Notes & Sketches Holy Week 2012

Dalampasigan

April 4, 2012. Wednesday
It was an auspicious day for sketching. Work was officially half-day, signalling the start of the Holy Week vacation. Almost all of the students of UPLB had gone home. The weather was balmy, very conducive to an unhurried sketching session.

I decided to draw one of the famous landmarks in the campus, the gazebo beside the carillon. I brought out and opened my small folding chair and set it under the embracing canopy of the famous Fertility Tree. From this vantage position, I slowly sketched the gazebo, taking time to get the perspective and shadows right. Save for the soft cheers of some guys playing on the field, it was meditatively quiet. From time to time some tiny, creeping, hairy creatures would drop almost noiselessly from the huge acacia tree and land on my neck and sketch pad, a minor irritant to a lazy afternoon of sketching.

Gazebo

Interestingly, there was a couple inside the gazebo, busy with their romantic endeavors, shut-off from the cares of the world, not even (I thought) noticing this solitary sketcher. Taking cue from the wisdom of the Masters, I decided to simplify the drawing composition by (in the lingo of the digital world) deleting them from the scene. Aside from the bugs, I was briefly interrupted by one of the campus ‘Chaleco Boys’, who politely requested me to transfer my car from the side road to the parking lot of the CVM.

After about one and a half hours, I felt satisfied with my drawing accomplishment for that afternoon and decided to leave the site.

The lovers were still inside the gazebo, cavorting with unrestrained abandon, still unmindful of the universe around them.

April 6, 2012. Good Friday.
I knew I had to sketch it when I saw the image.

It was the float of Birheng Dolorosa bedecked plainly with white bougainvillas and palmera leaves. The floats had just started to arrive at the San Juan Nepomuceno church grounds and were being readied for the long procession of saints around the main town of Alfonso, Cavite. I only had a few minutes to spare to capture the Sorrowful Virgin Mary so I decided to sit on one corner of the ground where I thought I would not be noticed by the church goers.

Birheng Dolorosa

I was mistaken. A few minutes into the sketching and there was already a swarm of onlookers surrounding me. I tried not to be distracted. A couple of kids sat beside me, almost snuggling their bodies against mine, with their tiny heads nearly blocking the view of the paper I was sketching.

One of the boys said, “Kuya, maganda ring i-drawing ang karosa ng ‘Pieta’, iyung kalong ni Maria si Hesus.” I saw what the boy was referring to. Yes, there was more drama and flair in that float but it would definitely take me more time to do the sketch. And the procession was about to commence . . .

A teenage girl with very cropped hair asked me, “Kuya, kaya mo bang i-drawing ang Paa ni Hesus?”, pointing to a small piece of sculpture showing the impression of Jesus’ feet. Yes, I told her, but the floats already started moving . . .