Rest of 2023 Works

June 3, 2024June 3, 2024

I finally had time again to work on more blog entries. This will finally be the last 2023 entry! So, after 4 conventions last year, I decided that December will be my “rest month” before I tackle 2024. My hands were recovering at this point, and I could finally hold a brush again. It was time to get back to painting!

The paintings above were practice pieces, from left to right – a rainbow peony on Canson XL watercolor paper. I still have a lot of this type of paper that I use for practice without feeling guilty because there’s an abundance of it; another peony on a new watercolor pad that I bought from one of the events, its an 1264 Fabriano 300gsm watercolor pad in A4 size; an A4 sized cattleya painting as a practice piece before creating the 2 ft x 2 ft painting commission. I always believe that you should do warm up paintings first before you dive into larger pieces, just to get used to painting again and practicing the color mixes.

Below, also from left to right – our server’s December art jam was a Christmas Art Trade. The one I got requested the character Zoro from One Piece + Netflix & Chill. I have no idea how to interpret this wholesomely so I did that instead; we did a bonus round of art jam for our server admin’s birthday! I messaged most of the active members to contribute to this surprise, and thankfully they joined; finishing up my 2023 commitments by finally painting this office art trade. She requested a painting of her cute pet!

I continued painting on my 1264 watercolor pad. Nothing much to say about the left and right photo as they’re still practice pieces. The middle flowers are strawberry blooms. I made these for my planner sticker sheet of strawberry goodies.

Looking at the tags of this blog is so confusing. What counts as a compilation post, when everything in my blog posts are compilations? I should have written that somewhere. Maybe I should also clean up the tags while I have the time?

Inktober 2021 – Completed

January 15, 2022January 15, 20221 Comment

I’ve been wondering on how should I present my inktober works last 2021. This is the second time that I’ve completed inktober. The last time was around 2017 – and look at the way that blog post was designed. I had Inggo do that part, and I really didn’t feel like doing that again. So I’ve compiled my works into 3s this time. The prompt for 2021 was #artoberflowers by @shealeenlouise. I researched for reference photos a month before and used her 2020 prompt before she posted a 2021 version. So my works are a mix of both. And again, another picture heavy post ahead!

Peony, Buttercup, Foxglove.

Peony – The first drawing showed how I was experimenting and planning on how I want to do this inktober. I used lines to form the folds of the petals, and I also tried out hatches and cross hatching for the shades of the petals. I’m not really fond of this piece, but it is a good reminder that this is what it looks like whenever I’m doing something again.

Buttercup – Inktober and October in general is another excuse to bring out my markers again.

Foxglove – This is the drawing that shows I’m getting used to my inks again. More hatches and 0.05 goodness. I used my college unipin markers for this

Above – Hellebore, Daffodil, Tulip | Below – Azalea, Primula, Sakura

Hellebore – With this piece, I’m experimenting on how I should render the petals. Should I focus on the petals? Shadows? What about contrast? Some things to think about when inking.

Daffodil – The day that I made this piece was a good 0.05 thickness kind of day! From my hellebore work that showed the folds individually, this one showed the shadows of the folds for a softer look. I especially loved the lowest petal on the drawing.

Tulip – Pretty proud of this one! It took a lot of restraint to hatch shadows on the petals. Sometimes simplicity is the only thing that’s needed in a piece. ♥

Azalea – I didn’t write much on my instagram post about this one. I really liked the way I hatched the shadows on the petals, its similar to what I did on my daffodil drawing.

Primula – Getting tired of inking using unipins so I got out my freebie brush pen from @pennarr.ph when I ordered from them. I used it on the leaves and it made an amazing effect.

Above – Anemone, Sunflower, Orchid | Below – Lilac, Forsythia, Crocus

Anemone – This was actually the first one I inked for inktober! I used my new brush pens creating the lineart and left it for a while to get started on the peony one. Pretty proud of the hatched petal folds! I was also practicing how to use my brush pens. I love the various line thickness that I can have with just one pen. Hatches are still 0.05 unipin and a lot of patience.

Sunflower – Also another happy piece! I used my brush pens for lineart, and the unipins for the hatch shadings.

Orchid – Feeling a bit guilty of not using my markers, I used them in this piece since I had the colors needed. Some warm greys, yellow, and green for a phalaenopsis orchid. Mental note that if I ever wanted to pursue markers in the future that I need to hoard more greens. In my IG note – I did this in markers because my hands were hurting from too much inking and hatching.

