Maker’s Festa and Thingamajig

November – these two events happened one week apart from each other. Makers Festa was held at Gyud Food park at UP Diliman. Another discord member wanted to try selling at conventions. He’s my second con baby. He specializes in collage art, and has turned his products into prints and stickers:

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I was pleasantly surprised that Alyanna, or alfajone was physically there for Maker’s Festa. I thought she moved overseas! I bought some of her merch as well. Another seller that I found and liked was avonlii, I bought her A4 print of camellas last ATC – this time I bought her morning glory one. Makers Festa haul below.

Thingamajig was held at Tierra’s at Maginhawa. It was a small but cozy event. I wanted to return the favor to Niao because she was always there whenever I held events. Below is my small haul from the event:

I didn’t paint as much this time as my hands are still recovering. I’m pretty happy with my haul from these two events.

PGW 6th National Convention

This post is about the preparation and the exhibit itself: September was a busy month! After painting the PaperCon commission, I painted a 15″ x 15″ watercolor painting for the PGW 6th National Convention the weekend after. It was the annual open call exhibit for PGW members.

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Of course I wanted to join! I didn’t last 2022 for reasons I cannot remember anymore. And the members are starting to remember me because I kept on winning raffles. It was time to change that! The theme for the member exhibit was Lakbay+Diwang. Travel and celebrate.

My concept was pushing itself too hard, but I really wanted it to work. Below is my artist write-up that I’m very proud of:

Banaba, scientific name Lagerstroemia speciosa, is an indigenous flowering tree native to our beloved country, the Philippines. It is also known as the “Pride of India” or “crepe myrtle” in other parts of Southeast Asia. The Philippines, as a megadiverse country, has an abundance of flora and fauna—natural wonders that I believe are needed to be represented more in our medium. This is aligned with the advocacy of Ms. Bing Famoso Tac-an, founder and current head of the Philippine Botanical Art Society, which I am also a proud member of. This group aims to showcase endemic plants of the Philippines through visual arts, specifically via botanical art painting. Our group hopes to educate and create awareness about the conservation of these indigenous flora since most of them are now endangered.
I chose Banaba as the focal point of my composition because it was one of the first flowers I encountered outside when it was safer to go out during the pandemic. I wanted to show through my work that we have a myriad of beautiful endemic plants which can be subjects to choose from aside from the more popular but foreign flower subjects like peonies, roses, sunflowers, etc. My piece is inspired by the botanical art style with a white background, a requirement for the Philippine Botanical Art Society as well as its international counterparts for portraying such works, with the aspiration of scientific accuracy to the best of my abilities.
Indeed, our local endemic fauna—Katmon, Waling-waling, Tayabak, Hoya, and, of course, Banaba (but ironically, not Calachuchi and even our own national flower, Sampaguita), among others—must be celebrated. Through painting these as subjects, one can inspire and instill the knowledge that one must simply look around, even in our urbanized Metro Manila, near our homes we live in, and all round our own barangays, to see that such beauty exists around us. What more can we see and appreciate once we travel around our own beautiful Philippines.

I was really satisfied with the details. Look at those folds! ♥ The convention kick off was also the day of the exhibit opening. I attended the convention kick off first in the morning. Inggo waited somewhere in Estancia. During the exhibit opening, my Ragnarok friends from wayyyyyyyy back came and visited! We had dinner afterwards and reminisced about the good old days.

I didn’t have any time to retrieve this painting for egress so I donated it to PGW. I sort of miss it, but I can make another one anyway! I loved the experience of being part of this community. I hope I could be a bit more active this 2024.

Art to Cart

What can I say about Art to Cart?

Days after the relatively successful Patrons of the Arts, another new organizer popped up from the convention gossip grapevine. We were curious and attended their presentation. Impressed, we signed up. It was another gamble with a new organizer that we could afford, so why not? Their first event happened around mid-October.

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Above photo is our Day 1 set-up. Let me just say that I got injured on the first day of the event. It was so bad that I couldn’t hold a pen or draw for a month. I had a wrist brace most of the time. Lesson learned – don’t run, let people wait for you.

