Category: Art

Art Tambays

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Hello! I’m still adjusting to my new schedule huhu but hopefully I get to squeeze time to do art stuff soon! For now let me reminisce about my art tambays with friends from the past months.

Poppies. ♥

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BhHfrNPHLPo/?taken-by=suffnirain

The first one was way back in March at Coffee Project. There were the usual peeps Clair (@claircolors), Hannah (@hmb_urger), Nickey (@wyrdlittlethings) and new peeps Cami (@c4m1sama) and Dani (@cyanoscarlet). ♥ Everyone had a good time, I think! All of us had the same interests and talked about anime / manga hahaha. We even had an art activity where one would draw the lineart and another person would color.

I drew the lineart on the lower left and colored the one beside it. ♥

The second art tambay was at Coffee Project again last Labor day. It was comprised of me, Hannah, Clair, Mjoy (@majoy525), and Clair’s other friends. Jean was also supposed to join us, unfortunately something came up.

A momo botan. ♥

Nothing significant to write about this one. Except that I really, really love my Berkeley watercolor pad! HAHA. And I got to try Clair’s carmine color from Holbein. I bought myself a tube when I got my salary HAHA.

Just some floral practice.

The third one was more intimate. I met with Hannah & Aira (@airadenisee) for our usual Banawe Art Tambay. Aira and I had a “birthday exchange gift” thing since our birthdays were last March & April HAHA. I also brought larger paper with me that time. It was an A4 Aquafine Daler Rowney that I bought from SG a few years ago. Still trying to get used to it! Hannah’s favorite paper is the Canson Montval one.

Left: my painting. | Right: Hannah’s bubble princess painting HAHA.

Dramatic light that got a hundred likes HAHAHA. ♥

The last one is with the January Makers PH at CBTL Katips. We had a hard time painting due to the bad lighting. But it was fun bonding and catching up with the original art tambayers ♥ Present were: Me, Hannah, Shine (@tingeofsunshine), Monique (@mnq_illustration), and Jean (@seamountainco & @jeankelly11)

Apparently not in the mood to paint.

I hate this rose. Huhu.

And that’s it! Blogging about this made me realize that I have a LOT of pending things to do and talk about! Argh! But real life responsibilities first huhuhu. I’ll try my best to blog more in the future! In the meantime, I update a lot more on Instagram so please visit me there. ♥ (I find this funny since two years ago, I ranted about it this HAHA).

Art vs Artist

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I noticed that some of my friends were joining the #ArtVsArtist hashtag on Instagram. Being the inggitera that I am, I also joined in HAHA. Here are my versions:

Flower version. ♥

Portrait version. ♥

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Yes, that’s me in the middle. I used to have my signature straight bangs but maintaining it was a chore, so I decided to let it grow for a while. This was taken during my birthday celebration a few days ago. ♥

Florals

Since I’m usually known as the flower painter in our group, that’s the first photo. I liked how bright, fun, and a little bit loose my flowers looked here. I hope to paint more different flowers than these four: sunflowers, hydrangeas, peonies, and magnolias!

Portrait

Ever since I was young, I always drew in anime style. Through the years though, I’ve been practicing realistic/semi-realistic portraits. And this version shows the different styles that I can do. ♥

The top layer represents my childhood HAHA. Back then, I stubbornly did drawings on MS Paint using a mouse with my right hand. Stubbornly because my left hand is the dominant one. It paid off, I think! The top layer are my latest drawings on MS Paint.

The middle layer shows my favorites from my Inktober challenge last year. I can also do traditional ink drawings using unipins and various pens. My stubborn, younger self also indulged in using these pens on making my own manga HAHAHA. That again, paid off through constant practice and obsession (and through drafting class in college).

The lower layer shows my progress. Although far from my realistic portrait goals, I’m satisfied with what I can do now. The people on the lower left are the founders of our January Makers PH group. The middle one is the family portrait commission that I did last year for a friend. And the last one is just another portrait practice using watercolor.

Moleskine

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It’s April already! ♥ Why do I feel like everything is just a blur? The months went by so fast, huhu. There are still so many things that I haven’t talked about here on my blog and I feel like I’m running out of time already. One of them is about my rekindling relationship with my Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Peony. (2018 version)

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2016 03 peony

Peony. (2015 version)

I bought this notebook a few years ago through Amazon since it was rare in the Philippines. When I started using watercolor back in 2015, I used this notebook for practice. I found this moleskine notebook again about when I was looking for a notebook to use for the food illustration thing that I did. Since both pages can be used for watercolor, I painted on the opposite side to compare my watercolor journey.

Hydrangea. (2018)

2016 03 hydrangea1

Hydrangea. (2015)

Sunflower. (Sketch 2015 / Colored 2018).

I loved the comparison paintings. ♥ You could see my improvements from the muddy, save-the-painting-with-color pencil peony from 2015 to the bright, confident, lots of contrast peony from 2018. It’s the same with the hydrangea! The old one I tried to save it by using white poster paint, while the new one is just confident and used shadows for contrast. With that confidence, I felt like I could finally use my moleskine to its potential lol.

A red rose with confident, bold strokes. I didn’t do a pencil sketch for this.

A waterlily that I had a hard time painting. I think I did this on IG live.

A warm-up painting referenced from pinterest.

Quince from an art tambay. The pinks I used there was seamountainco’s newest color. ♥

Magnolia ♥ My favorite!

During our StickerCon prep, I didn’t have any idea on what I want to do as a new sticker pack. But then someone told me that I already have a lot of current art that I could use as a product, so I followed their advice and made them into stamp-sized stickers.

I also wanted to do a StickerCon aftermath blog but I don’t have any pictures HUHU. It was a crazy, yet fun-filled day. Thank you to everyone who came to our booth that day! ♥

Artworks (November 2017 – February 2018)

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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

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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

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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. ♥

Something New

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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.

Society 6

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

So what is society 6?

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My Society 6 shop. ♥

Society 6 was the first e-commerce website that I first registered with. I heard about it through Youtube. I found out that you could have your artworks printed in their 30+ available products. You just need to pay $1 to become a registered artist/seller.

PROS/CONS

Some of my artworks.

Edit info page.

Uploading an artwork takes a bit of time, although I’m not sure if its just my internet at home. The photo above shows the next page once you’ve uploaded your artwork. Even typing the title, tags, and description has a bit of typing lag/delay. It’s weird!

Create products page.

From there you could adjust the prices for the art print, framed art print, and canvas prints. But you can’t adjust the prices anywhere else. To make your artwork available to their other products, you need to edit and resize it to the required dimensions. It can take a bit of time to get used to this, but when you finally upload your work it’s rewarding in a weird way.

Upload your artwork on different products like notebooks, bags, clocks, etc.

You can find templates for society 6 products on their website or online from other people. Some products that I’d want to try next time are the backpacks & duffle bags. I’m not sure yet how my flowers would look on those products! Haha.

My notebooks. ♥

Another cool thing about Society 6 is that sometimes they offer free shipping! They’re the most frequent website that offers this promo. They also have different promos every other week so be sure to check the site out.

Overall I’m happy with Society 6. By uploading my artworks, I get a bit of passive income that goes straight to my paypal account every end of the month. I also get to improve my photoshop skills by editing my artworks and learning new techniques to make my workflow faster.

The only thing left is to market myself more. HAHA.

Please check out my Society 6 shop if you want my art. ♥