Lilac – This one took 3 days because we discovered Pokemon Unite lol. The start of distractions!

Forsythia – One of my attempts of lessening my hatches to help my hand recover. If you’ve noticed my works, I have a hard time doing minimal lines and go crazy on hatches. But sometimes simple is a bit better.

Crocus – I find it funny that after writing about wanting to help my hand recover, I went crazy with the hatches here. Oops.

Above – Magnolia, Hollyhock, Hyacinth | Below – Poppy, Iris, Dahlia

Magnolia – I would consider this one of my more simpler works lol. I really love the effect my brush pen did on this leaves.

Hollyhock – But my heart is already set on intricate petal details. Because look at what I did on this!

Hyacinth – Nothing much to say, even on IG. I wrote that I’m slowing down a bit – maybe due to work and IRL responsibilities?

Poppy – Liking the subtle pure black shadows that I added after hatching everything. I feel that this is also one of the simpler ones.

Iris – In an attempt of lessening my hatches yet again, I used brush pens to create the line art and big hatches for shadows. Looks a bit messy but I like it a lot!

Dahlia – The petals with the streaky and spotty pattern was a challenge to ink this time! And I changed how I hatched the petals. Only in one direction but some parts are denser so it would imitate shadows.

Above – Daisy, Rose, Fritillaria | Below – Hibiscus, Clematis, Begonia

Daisy and Rose – nothing much to say here except both were simple. I needed to rest my hands again.

Fritillaria – The reason for resting my hands was so I could go hatch crazy with this one. Who knew that there’s a flower that has this cute checkered pattern!? I love it.

Hibiscus – I was not really feeling this one when I was inking it. I found a really old marker pen and used it for shadows on some parts. After scanning and cleaning it up, I sorta like it?

Clematis – Hatch crazy again. I liked the left part of the petal where I made the shadow parts.

Begonia – I had this thought “Ballpens are INK too”. So I used my Titus pens for this.

Forget me not, Geranium, Pansy, Gardenia

Forgot me not – The REAL forget me not is blueish and fuzzy. Plumbago is mistaken as forget me not here in the Philippines and I could see why!

Geranium – I wanted to focus on the leaves. Its not really visible here, but I did pointism on the stems because someone was requesting it on Instagram lol

Pansy – This is similar to the way I hatched my dahlia piece. It felt a bit simpler to do!

Gardenia – One of my favorite flowers made with brush pens and unipins.

And that’s it! I learned a lot on this inktober run – my preferences, habits, and perseverance. I also learned that I love using brush pens! I bought some more as a reward to myself for completing this one lol. Looking at my IG page – it seems there’s not a lot left to talk about for now. We’ll see!

Art vs Artist 2020

December 25, 2020August 29, 2021Leave a comment

Me and my flowers.

Me and my experiments.

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

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.

Stickercon Pre-event Art Tambay

April 10, 2019August 7, 2020Leave a comment

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 ♥

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.

Ragnarok Addiction

January 21, 2018August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Suffrie x Rainee forever ♥

Last year, it was announced that the first MMORPG in the Philippines will return. Ragnarok Online opened its servers once again. Obviously, I made fanarts.

During my marker phase. ♥ I drew differently back then!

I’ve already mentioned my addiction to Ragnarok from this post. So, obviously we (those on the cover image) hardcore played the game. It was our first time to play together on an official server though! I don’t think I’ve mentioned here before, but I met Inggo at RF Online instead of Ragnarok. It was also a good thing that are chosen jobs are perfect for each other! ♥

Full Support Priestess & Agi/Dex Hunter. ♥

The 3rd jobs: Ranger & Arch Bishop.

I’ve also mentioned this on Instagram. I think that you need to be obsessed with something in order to improve your art. I’ve accumulated a ton of fanart because I was this obsessed with this game! If I would compare my artwork from 2003 to now, I could say that there really was an improvement on everything: anatomy, color selection, inking, etc. Not the best, but there’s personal improvement.

Left: Watercolor practice | Right: Color pencil practice.

These were some requests from my former guildmates on Fenrir server.

I would also like to note that the watercolor pieces were made with canson paper and prang watercolors. They’re the student grade representatives for watercolor and I still love using them! I don’t have to worry about anything, I just had to create. ♥

And I think I have to draw more with this style. I still need improvement!