The organizers were alright? We were forgiving because it was their first art convention. We were impressed with the writeups they made of us that was obviously well researched and well-written. On the day itself however they had a lot of mishaps. The floor plan and map in particular. Artist aisles were too narrow (they fixed it on day 2). The program and host was boring.

One good thing about this event is that Inggo sold a lot of his works on this event. He even had a fan who bought A LOT of eevee merch. Super happy for him! We also had a stamp rally with our server members as well – where supportive server members completed the stamp rally lol.

This was also my first convention baby – or con bb Ret’s first event. She’s a server member as well, and she said that she has always wanted to join a convention but never had the courage to or doesn’t know where to start. I offered to help her from application, financial help, merch production, up until ingress and even lent her our extra table displays. I’m really proud of her as well! I made her pair with Shine, one of the January Maker PH girls, on a full table so she could be with someone who has experience with conventions. I’m glad that they matched personally. The photo below is a jeepney sign custom made by one of the server members. Its our informal nickname to fellow members. I loved it so much I had one made for Inggo and I for future conventions. 

Above is my humble haul from Art of Cart. This was my lowest selling convention of 2023, but I wasn’t in the red. I had a good time hanging out with my friends. One of the notable conversations during the event was with a customer who complimented me – “Your works should be in an exhibit”. Me, flexing, “Oh yes, I have an exhibit with the Philippine Guild of Watercolorists at Estancia Mall next week”.

And that is the next blog post! ♥

PaperCon – Commission

One of the most surprising experience during PaperCon was one of my customers wanted to commission me for a painting. I didn’t offer A4 prints of my works, but I’m planning on making small amounts for the next one this 2024. At first, she wanted it A4 size, then A3, and after PaperCon she wanted a 2 feet x 2 feet watercolor painting of cattleyas.

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I rarely take commissions because I’m not fond of doing them. I always offer a higher price for these. But she accepted my rates, so my weekend was spent making the painting. My usual commission process now is at follows:

  • Get all the info I need to create sketches. Offer 1 to 2 concept sketches before I start on the actual piece. Explain my materials – paper quality, watercolor quality, hence my prices. For commissions, I always use Arches 100% cotton 300gsm paper and artist grade watercolors. Always the best quality for client work.
  • After approval, request for 50% down payment before start of work. Always do this to protect yourself.
  • Explain my process to the client – 2 weeks lead time of work, progress photos will be sent per day, and delivery will be shouldered by buyer.

After that I start prepping my work area. I don’t have a large table at home, so I use our dining table when I do bigger paintings. That means cleaning the dining table and trying to remove as much oil on the surface as possible. After that I lay my watercolor paper, measure it to size using a T-square and cut the paper. Then we sketch.

If I’m finally happy with the sketch, it’s time to start painting. It usually takes me a day or two to completely be satisfied with a painting. I finish the painting on day one, and check another day with fresh eyes to see if it still needs improvements. The second day is where I take photos or scan, prep the painting for shipping, and informing the client that its done.

Really happy with this piece! I hope the client is happy as well.♥

PaperCon 2023

PaperCon was held last September 9 at Centris. It was technically my first time as a solo artist, but Inggo was there with me as my assistant. ♥ Look at my full table! It’s so cute!

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I felt pretty proud of my table set-up. We upgraded a lot of things after POTA July: laminated price tags for easier visibility, mesh wires so we could take advantage of height, a printed table cloth, more grass tiles, and more acrylic trays. It looked so neat! But look at the chaos the night before, packing all of these:

I also made newer business cards with two different designs. My previous one was too small and was not a standard size. This one is beautiful and the art speaks for itself. I also had a stamp made – the photo below was what they had made without my instagram handle. I sent some feedback and the supplier replaced the stamp with the correct request. The passport photo on the left is a new thing for PaperCon. It was a small booklet for customers and sellers, where they could collect stamps from all the artists in the event. I had a lot of fun asking for stamps from everyone!

