StickerCon MNL 2022

January 10, 2023October 1, 20231 Comment

Our 4th StickerCon MNL experience as January Makers PH. It feels familiar and new at the same time. StickerCon MNL 2022 had a new venue – White Space Manila. We had a member shuffle – Monique opt out this time. Aira (@airadenisee) was invited to our group. There were restrictions in how many people were allowed behind the table due to covid protocols of the venue. There’s no custom pin for artist ids this year.

This is our first time to table with StickerCon MNL on October. It is the organizer’s favorite event of the year, and we were encouraged to come in costume. I bought bunny and cat ears for our group! Sadly, Hannah and Jean weren’t able to attend that day, so it was just 4 of us. We had a random draw on who were our designated sellers that day – Aira and Shine (@tingeofshine) were our hardworking sellers! Clair (@claircolors) was our seller in front who was assisting interested customers.

Thankful to my officemates and friends who came by – Abie, DJ, Jerome, Ate Jen, etc. They bought some of our group’s stickers! As for me, even if I had no cash in hand that day, I managed to buy stickers. In the surprise of no one, every store had QR code payment options (Gcash, Paymaya, Paypal, even BDO pay). This was pretty useful since some people people cashless payments nowadays. It was a good thing that we offered this as well!

My humble set-up. I bought acrylic trays from Daiso for my individual stickers. I also re-used my acrylic display stand for my other stuff. I should also mention that we loved that there’s a food and drink concessionaire outside. The ones they selected had really good food!

Monique also stopped by StickerCon! I would like to congratulate her as she had her first pottery exhibit last November. We weren’t able to visit sadly due to conflicting schedules.

Thankful for the chance to do this once more. ♥

Urban Sketchers Manila & Kyusi

January 1, 2023March 28, 2024

Last year (2022), I also participated in Urban Sketchers Manila and Urban Sketchers Kyusi events. What is Urban Sketchers? Their mantra can be found here.

There are two groups that I know of here in Metro Manila – Urban Sketchers Manila and Quezon City. But the sketch locations are not locked within their areas. So we try to participate in events that are nearby.

It was actually Hannah (@hmb_urger) who wanted to join these types of events. So when I heard that they’re active again, we went to Binondo for their Binondo church sketch crawl. USK had permission to paint/sketch inside the church. We wanted to paint the church architecture but sadly it was raining that day.

They gave us a free watercolor paper. We could sketch on it and submit the painting to be included in their Chinatown Museum exhibit, I think? I sketched the church’s intricate column. Sadly forgot to take a photo of the finished piece. My second painting was one of the doors with dramatic lighting. I tried my best. This was done on my strathmore landscape watercolor pad. One of the members also made a video about the event:

Next up is the Quezon City, or Kyusi event at Quezon Memorial Circle.

Most of their events usually falls on a Sunday morning. Hannah was not available for this event due to the morning schedule. She’s not a morning person haha. Shine (@tingeofshine) was available, so we went to this event. Inggo also accompanied us because he wanted to jog.

I used pens for my work because I was too lazy to set up my watercolors. I also prefer this location since I got to draw trees. I’m not really an urban sketcher, but I’ll try everything! It just feels like college plates all over again if I only draw architecture. Instead of drawing the iconic memorial, I drew this local coffee shop.

Overall it was a fun experience. I especially love the latag time, where everyone will display their works on the ground. You could see different styles and techniques which is always interesting. The next thing that I love are the stamps lol. I LOVE getting the stamp whenever I finish an artwork. ♥ I actually got to join another one recently, but that will have a separate post.

See you in another sketch walk this 2023 maybe? ♥

PGW Art Tambay

January 1, 2023October 1, 2023

I finally joined the Philippine Guild of Watercolorists last year (since its already 2023, oops!). The first event that I participated is the August PGW Art Tambay at Art Whale Maginhawa. It is a nude sketching event partnered with Sunday Nudes. It was an event with many firsts – antigen swab test, meet up with PGW, and painting a nude model.

The order of my paintings are from the beginner up to the end. I think it is a bit obvious on how comfortable I got to painting the last one. I am not used to painting the human figure. (I paint 90% florals, 5% food & 5% fauna). This was a new and welcoming experience to PGW. Everyone was friendly! It was nice to meet everyone there. I’m excited to join future events .

Also can I just put a disclaimer here that I was NOT the nude model. Someone on IG asked if I was the model since we had similar hair. Ugh!

