Artworks (November 2017 – February 2018)

I think it’s about time for another compilation post. ♥ The last one that I did was way back in September! And during October, I did the Inktober prompt. So here are the artworks that I did after that. Another picture heavy post ahead!

Left: A sunflower painting I did with a waterbrush + seamountainco palette when I was at Zambales. | Right: I tried to do a facade painting HAHA.

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Left: A photo referenced from a friend. | Right: Another sunflower painting. I liked the leaves here. ♥

Some artworks that I did during our despedida art tambay for Ruth. We played monopoly deal afterwards HAHAHA.

Left: A wisteria painting practice. This was one of the prompts during inktober, and I really wanted to try painting it. (Also suggested by Nickey!) I like this one! | Right: My painting from our December art tambay. The theme that day was self improvement, so I thought why not peonies & white flowers?! HAHA. That was a fun day ♥

More peony practice. ♥ I love the left one!

Left: Stargazer lily. I really don’t like this one though. | Right: Christmas season meant poinsettias!

I also did a bunch of artworks for friends that I didn’t get to scan. Luckily, I posted them all on my Instagram page:

Some of the artworks here will be updated on my portfolio page. Please do check it out! ♥

Red Bubble

As I said in my previous blog post, I’ll describe each website in detail.

So what is RED BUBBLE?

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Red Bubble was the second e-commerce website that I registered with. I heard about it through Youtube since there were a lot of videos comparing Society 6 and this website. Instead of choosing one for my online store, I decided “Why not both??”.

PROS/CONS

My Red Bubble Shop. ♥

Add New Work page.

Uploading an artwork is faster compared to its competition. You could upload with different file formats, but I prefer .png for the transparency.

Edit product page. They have a lot of selections!

From there you could edit your artworks on their different products with just a click of a button. You could resize and reposition them by just clicking on the product you want to edit. No need to open another web page. You could also upload another image per product if you don’t want to use the original. One thing that I like about Red Bubble is that I could make patterns out of my products! This makes it so easier to complete the product page. ♥

Pattern making! ♥ I didn’t use pattern for this artwork though.

The reason for uploading in .png is because Red Bubble offers their products in different colors. If I were to upload my file in .jpeg, it would also show the white in pattern making. Not a problem for myself because I clean the whites off my artworks in Photoshop.

As for the prices, you could edit every product’s % markup compared to Soc6 (where you could only edit the price for the prints). I just left mine on default which is 20%.

Almost to the bottom of the product page.

The title, description, and tags are the last things to input on the edit product page. They also have an option of adding another language if you want.

Overall, I’m quite happy with Red Bubble. Its much easier to upload and edit my products here compared to the competition. By uploading my artworks here, I get a bit of passive income as well. That’s the goal, but I recently just sold one item here HAHA. But its still one item!

Please check out my RED BUBBLE shop if you want my art. ♥

Handmade watercolors by seamountainco

I’d like to talk about seamountainco, one of my favorite watercolors! Seamountainco is a local store that specializes in portable handmade watercolor sets & notebooks. Their products are perfect for those who love to travel! The owner is a dear friend of mine & also one of the co-founding members of January Makers PH. ♥ Though we are friends, this post is not sponsored in any way & is not biased. Hopefully.

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(This post is long overdue. I planned on posting this last July 2017! But I was too lazy to do the sample artworks.)

The basic set (middle tin with 4 watercolor half pans).

We received one of the first batches of the Basic set last February 2017. You can read more about that here. The Basic set includes a portable tin can, four artist grade handmade watercolors in half pans that are highly pigmented with excellent light fastness. The four colors are: Ultramarine Blue, Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, and Raw Earth Umber.

We were tasked with reviewing the quality of the first batch. It really is highly pigmented. Just one swipe is enough. ♥ I used to joke that her watercolor is similar to the dishwashing liquid commercial: “Isang patak, sangkatutak!“. HAHA sorry.

On fabriano acquarello postcard paper.

What can you do with the Basic Set? I usually use mine for my sunflower watercolor paintings. I really love the yellow ochre for this. Its versatile that it can do the light yellows and also do the darker, muted tones that I want on my paintings. (Did that make sense?!). The only problem I think is the green. You can mix Ultramarine & Yellow Ochre to create an Olive green, but its not my preferred tone of green.

On further meet-ups, I received these from Jean: Philippine Indigo (aka #Jeandigo), Venetian Red, Verona Green, Cassel Earth, and Nicosia Green. I also bought the Purple Ochre, Pink Pipestone and Gold during our recent bazaar.

Clockwise from Top Right: Philippine Indigo, Venetian Red, Purple Ochre, Gold, Pink Pipestone, Nicosia Green, Verona Green, and Cassel Earth.

Even though seamountainco aims to cater to those who love to travel, their sets are also versatile in other subjects. My fellow January Makers PH members can attest to that! Check out their works below:

I’m very happy with my seamountainco set. ♥ I plan on buying more when I get the chance! HAHA.

You can follow seamountainco on Instagram & Facebook! For online orders, click here. ♥

Something New

On one of my recent art tambays with Hannah, we talked about our art. I told her that I was tired of painting flowers, that I didn’t want to known as the girl who can only paint one thing. She agreed saying that she was also tired of seeing my sunflower paintings, “eww”. Of course she said it in jest, but it got to me a bit HAHA. So I decided I’ll try to paint something different, something new. I went with food illustration which is Monique’s specialty.

Matcha Parfait and Halo-halo ♥

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It all started with the left painting. I was craving for Kissako’s matcha parfait that time, so I painted it HAHA. The right one was a request by a friend. I used a Sakura Gelly roll for the whites for both paintings. Speaking of Kissako, we went there last year to have that same parfait. Read more about it on Inggo’s blog. (Yup, it’s back!)

I also attempted to paint Friuli Trattoria‘s margherita pizza and ravioli. I don’t like my first attempt, haha. Its a bit obvious that I tried to save the drawing with inks. I’ll try better next time. I also painted my favorite dessert from said resto: their tiramisu gelato (below, left). The pyramid-shaped thing is their pharaoh’s delight gelato. I thought it looked challenging to paint a white gelato.

Avocado Sans Rival (Left) & Avocado Cupcake (Right).

I find food illustration a bit challenging. From the photo above, I tried inking the paintings to see what it would look like. I liked the effects on the cake, but meh on the cupcake. These are Lia’s Cakes in Seasons cakes. ♥ I already blogged about them here. The avocado sans rival is my favorite!

Puto Bumbong Cake (Left) and Avocado Cheesecake (Right).

More Lia’s Cakes. I haven’t tried the puto bumbong cake yet, but I’m really curious about the taste. Their only branch is in Kapitolyo, so its a bit of a hassle to commute from where I live (QC). The avocado cheesecake is also one of my favorites.

And finally, I tried painting matcha desserts referenced online. I tried to make different line thickness for the white parts and failed. HAHA. The main color that I used here is Winsor & Newton’s Sap green, mixed with a bunch of random colors.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with food illustration. Its a bit challenging on deciding on how I want to render the drawing: to ink or not, to be realistic with it or as loose as I can. I used my moleskine watercolor pad for this (which I bought years ago and didn’t like). But now I love this pad HAHA. I guess through experience with watercolor? I want to try painting food again soon, but for now, I’ll try another different subject.