I’m really thankful for this event. Even though the venue was scorching hot that day, we didn’t really mind it because there were a lot of people! It was also really nice to see some previous PaperCon kapitbahays and other artists. It felt like a post-pandemic reunion of sorts.

Really thankful as well to my friends who came and visited the event – USK QC people, POTA friends, officemates, discord friends, etc. ♥ Inggo also made me an orchid crochet headband because I requested one for this event hehe. One customer also wanted to commission me for a painting – which is what my next blog post will be about!

And lastly, I kept being sentimental about this one, it really means a lot to me that I can finally stand on my own as an artist. I’ve been boothing since 2017, and look at all of my products now!

PaperCon prep and products

August last year was my prep time for PaperCon that was held last September 9. I wanted to create lots of new products because it was PaperCon. It was a big deal for me to return to this event as a solo artist. So I made more paper products – specifically notepads, bookmarks, and new stickers.

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First of all the peony above, I had no idea where to put in my older posts so I put it here. This was one of the newer peony artworks that I did for my new set of stickers – 3″x 3″ sized sticker samplers! I wanted a sticker sheet that’s a midrange price, for those who doesn’t want an individual sticker but doesn’t want to spend on the bigger sticker sheet. I made 5 designs of these – rose, peony, hydrangea, orchid, and sunflower.

I had the idea of making bookmarks during Patrons of the Arts – where I saw that some art prints are laminated to achieve a glossy effect. So I thought, maybe I should do bookmarks? These did really well during my conventions last year – but I won’t restock them again this year because I don’t really have space for them in my table.

Now, notepads! It’s PaperCon, notepads are paper, so they should probably sell like hotcakes right? Well, not really! With their high production cost and bulkiness, I felt that I probably shouldn’t reproduce them anymore. It was a fun experience though!

Now my sticker sheets, my bread and butter during conventions. I added a new design- the sunflowers sticker sheet so they would finally total to 10 designs. I’m pretty proud of this set! Looking back now, I’m pretty impressed with the products I’ve produced just for this con. Next up will be the event itself!

Urban Sketchers Kyusi – UP Diliman Sketchcrawl

I’ve added another tag for all Urban Sketcher posts with USK QC. We’ve been active with the QC chapter since we also live in this city. So just in case we get to join other chapters, we could differentiate it with another tag. Anyway! August last year was USK QC’s UP Diliman Sketch crawl. This time around I invited my discord friends with me!

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I already forgot the location of where we sketched but its near sunken garden. Inggo was there as a guide for us just in case we’d get lost. We were with Hannah, Mico, Bea and her friend Ryzza. Bea is from Laguna and for some reason wanted to join us here in Quezon City.

I finally brought my foldable stool this time! And I finally used a bigger sized paper. This is a Hahnemuhle paper – around 9″ x 12″. I wanted to paint the tree and the field. It was hard because all you could see are greens and browns. But I loved mixing my own greens! It rained so the USK QC people took shelter under the film building. Another discord friend of ours also joined us here – he was having lunch near Area 2 and remembered that we were here for the event. After the latag session, we went to Friuli at Maginhawa so they could try it out.

I found it funny that the USK QC admin Nadj thought that our group was a bunch of tourists walking around UP Diliman but then realized we were one of them. Another group commented that we looked like a dance troupe because we all wore black.

It was a fun experience. I’m glad that more discord friends are interested in joining USK QC events. ♥

Personal Art

After Patrons of the Arts, I felt like I needed a break from con prep and make some personal art. Most of my works before are all for new products. But guess what, personal art is still flowers! ♥

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Above – I planned on making new washi tape designs. I made two designs – a rose and orchid combination, and a poppy design. I felt that I didn’t have enough roses and orchids, so I made some more. Eucalyptus leaves were also added just to have variety.

Below – I made the pink rose during our art tambay with discord friends. This was before our karaoke thing that night. The white rose is a practice piece on Baohong hot press paper. I didn’t liked it back then, but now it looks alright?

