Category: Art materials

Another break and winning a contest

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This post has been sitting on my drafts for more than year. I had to go back to Instagram to check my posts so this title would make sense again. Anyway, this was after Inktober 2021. After successfully completing Inktober for the 2nd time in my life, I was burned out. I thought that I deserved a rest, and so I took a break. Here are some the few artworks that I did on this break.

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The painting above is a sunflower painting that I did with a scrap arches paper that I cut out from the huge sheet that I did for my katmon painting. Its still unfinished though! And I doubt that I’ll finish this. The ink artworks below are for Kathleen’s @deartoourhearts ‘ birthday giveaway where you need to create an artwork of an endemic plant or animal from the Philippines. I made a Katmon Dillenia philippinensis and a Tawilis Sardinella tawilis. Katmon because her name is “Kath” hehehe. And tawilis because for some reason I know some facts about this fish. Tawilis is a freshwater sardine only found in Taal lake! This species is now endangered due to overfishing and other illegal fishing activities

I also participated in PNPCSI’s symposium botanical art workshop. The recently discovered Begonia beijnenii was the subject. I did this using prismacolors and surprisingly won. ♥ Happy for this achievement!

Mijello Pure Pigment Set

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Last year, I finally bought one of the watercolor sets that I’ve been eyeing for years. This is the Mijello Pure Pigment set. It is a Korean brand that sells artist brand paints. I wanted this because I learned that for watercolors, having one pigment used for the paint is ideal due to lightfastness concerns and to prevent muddy colors.

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I bought mine on Shopee, from a korean seller than ships items to the Philippines. I also bought some metal palettes, half and full pans so I could make another custom palette. Below is the Mijello Pure Pigment set in full pans, the right one is my custom palette with different brands.

I tested these out immediately. And they do not disappoint! ♥ The stargazer lily on the second photo is actually the first painting that I made using this palette. The paint was so vibrant that I had a hard time adjusting at first. I think I also used a new mop brush and watercolor paper during this time? The watercolor bloom effects were obvious as well.

The orchid painting is a remake of a painting that I did 3 years ago (I even blogged about it here). For this one, I used a mix of my usual and new brushes so I could experiment some more. Really loved how this one turned out!

The last painting is a passiflora, or a passion fruit flower. We used to have this in our family garden! Painting the details was hard, and I had to use poster paint for the squiggly lines. 

After a year of painting with the Mijello pure pigment set, I’m pretty happy! I love my full pan set. I still need to learn more about mixing colors though! I haven’t experimented with the blues yet. I also added other mijello colors like Indigo and Naples Yellow since they are my convenient colors. 

Right now, I’m tempted to buy White Nights paints to try out as well. But maybe I’ll move this wish to another year.

Experimentation – Color pencils and markers

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The last of my experimentation series are color pencils and markers. Whenever I’m not in the mood to paint with watercolor, I usually grab my prismacolor pencils for some doodles. I’m not the best at coloring with color pencils, but it is fun, when you have the patience for it! ♥ Asides from flowers, I usually do different subjects whenever I’m in the mood for it. The drawing below is for my officemate’s Draw this in your style challenge:

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And funnily, that’s the only artwork that I did with markers. I felt like the markers alone felt a bit weak, so I grabbed my color pencils to add texture. Looks nice, I think! The sunflower artwork below had a watercolor base, then detailed with color pencils.

I remember the time when I was creating this rafflesia artwork. It was one of the busiest months in our office, and I was handling huge projects with a team. We were so busy that I only had time to make art during weekends. I did this on/off for weeks. Really loved the color layers on the green parts. All of the artworks below were done on my Van Gogh Sketchbook! 

And that’s it for my experiments. I had a lot of fun. So far, I made 12 blog posts about 2020 already. I hope I could do more, or my “2021 posts in 2022” would turn into a reality hahaha. 

Art vs Artist 2020

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Me and my flowers.

Me and my experiments.

The prompt is trending again on Instagram. So let’s do this again! ♥

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The first photo shows the works that I am proud of. The orchid pattern that I created for a contest (which made me try out patterns for POD sites), a white anemone flower that I really loved the rendering of, a bunch of bright poppies for world watercolor month, a lotus experiment with gold poster paint, a fully fledged gold poster painting of an orchid (that I donated to our office for their donation drive!), a set of poppies painted on stubborn paper by a stubborn artist, my katmon painting for an exhibit, and finally, a red rose that will forever be a challenge.