Ragnarok Online – Marker process

January 16, 2018August 7, 20201 Comment

I’ve been digging around my external hard drive and found some photos that I haven’t shared yet. These are my work in progress / process photos of a fanart that I did years ago. How old? Around 4 years.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before on my blog. During my teenage years, I’ve been obsessed with the MMORPG Ragnarok Online. I played in the official Philippine Ragnarok Online servers from 2003 – 2007 (Fenrir server represent!) and played at private servers from 2007 onward. At around 2011 or 2012, I played with my friends from another game called Fantasy Earth Zero on a private server after FEZ closed down. These are our characters from the said private server:

Sketch! ♥

From upper left: Vorg (Royal guard), Kharn (Sura), Lhaikz (Geneticist), me (Arch bishop), Lower left: Melt (Geneticist)

Right of me: Pants (Sorcerer), Below me: Fols (Guillotine Cross)

Inked version. I used my leftover unipins from college.

You have to check your inking pens first if they’re compatible with markers. Some pens bleed when used with markers. I learned that the hard way huhu. I also use various thickness for the unipins namely: 0.05, 0.1, and 0.3. 0.05 is the hardest to find.

I dunno what happened to the fur HAHA.

It’s either lack of skill or laziness.

Coloring process. I always start with flesh tones first.

During our third year, we had an interior design class that required our plates to be rendered in markers instead of watercolors. I only had zig kurecolor and shin han touch markers back then (and a limited color palette for interiors) because they were expensive. After the said class though, I still collected them and branched out to flesh tones and other colors. It was also during that time that a local store named Fullybooked started selling the Letraset Pro and Tria markers.

I also worked from right to left because I’m left-handed. (with a handkerchief because of sweaty palm)

Doing all the same colors will also save time.

Close-ups. Even though Melt & Lhaikz were the same class, they had different color schemes. (Because its a private server lol).

Lhaikz & I. They did that pose because Fols’ headgear was a bunnyband.

I think it was only Pants and I that had the original Ragnarok colors. The others customized theirs.

Sometimes I use a very light violet for shadows. I think this was Mauve Violet – Touch marker.

Finished! ♥

From what I remember, this was my first artwork that I did with a lot of people on it. Although not anatomically correct, I still had fun. My friends also liked this image too. They’re been asking recently if I could make another one soon. Maybe I should? If I have time. I’m not sure if I’ll use markers or watercolor, though!

Lineart

June 17, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Last year, adult coloring books became popular in Manila. Being the kuripot/hipster person that I am – I bought a plain notebook so I could make my own coloring book HAHAHA. I also did the Inktober Challenge that time. So, anyway!

2016 06 lineart 1

Feeling a bit guilty for not painting – I brought my plain notebook and markers to work. This used to be my main medium but it got too expensive for me so I switched. And the fact that I feel limited to the colors. Right now, I’m in the mood for inking linearts again. So here are some artworks that I did this week.

2016 06 lineart 2

Ragnarok Online wanderer. I plan on coloring the left side with color pencils.

I also did a fanart of my Arch Bishop in the same notebook months ago:

This is the reason why I can’t use my markers on the left side.

Sola ♥.

The left eye is wrong :c

2016 06 lineart 5

2016 06 lineart 6

2016 06 lineart 7

2016 06 lineart 8

I did this today. Obviously I only brought my flesh tone markers HAHA.

I did the hair using a cheap ballpen.

Ahhh. Satisfied ♥. Time to do more artworks later!

Time & Instagram

March 8, 2016May 4, 20171 Comment

Have you read this quote from other bloggers before? “I’m sorry I’m too busy to blog, but please follow me on my instagram, I update more often there!“. As for me, I can’t even give that as a reason HAHAHA. I feel guilty for not posting as much as I want to here. But no, I’m still not giving up! I just need time to draw. Life is too busy due to overtime at work almost everyday, sigh. But that is not a reason to stop and try to do a little art everyday, no?

Back in the early days of my IG account, I posted my lineart drawings. Mostly anime-ish, pencil / pen line art and sometimes rendered with markers. You know, quick sketches that you could do easily every night. I read somewhere it’s better to keep continuously making art so you won’t lose your momentum. I should do that again sometime. As for now… let me reminisce.

Well. I stopped because I noticed that I was drawing the same girl with bangs facing front, hahaha. But it’s better than nothing, no? Again. I promise that I’ll make more time for art. So I could post it online and document my progress.

Cheers.