Above – you could see the difference in quality from the paintings. The middle one was painted on Canson 200gsm, and I really didn’t liked it. The magnolia on the left and the vanda orchid on the right were painted on Arches 300gsm cold press paper. Look at their details! The arches paper could really take a lot of water without buckling. I could detail a lot more as well.

Below – Left: Peony on Hahnemuhle paper. I don’t remember if I liked this paper – but I think I do since I’ve used it all up now. I still have a larger size that needs to be used up as soon as possible as well. Right: Poppies on my very old Strathmore watercolor notebook. I completely forgot about painting this one that I was pleasantly surprised when I found it again months later. Maybe I should hide my paintings? I end up hating most of my works and liking them months later after all.

I really loved this set of paintings. This was the pivot I think of using higher quality watercolor paper. I hope to paint a lot this coming Holy Week!

Patrons of the Arts – July

Our first gamble of the year is with Patrons of the Arts – a new art market event from a new organizer. I learned about this from convention friends last April. I discovered their IG account when they still didn’t have a lot of posts. It was suspicious at first, but I asked my convention friends about it. They already registered HAHA. And with a 500php discount for early birds for a 6 feet table I felt like it was worth the risk. I didn’t have a lot of products with me at that time, so I invited Inggo to join me. This was his first convention as a crochet artist!

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POTA organizers promised some features for this event – an art wall showcasing the artist’s works (we got to take home our framed works after), artist lounge on both ends (who knew there were 2 hidden rooms in this venue?!), discord for communication, and I guess a lot more that I cannot remember. Ingress was impressive. The organizers were very accommodating and really nice. You could feel their passion for this event.

We bought a lot of things for the event – an acrylic display rack for me, mesh wires for Inggo, our very own QR code display, and behind-the-scenes things that you need for a convention. I also brought some of my original paintings for sale. Inggo brought everything he has worked on since we registered for this event. We had no idea how to price crochet works, so he kind of adjusted the prices along the way.

Some highlights posted on my social media: some customers wanted me to sign my postcard prints, my original paintings were sold whenever I’m not manning our table, a customer recognized my katmon sticker so I gave her a freebie of my hoya sticker (she even knew the scientific name!), we saw Inggo’s hats worn throughout the event, one girl even commissioned him on the spot for a penguin coaster, and so much more. ♥️

They even had an official photographer, and the two photos above were taken by him. Thank you so much! That’s the artist lounge behind us HAHA.

This was my first event that I wasn’t with my original artist group January Makers. I felt that after StickerCon 2022, I needed to go solo. Thankfully it wasn’t the case here – as I had Inggo as my new permanent tablemate. It was nice to see everyone – most of my convention friends were in PotA. It was like a mini reunion with everyone and all we did was chika all day. ♥️ Our server friends also visited our table! It was chaotic and fun. We could feel the love.

The first Patrons of the Arts was a successful event. We were raving all day to other artists about this organizer. What a game changer. When they announced a 2024 event, we immediately signed up. Look forward to that post in a couple of months HAHA.

Urban Sketchers Kyusi – Bantayog ng mga Bayani

The next Urban Sketchers Kyusi we attended was at Bantayog ng mga Bayani last July. I was with Hannah and Mico. Shine also attended but she was with company. I never knew that there was a place like this beside Eton Centris.

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These two didn’t bring any folding stools and were complaining about the heat. So after sketching the subject, they proposed that we go to Starbucks and finish our works there. This is not the correct way to urban sketch by the way!

I sketched the statue but realized that my proportions were wrong! I didn’t get to include the head! Oops. I brought my Berkeley paper this time. Its a beginner paper but I really liked painting with it. Especially when creating dry brush marks on the paper to depict stone or metal. Hannah said that was my habit whenever I get tired of painting and wanted to finish it immediately. Really?!?!

Because we went to Starbucks, we weren’t included in USK QC’s group photo. So Hannah, Mico, Shine and I had our own latag session. I missed Shine, and I hope we could do more art tambays in the future. ♥