Art whale also had a discount for PGW members so I couldn’t resist buying some art materials for myself . I bought a Strathmore Series 400 Landscape watercolor pad and a Hahnehmuhle watercolor pad. I’ve been using the strathmore watercolor pad in future events (aka Urban Sketchers events – in future posts).

After the event, I met up with Inggo at Old Baguio Cafe so we could finally tick it off the “to eat” list. I also wanted to take reference photos of the desserts because of –Stickercon MNL 2022. More posts to come!

National Museum of Natural History

December 29, 2022December 29, 2022Leave a comment

May 2022 was a busy month.

Our exhibit “Natural Heritage in Focus: The Philippine Flora and Fauna Art Exhibition” at the Upper Courtyard of the National Museum of Natural History ran from May 24 until October 3, 2022. This is in partnership with Philippine Botanical Art Society and Philippine Fauna Art Society in celebration of National Heritage Month and International Day for Biological Diversity. We went to the exhibit opening last May 24, 2022.

I went to work in the morning that day and bragged about the exhibit opening to almost everyone in the office HAHA. I was proud of myself and my officemate Trisha as we both got accepted in the exhibit. This was a juried exhibit where 3 botanists judged our artwork based on accuracy and talent. After work, Inggo fetched me from there, and we both went to NMNH in the afternoon.

Hello to Lolong! One of the largest crocodiles in the world.

It was our first time to visit the NMNH after renovation. National Museum visits are now free to public for a long time now, but we didn’t have a chance to visit because its too far from us. When we got there, we were treated as VIPs in the exhibit opening. It was a wonderful experience. Ms. Bing’s speech, even though I’ve heard it numerous times already, had more impact at that time because it felt like all of her hard work came into fruition with this exhibit. I also got to finally meet Sherilyn again! Here are some photos of the exhibit opening. Thank you to Inggo for being our photographer!

Definitely one of the highlights of this year! ♥

Of Art and Wine: Para sa Kalikasan Part II

December 14, 2021December 14, 20212 Comments

Getting back to the present year of 2021: Once again, I submitted another flower painting to Philippine Botanical Art Society for their latest exhibit “Of Art and Wine: Para sa Kalikasan Part II” in collaboration with Conrad Manila.

I was part of the virtual exhibit since I could not create a 30″ x 40″ watercolor painting due to the limited space in my current home. Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I’m the ~leader~ of our office art club. I kept on posting art events there on the chance that some of my officemates would be interested in joining. Finally, one of my officemates was interested in joining this exhibit. She has submitted her own 30″ x 40″ acrylic painting for the physical exhibit at Conrad Manila. Amazing!

For this exhibit, I finally decided to buy one of the highest quality paper out there – Arches! I bought mine from The Oil Paint Store since they have a branch near our place. I got the 24″ x 32″ paper size so I could submit the 2nd largest size requirement for the exhibit. I had to draft the required dimensions of the painting using a standard ruler size and placed washi tapes as borders for the painting. And the arches paper, wow! You could tell the difference from the first brush stroke. There’s no blooms, and the paint blends beautifully.

After the exhibit with PhilBas and Conrad Manila, this painting is also exhibited at PNPCSI’s (Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society Inc.) 6th International Symposium held last November 15 to 19, 2021, in collaboration again with Philippine Botanical Art Society. ♥ This painting is still for sale! Please message PhilBas or PNPCSI if you’re interested!

And after two exhibits, my artwork is part of the next open call poster:

This one will be a challenge for sure! The paintings will be judged first in our home country, and then will be judged the second time in Singapore. My officemate plans on joining as well. Good luck to both of us! ♥

Philippine Flora

August 29, 2021December 14, 2021Leave a comment

I submitted another artwork for Philippine Botanical Art Society last May for their Philippine Flora exhibit in collaboration with the DFA Philippines!

My painting is a mabolo fruit. Finding references is hard during this pandemic. Luckily, the tree beside the apartment is actually an endemic tree! This is a mabolo fruit, from the kamagong tree. This is actually the first time that I heard of the fruit, as the wood is more valuable part of the tree!

The exhibit website is found here. Hopefully its still up! ♥

StickerCon 2020 Haul

September 28, 2020September 28, 2020Leave a comment

It’s time for the haul post! I had a bit of time to explore the venue since we took turns manning our booth.

Loot from our table: Sawsawan sticker sheet by MNQ Illustration, Skyscapes by TingeofShine, Herbs set by seamountainco, and Pomeranian stickers by Hmb_urger. ♥

Can I just say that uploading photos in WordPress is a bit of a bitch right now? Whenever I publish a post, the image captions get jumbled up and when I try to edit them, the text separates from the image caption setting. Ugh.

