built on the site of a former power plant) and did the first sketch where we met up. After that we went for lunch at The Grid – which is a high end (meaning over-priced) foodcourt – but at least I could get some vegetarian food there.

People at The Grid

Sat-27-Jun-2026

122-3535 – Cafe BBC coffee

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This is the last sketch I did at the Día de Manila event, from inside the Museo de Intramuros. Afterwards, to close out our sketch-walk, @the_uban_sketcher and I went into the courtyard to have coffee there. The people serving the coffee were very nice and took a photo of us to post on their social media account. I am sorry to say though, that the coffee was pretty tasteless and not nice at all!

Sun-21-Jun-2026

122-3534 – San Ignacio and the Jesuits

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Here is another of my sketches from the sketchwalk for Día de Manila. This is San Ignacio de Loyola who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1534. I gather that he is often shown holding a book because reading changed his life and he wrote some major spiritual texts. I think one of the cherubs in my sketch (which are supposed to stand for innocence and purity), looks like Robin (from Batman and Robin) because he seems to have a mask on.

Sun-21-Jun-2026

122-3532-3 – Altar piece and Sto. Domingo de Guzman

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Altar piece

Here are some more of my sketches from the Urban Sketchers Manila sketchwalk for Día de Manila. The first is of an altar piece – about which I could find nothing online or it in-situ. The next thing I sketched had a catalogue code on it saying: Wood IA-M-ECLE: 15 – 430 – which means it is wooden sculpture, part of the Intramuros Administration Museum ecclesiastical collection and the 430th object registered in a 2015 batch. I was hoping for more information! Online I found out that Sto. Domingo de Guzman was a Castilian priest who founded the Dominicans and is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists.

Sto. Domingo de Guzman

Sun-21-Jun-2026

121-3531 – Centro de Turismo Intramuros

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Here is the second sketch I did when I joined Urban Sketchers Manila in Intramuros for Día de Manila at the Centro de Turismo. This was a heritage festival and celebration organised by the @niladcommunity (an umbrella organization that unites heritage advocacy groups), with exhibits, walking tours and panel discussions. The centre is located inside the reconstructed San Ignacio Church. This was originally built in 1899 but was largely destroyed in the Battle of Manila in 1945, leaving only it’s shell. Next door the Casa Misión Convent was converted into the Museo de Intramuros which we also sketched in.

Sun-21-Jun-2026

121-3530 – Manila Cathedral bell tower

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Here is the first sketch I did when I joined Urban Sketchers Manila in Intramuros for Día de Manila at the Centro de Tourismo (more about that in the next post). I started off my day by meeting with my friend @the_uban_sketcher in front of Manila Cathedral so we could sketch before it got too hot.

Sun-21-Jun-2026

107-3199-200 – HistoEx maddening crowds

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Histo-Ex crowd

At the HistoEx even with #UskManila, I wanted to sketch the historical #Renacimiento re-enactors as I had before in Luneta Art Fair (see sketches No. 99-2981-4), but only managed these doodles while I was jostled by the crowd. for my second sketch, fed up with being elbowed in the crowd, I stood outside of the exhibition area, looking in, to sketch. This crowd were watching a talk…I’m not sure what it was about, as I was busy drawing!

Far from the maddening crowd

Sun-3-Aug-2025

107-3198 – Burgoo lunch

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After sketching at the presidential car museum a group of us went on to the HistoEx (History to Experience) 2025 event at Gateway Mall. We started by finding somewhere to eat and picked this place where they at least had (vegetarian) pizza I could eat. Naturally we spent a lot of time chatting plus drew some sketches of each other on the paper table cloth! The one of me, included in this post, is by @allan.retarmar.

Sun-3-Aug-2025