Forgot to blog about this last month, but my work was also included in Cancervant’s 6th Pay Ink Forward event!
Click here to see the virtual exhibit.
Category: Art
Art vs Artist 2020
Me and my flowers.
Me and my experiments.
The prompt is trending again on Instagram. So let’s do this again! ♥
Read MoreThe 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.
Punla Exhibit
Last month, the Philippine Botanical Art Society and Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Inc. had an open call for artists for their December exhibit entitled “Punla”. The exhibit aims to showcase the beauty of indigenous and endemic plants of the Philippines.
I’m proud to say that I got in! My Katmon and Waling-waling works were selected under the botanical inspired art category.
I hope that my works could be categorized under botanical illustration in the future! Its a long, challenging, and hopefully fun road ahead HAHA. ♥
You can find the online exhibit here.
StickerCon 2020 Haul
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
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.
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!
Watercolor practice at home
Found some pictures from some watercolor practices at home. I left my watercolor palette at my fiance’s house and I wanted to paint one night. Then I remembered that I have my Mijello tubes at home. So I used those and some extra art materials as well.
Mijello paints and my custom peony ceramic plate. ♥
A very loose sunflower painting. Photo in one of our office’s huddle spaces.
Pink rose.
Gumamela.
More loose practice. I liked the painting on the right with the combination of pink, yellow, and a bit of blue. ♥
And then tragedy struck! A ref magnet fell on my palette. 🙁
It was a fun experience painting without my usual art materials. I now try to do it every other creative day. ♥
StickerCon 2020 Prep
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.♥
2019 Artworks
When was the last time that I did a compilation post?! Two years ago! This feels so weird. It felt like I’ve been neglecting my blog after I got a job (I’m so sorry bb). I wanted to continue from the previous compilation blog, but I felt like I’ve blogged about most of my artworks here. The remaining ones didn’t have a lot to write about. So we’ll start with 2019. As always, photo heavy post ahead!
My first artwork on the Canson watercolor pad that I received last Christmas. ♥
A tropical feel artwork that I did days after Stickercon.
Gardenia on old watercolor paper.
The full piece. I think I also used Prang for the background?
Magnolia artwork. I found this color theory book in our office library and thought it would look good as a prop.
Some scibbles on my Moleskine watercolor pad.
Second page from my Moleskine pad.
Left: Practice peony. This took a long time detailing the petals. | Right: A random flower bouquet I referenced from Pinterest.
Sometimes I would have the patience to layer the petals. Most of the time, I don’t. This was a Berkeley paper.
Art tambay at Hannah’s house. I was thinking of new art for sticker sheets.
Left: Anemone bouquet practice. Daler Rowney paper and Mijello paints. | Right: Old canson watercolor pad and my usual watercolor palette. This was also made at Hannah’s, where I had an LSS on a detergent commercial song.
The way I painted this is so loose. I like it a bit.
I brought my Prismacolor pencils with me to work on day and left it on my pedestal so I could create art on idle time. On the left is my portrait practice, on the right is my team mate’s.
Then our team thought “We should buy a team sketchpad”. So we did, and I’ve been using mine during downtime. | Right: There was a time that I didn’t want to paint flowers, so I painted a portrait instead? Whyyyy.
Snapdragon painting that I did at Tweedlebook Cafe.
I sometimes got lazy to scan and edit my works. So I just took pictures under natural light. On the right is Nori trying to get in my way by posing near my works lol.
Tulip practice. Ruth gave me reference photos that she took from a tulip festival in Japan. The first attempt was on the left, and I hated the paper. So I redid it on my bigger canson watercolor pad. (I kept and re-used the paper on the left for my gouache works).
Some paintings that I find “ugly”. I think I don’t paint perfect or pretty flowers all the time. There will always be bad art. And that’s okay. Just paint the bad art away and you’ll create something good again. ♥
In our Office Secret Santa, I wished for a one time big time gift – 1k worth of watercolor paper. And my secret santa delivered! Thank you to Nadine! I especially loved the gift wrapper lol. It’s already September and I still have a lot of stock left!
Left: my awesome gift | Right: my first artwork
Since our office hour on our team ends at 3pm, we had a LOT of time to wait for the start of our Christmas party. I painted during the down time.
Another peony practice. One of my officemates loved this painting so much, so I gave it to her. It is now proudly displayed in their home. ♥
My last works would be from my art tambay with my cousin. Didn’t really felt that focused, I think.
Finished, but not perfect.
Feeling a bit lost, but still the same loose strokes.
And that’s it for my 2019 artworks! Hopefully I’ll post my 2020 compilations this year too.
Feb Komiket 2020 Haul
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
Feb Komiket 2020
Our artist group, January Makers PH‘s first convention for 2020 was February Komiket, held at SM Megamall Megatrade Hall B.
Our pretty sellers ID! Art by Mervin Malonzo.
We’ve been to Komiket as visitors / buyers numerous times in the past. Last year, we were thinking of joining since we noticed that not all of the artists there were selling comics (although this is encouraged). Some artists were selling original and fan art prints, while some sell their handmade merch. Through some encouragement from our friends, we applied for Feb Komiket 2020 since there’s nothing to lose anyway.
Well, we got our 2 slots! One surprising thing is that they moved venues. From the usual Eton Centris events center, to the bigwig SM Megamall Megatrade Hall. Some of us had prior experience to working with malls, and this one is known for their strict protocols. There were SO many requirements and rules from both the organizers and the mall, we had to thoroughly review and clarify a lot of items through email and attend the exhibitors meeting.
Personally, I like rules. I also like emails since it will leave a paper trail if there are any possible disputes. What I don’t like are: miscommunication, wording, and timing of some announcements.
This was a 2 day event. Warning: picture heavy post ahead!
My side of the table ♥
My usual display of my flower sticker sets.
My display of my individual glossy and pearl stickers. ♥
Clair’s planner stickers! I love the tracker versions. ♥
Clair’s post cards.
Some of her individual stickers. I love the Send noods sticker HAHA.
Hannah’s individual stickers. Since she had fashionable girls, she added men as well.
Some of her cute animal sticker packs.
Her fashion girl stickers. One of these looks like one of our members. Can you guess who? ♥
Monique’s new sticker sheets. I love the morning meals set!
More of her food prints.
Jean’s side of our table.
Shine’s individual stickers. CUTE hedgehog bbs!
She also made new sticker sheets. I got the moon phases. ♥
More of Shine’s individual stickers.
The team. ♥
Thankful to this team. It was a fun experience! Especially our 12 feet long table HAHA. Next up would be my Komiket haul!