Month: February 2024

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. ♥

SW May – Brush Lettering Workshop

The 2nd top choice of our art club survey last year was calligraphy or brush lettering. This was scheduled to be the weekend before Mother’s Day (so they could write their letters fancy). Unfortunately I got sick and had to reschedule to two weeks from the planned date. Thankfully the workshop teacher is a very close friend of mine – Clair Colors.

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I asked the members to bring a marker with a brush tip since this is about brush lettering. Those who didn’t get to bring one, we brought our personal stash that they could borrow instead. Clair also provided workshop sheets that we needed to print out. These will be used for practice drills per stroke and letter. The same as last time – I opened this workshop to all employees, on site and in zoom. A lot of people joined this workshop as well. I hope those who joined got to practice some more after this!

How was the workshop? It was a new and interesting experience. I know there are different kinds of lettering out there, I chose brush calligraphy because I think this is one of the beginner friendly ones. Clair did a demo on all of the common strokes. She also did some flourish to make your letters fancier. It looked really easy at first – but like every other mediums, you need to practice. ♥

May come back

I finally had time to write! January 2024 was full of events and challenges it wasn’t even funny. I hope to write everything so I could finally catch up this blog. So around April, I discovered a new event by a new organizer and took the risk of joining. The event was Patrons of the Arts, last July 2023. I knew I had to make more sticker sheets, so I did more food illustrations.

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If I remember correctly, I wanted to even out the number of sticker sheets that I have. Last 2022, I had 5 sheets (2 flower related and 3 food related). I needed to produce 2 more sheets to make 5 food related ones, and 3 more for flowers. People wanted more food or dessert-related sheets, so I happily obliged and made more. I really love painting berry-related desserts. Something about their shine.

I wanted more variety so I made some chocolate and tart desserts. I like the detail on the left chocolate cake – the chiffon really stood out. The small plain tarts below is one of my favorite desserts – Portuguese egg tart! Lord Stows make the best ones in Metro Manila. ♥

The strawberry artworks was for the monthly prompt of PGW. I really love painting strawberries – they’re challenging, drawing those seeds need some planning/sketching to get it right, making them realistic and shiny! I had a hard time with the rainbow cake, it doesn’t really look that appetizing to me, and I should have sketched with more patience to get the details right. But oh well!

I’m feeling a little rusty with blogging. But I’m determined to really finish all of my 2023 posts! Let’s do this!