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: Watercolor
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.
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.
The last art tambay before lockdown
The week after Stickercon, news about the coronavirus appearing in Metro Manila made everyone anxious. On Monday, our office announced that they are looking into the situation and are already planning on moving everyone out soon. The next day, the number of covid cases doubled. Our office then announced that whoever can book a grab at the end of our shift can do so. Wednesday, half of our office were already working from home. I was also forced to move out that day since nobody was coming to work anymore tomorrow. Thus, in a week our office made it possible for everyone to move out and work from home. For myself, I had permission to work at the office of fiance’s family’s resto business.
I thought that was the end of my problem. We even had an art tambay that weekend too lol. Here are the last few days of the outside world and meeting with friends:
Who knew that this would be our last art tambay for now?
Some peony paintings.
And then peony buds.
The week after, the government announced that everything will be on lockdown HAHA. So we had to move my work pc again back to my fiance’s house. We had to re-arrange the room to fit everything in. It was stressful. But it was okay, for now.
Noticed that the chronological order of the blog posts will jumble around now. Oops. Soon to come (hopefully) will be the Komiket and Stickercon posts.
Make Space Today – Art Tambay
When was this event? I think it was in October last year? Anyway, Make Space Today held an “art tambay” event and invited other artists to encourage people to go and meet. The event started at around 4pm but I was already there around morning time lol since I needed to create the construction drawings for a residential project.
They rearranged the tables into one long table
I invited Hannah, Aira, and my cousin Sydney to the event. They also went earlier than 4pm so we could utilize the time spent in MST.
The table ♥
Left: My incomplete piece | Right: Sydney’s painting
TBH I didn’t concentrated much in painting. I was everywhere catching up / chikahan with my friends / and meeting new people lol. It was a fun event tho! The experienced artists were all game for the demos & question and answer portions. I hope the beginners learned a lot. ♥
Make Space Today – other visits
On my first post, I wrote about my first visit at Make Space Today. In this post, I’ll write about my other visits. Particularly about my best friend’s birthday celebrations.
My finished works during one visit.
I don’t remember the chronological order of these photos. But I remember that on one visit I was with Shine (I helped her with her product shoots), another with Hannah(she did origami all day), another with Monique (I brought my color pencils), and the end of July was with Ivy and Hannah for their birthday celebrations.
Started and finished this piece in MST!
This was a re-paint of one of my older paintings.
Hannah’s collection of origami.
I really love my tilapia pouch lol.
My prismacolor pencils. ♥
On Ivy and Hannah’s birthday celebration, we first had a video call with Ruth (who’s currently working in Japan) touring the space together. A while after that, we went to Malingap Central since an eco-friendly event was happening. We went around the stalls and then had our lunch.
Ivy’s corner was full of green design and eco-friendly books.
Hannah brought her laptop and tablet so she could draw digitally.
I did these paintings.
Playing with the emboss machine. This was the first time that I took interest in MST’s tools lol.
The gurlz. ♥
Make Space Today
Last year, I learned from friends that they applied to a creative course at Make Space Today – a new space inside the Malingap Food Central at Malingap Street. It’s an incubating space for people who want to join/apply to Common Room but may need guidance and training first. I didn’t join – but I did visit the place numerous times last July. For non-members, it was basically a co-working creative space for 550php a day. It had wifi, aircon, and free-flowing coffee (among other things). It was basically a daycare center for me while waiting for Inggo to finish his work.
Store front.
As mentioned, I went here a few times and I’ve already memorized the spaces. This post would be the about my first visit + photos of the space. Picture heavy post ahead!
Behind the registration counter is this view of the tool nook.
Wall art of their artists.
Monique’s shelf!
Shine’s shelf!
Pantry area.
My usual spot.
My usual space is near the entrance and pantry area for quick drink refills. To be honest, it had a great selection of art materials and supplies – everything you need to try out every art medium was there. I didn’t try any HAHAHA. I was just happy in my own table, painting using my own materials and drinking coffee.
Crafting / embroidery / journaling / art materials corner.
Reference books and more pics of the tool nook.
Pin making.
Sewing kit!
Weaving.
My usual view. ♥
Just trying out new colors.
Monique learning weaving.
On my first visit, Monique was also there for her pulse check. She also had to create photos for her products / artworks. Good thing that MST also has props for flatlay photo shoots.
Outdoor area with Wilcon tiles, plants, and stools. The meeting room is for MST’s workshops.
This corner has more stools and an under construction room.
Monique taking photos of her works HAHA.
Since I was already there, might as well take flatlay photos of my works HAHAHA.
More flatlay. ♥
Some would argue that the fee is expensive. I don’t mind, though? I could have spent the same amount or more in other places. People would also judge me and my friends whenever we do art tambays in said places. In MST, somehow it made me feel safe. I usually arrive there around 10am and leave by 7pm. I created a lot of artworks. I was focused. But it seems none of my friends agree on the price hahaha.