Calligraphy sticker sheet and Planner stickers by claircolors, But first coffee by MNQ Illustration, and Fashionable girls by HMB_urger.

Caution and Tita sticker from ella_lama, The artist sticker from louisermos

Sunflower strip, white flowers by alfajone, Penguin by Studio Dondon, Cat from meowproject, Proud Plant parent, moon, and rose by Kara Leonardia, Goodbye money by _katepaints

Hannah and I bought cat stickers as pasalubong for Aira lol.

Anddd I think that’s all of my haul! ♥

StickerCon 2020

September 27, 2020December 28, 2022Leave a comment

I will finally blog about the most coveted event of the year – StickerCon MNL 2020! We got the group table for our 6 member team. ♥

Our IDS!

Some last minute promotions lol.

Super happy with our table set-up. Shine bought a pink furry throw that we could use on our table. The table cloth usually used for cons is in black. The throw completes our girly aesthetic HAHA.

Sticker sheets by Clair, Fashion stickers by Hannah, Skyscapes sticker by Shine. ♥

On the left side of our table were Clair and Hannah’s individual stickers. ♥

More of Hannah’s animal stickers on our mesh wire display.

Some of Hannah’s fashion stickers.

Hannah’s post cards. ♥

Monique’s best sellers – sticker sheets!

Seamountainco’s stickers.

Hello to my post card collection. ♥

And my new flower sheets!

How will I describe our experience here? It was tiring yet amazing, crazy fun, and super supportive! The line outside was super long the whole day. We are grateful to everyone who attended and supported all the artists in this event. ♥ Thank you again to the organizers for another successful event. To our friends who visited, promoted, and supported our group. To table mates who understand the craziness of it all. I hope there will be a 4th one after this pandemic. But for now, let’s all STAY SAFE!

StickerCon 2020 Prep

September 22, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

To be accepted in the most coveted event of year for the third time has a bit of pressure. I knew I needed to create something new for the con. I’ve already created stock for Feb Komiket and had a lot left over. So the only problem was making something new to entice people to attend Stickercon and visit our booth.

My flower sticks look so pretty in a tray. ♥

The delivery box.

I had my stickers and postcards delivered to my office. Pictured above was the box that it came in. My officemates were also excited in helping me cut again this time HAHA. I gave them Coco milk tea as “salary”. Thank you so much!

Also bought some organizers this time. ♥

Sorting time!

I also realized that putting everything in a plastic envelope ruined some of my stickers. So I had to buy some plastic and acrylic organizers so I could sort and pack them safely. I bought these from Japan Home Center.

For the new stickers, I thought of bringing back my old sets but with new art and in kiss cut. The cut-it-yourself sticker pack didn’t last long, haha. I made and compiled artworks for Sunny (Sunflower, Rainy (Hydrangea), and Peony (Previously named Romantic) sets.

Some studies for Rainy set. I didn’t get to use every painting that I did.

More hydrangea studies.

And lots more!

This was a large painting that I definitely had to include.

An attempt at loose lotus painting. Didn’t liked it.

Another painting. Didn’t make the cut.

I made a lot of peonies. But I only chose two from this page.

Final sticker sets. ♥ I printed these sets the night before Stickercon. Whew!

Next up would be the event proper post. I hope I could write about it soon.♥

Feb Komiket 2020 Haul

September 6, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

With every convention, there is always a haul post! February Komiket is no exception. With over 800 artists, it will take a while to browse the whole area. But I think its worth it since you’ll get to discover new artists to love. And with that, below is my humble haul during my 2 days of Komiket. ♥

Mini art print and bookmark from Astro Jimbo. | Dog drink from nicholecruz | Circle sticker from Velbe. I didn’t get the artist name for the Cup noodles. 🙁

Pretty floral stickers from Sarah Cordial Designs

Mini art print from seamountainco

Cutie leche flan pin from Larojo Art (She’s my former officemate’s sister!) | Cat pin from The Offbeat Cat| Penguin pin from Studio Dondon

Sunflower sticker sheet from Sherilyndraws (small world, she’s my officemate’s classmate back in college lol) | Isometric houses sticker sheet from chichilittle | Moon Phases from Tinge of Shine

Aqua sticker from Judy’s friend | Nezuko sticker from Judy-chan | Naughty Ending from Yours Dearly| Bitchin’ glitter sticker from Eira gem