The second photo shows the works that I experimented with. I used most of my art materials this year. On days that I don’t paint flowers, I usually do portraits or food instead. But someday I hope to do animals and landscapes too! I experimented with: himi miya gouache, started sketching again with pencils, played with ink and gold paint, food illustrations with my usual palette, and finally used my markers again and color pencils. ♥

Also got a new watercolor palette! I bought the Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment set and its a dreammmm to work with! The paints are vibrant and I sometimes have a hard time adjusting to it lol. But its really great! Just need more practice. ♥

Overall, I’m happy with my works this year. I created art at my own quiet and steady pace that I wished for last year. I experimented with art materials! I tried out all of my ideas. ♥

I wish for it to continue to next year.

Himi Miya Gouache

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A few days after PaperCon, I bought the recently popular on Social Media gouache that looks reasonably priced for the amount you get – Himi Miya Gouache.

I got the pink cover! Bought this from Craft Central.

It’s reasonably priced! You’d get 24 colors in 30ml refillable jelly cases.

Below are some of my first artworks using this. I was still in my watercolor mode when I was making these. Its kinda hard to transition from one medium to another. I hope I could practice using this again!

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B4rjGSxnLjK/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4wICu8H_bv/

Keds Shoes artwork

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Early this year, someone asked me to paint her white Keds shoes since it was already dirty. She gave me the creative freedom to paint whatever subject that I want on her shoes – so I made peonies.

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I only had red, yellow, brown and green acrylics on hand. Since I didn’t have the time to buy additional paints, I settled on peonies as my subject. This was also the first time that I painted on Keds, so I have no idea what I’m doing.

My acrylic mixing paper plate.

Done! ♥

The sides were also dirty. I decided on painting leaves / mini peonies to these as well.

And done! I was satisfied with the final product. I want to do more of this in the future! ♥

Stickercon Pre-event Art Tambay

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Same with last year, the Stickercon team had a pre-event meeting for exhibitors to discuss the ingress/egress, additional reminders and rules, and to give out our Artist pins. I was the only representative again for our group. Thankfully, Clair and I were going to have our art tambay after the meeting. Some of our other friends were also planning this, so we all went to Shang after.

January Makers PH represent ♥

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What’s interesting about this art tambay is that I finally brought my markers with me. I let Clair try out my favorite colors. After learning that you can’t erase your mistakes in markers, she decided to not pursue it anymore HAHA.

Warm up!

And then I remember why I hated markers again. I felt limited to the colors. Even though I already brought a bunch, it felt like I couldn’t get all the colors that I want. Plus the prices of these went wayyyy up. It used to be 88~100php each. (It still is though in P. Noval, but its not accessible to me). And the ink! A marker would only take months before it runs out of ink. When we compared it to watercolor though, well, we immediately switched mediums. 

I finished the artwork with my Prismacolor pencils – another art material that I seldom use. My complaint with this one is that my hands are already sore and I’m still not done coloring! HAHA. With watercolor, its only just one stroke. Oh well. It’s still useful for the finishing touches?

It’s already the second week of April and I’m still not done with Stickercon blog posts! Stay tuned for the rest of the series HAHA. 

Custom Ceramic Plates

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One of my Christmas gifts to myself last year are these gorgeous custom ceramic plates by neshoi. She’s an artist friend who creates ceramic stuff like earrings and plates. I asked her if she could create custom shaped ceramic plates for me, and she took the challenge. I gave her my sketches and she created them from scratch/clay. I love them so much! ♥ 

Obviously my designs are flowers: a peony and an orchid. The peony’s purpose is for IG feed goals (that I haven’t used YET), while the orchid is for everyday use. ♥ I heard that a ceramic or porcelain palette is the best mixing surface for watercolor. And yes, I agree! The colors are vibrant, paints stay wet, mixing is a breeze, and apparently clean up is easy as well. 

Handmade watercolors by seamountainco

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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. ♥

Winsor & Newton Cotman

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After months of deciding, I finally bought my own Winsor & Newton Cotman set!

2016 08 W&N box

Ta daaaaa ♥

Since I can’t afford the 45 set yet, this will do. I ordered mine from The Opinionated Store. It was my first online purchase from a local art supply store. It was hassle free! I just messaged my order on their Facebook page, selected the method of payment (Online bank) and delivery (LBC), and I got it the next day ♥.

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2016 08 W&N closed

So pocket friendly!

2016 08 W&N unboxing 1

Just like yummy candy ♥

2016 08 W&N unboxing 2

With a travel brush!

The W&N Cotman sketchers pocket box is Winsor & Newton’s student grade. The colors included are: Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue,  Ultramarine, Intense blue or Pthalo Blue, Viridian, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Chinese White.

I can’t wait to try my new bbs. ♥