So sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been sick twice already this month. One was the week long fever, and currently I have coughs. Maybe because of fatigue or the weather, I don’t know. I only know that I need to be healthier. I still have a lot of things to talk about, but I need to rest first. So see you soon, blog. I’ll come back.
Category: Ramblings
Ragnarok Addiction
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!
2018
It’s that time of the year again. (See last year’s review here).
2017 was a great art year for me. ♥
I met up with my group mates and friends from a previous art trade after a year. Everyone got along and we decided to name our group to January Girls because we all met in January lol. We met up a month later during Art Fair Philippines. This was also the time that we received the first batch of seamountainco paints. It was my first artist grade watercolor paints and I fell in love with it. ♥
After years of planning, me and my college block mates finally went on an adventure. It was our first time as a group to go on an overnight outing together. We camped, surfed, and laughed all through out the trip. ♥
Inggo and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary by having a staycation at Makati. We tried out most of the restos that piqued our interest there. There’s not as much food adventures as compared to before, because there weren’t any restaurant significant enough to blog about. But we did experience something new, which was the Coffee Appreciation Workshop at SGD Coffee.
It was also during this time when the January Girls started participating in bazaars! We changed our group name from January Girls to January Makers PH to make it look a lot more formal. So. Thankful. I learned so many things that only experience can teach. If you would look at the January Makers PH tag, you would see our bazaar journey. Our last bazaar looked like this and I’ve never felt any prouder for our group. ♥ I also met a lot of new people because of this. We shared our experiences and passion for art through art tambays.
I also did my first watercolor workshop! It was a terrifying but great experience for me. After that, I did the Inktober challenge which happened the whole October. It was the first time that I completed this challenge. ♥ I also now do commissions as well!
There are still so many things that I haven’t blogged about but are still noteworthy: my restaurant interior design project at Zambales, my current residential interior design project, my mural painting commission, my online shops, and documented art tambays with friends.
Even though this year is not good for me financially, I’m thankful that I got through it all. ♥ I had tons of Art & Adventures which I wished for last year. Here’s to another great one this 2018!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdUahdAHjQV/?taken-by=suffnirain
Birthday Month
April is my birthday month. ♥ I did a lot of things recently. Let me photoblog them below:
Art Tambays with my cousin. ♥ This is 90% seamountainco colors! The green is from Winsor & Newton Cotman.
Art in the Park weekend with Hannah, Ruth, Jean & Monique. ♥ This is my artwork during our stay at CBTL. The color I used for the hair is #Jeandigo.
2nd painting from Art in the Park. I was explaining to Ruth that I suck at other flowers (as shown here LOL). I must improve!
Inggo had some leftover photo paper. I printed these as postcard samples but the paper was too slim. They look nice, don’t you think ? ♥
Days after my birthday. I met up with Hannah at Serenitea. ♥
I’ll never tease Hannah about her androgynous drawings ever again! I tried painting a guy this time. It was so hard!
More floral practice. ♥ Left: Hydrangea that I tried to be detailed but got lazy LOL. | Right: I just let my IG friends guess what flower this is. The reference is a peony though!
Left: A gerbera painting that is “too light”. | Right: This is a “rose”. I liked the way the leaves look though!
Some paintings I did at a cafe nearby Inggo’s place. ♥ This is at Fecha de Cafe, Kamias.
This isn’t even 50% of what I did for April. (But these were the art related stuff). I availed every birthday promo that I knew of during my birthday. We tasted different cuisines at Madrid Fusion Manila & had a fantastic dinner at Izakaya Kikufuji, Little Tokyo. Did a lot of sketches during Holy week.
The January Girls are currently preparing something exciting. ♥ I can’t wait to blog more about it!
2017
2016 was such an adventure. I think despite what my Chinese Zodiac predicted for my year, I did the best that I could. But the Chinese New Year is not yet over!
I did a lot of things that I’m happy & proud of this year.
I went to a lot of places with Inggo – local and international. We got to bond with my side of the family in Batangas, had an international adventure in Singapore, celebrated our anniversary in Davao, and feasted on seafood in Roxas City. We got to eat at a lot of new restaurants this year.
I’m improving my art and I’m enjoying the journey of it. I got to meet like-minded individuals with the same passion as me in watercolor and art. I had art tambays with old and new friends that we introduced watercolor to. I got to exchange artist trading cards with new people.
I maintained a blog for a year! With entries every month! I didn’t know that I had the drive to edit photos & think of blog posts every month. This is a HUGE accomplishment.
Overall, despite the many dramas in life, I got through it! And that makes me proud and swell in happiness. I’m sure that this is a hopeful year for me. Here’s to more Art & Adventures this 2017. ♥
Roxas City – Food
First of all, Happy Holidays! I finally had time to sit down & blog about our Roxas trip last month. While editing the photos, I thought maybe I should separate this entry into 3 posts. So the first one that I’ll do is about the food.
We bought our Roxas tickets just days after our Davao trip. It was a really good deal – around 1500php per person. That’s the price for a one-way ticket to Davao. Why here? Well, aside from being a good deal, we both love seafood and I researched that Roxas City is the Seafood Capital of the Philippines.
Once we arrived at Roxas airport. We took a tricycle to Baybay beach. Famous for their fresh seafood dishes.
One thing I didn’t like though, is that we took a tricycle outside the airport gates to go to Baybay beach. He charged us 50php per person each. In our future trips, it was only 50php for both of us. Maybe the city should enforce stricter regularization of prices? Sigh. The tricycle driver took us to his relatives’ restaurant instead of the famous seafood court. Since we’re there already, might as well eat here. Note to self, be firm with people.
Fresh oysters for 40php!
Meat comparison. HAHA.
Prawns for 240php
Lato salad for 80php. Lato is also called Sea Grapes.
Cat fish.
Our first lunch at Roxas was a pleasant experience. After that, we checked in our hotel. We chose Wallabies Hotel for our stay. It’s only a few minutes walking distance to the plaza. For dinner, we went to Cafe Terraza. It’s located at Pueblo de Panay, just a tricycle ride from Robinsons Place Roxas. After dinner, we learned that there’s a roundtrip jeep to Robinsons Place. I chose this place because we didn’t get to do a “dinner with a view/mountains/hills” at Davao.
This is the view. Not that nice in the photo. But it really pretty. With the fresh air & cool breeze lol.
Seafood karekare! 265php.
Baked scallops. 195php.
Iced mocha & blueberry cheesecake.
Inggo’s dessert. I forgot the name.
The next day, we woke up a bit late. We explored the plaza looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Spanggo – a Spanish+Ilocano restaurant just near our hotel. Apparently this place is famous for its pies.
Spanggo interior.
Dragon balls. 180php.
Palabok. 99php.
Beef Caldereta. 165php.
Bacon Meal. 110php.
The most delicious apple pie I’ve ever tasted! 55php.
Crumbly goodness.
Fried Halo-Halo. 85php.
After this huge lunch. We rested for a bit back at the hotel. After a while, we decided for some reason to walk to Baybay beach. Yes, walk. It took an hour, but we did it HAHA. It wasn’t tiring, since we got some refreshments at City Mall. And we enjoyed the scenery.
Baybay Beach at dusk.
For dinner, we decided to eat at Coco Veranda. It’s one of the top ranked restaurants on Trip Advisor. They have a huge board with the current prices of seafood, but I didn’t get to take a photo of that. Same with the other restaurants at Baybay, this one is also a cook as you order setting.
Clam soup.
Garlic crab.
Baybay at night. This is the seafood food court. We didn’t get a chance to eat there HAHA.
I got food poisoned the second night. I didn’t know from where though. So the third day was awful for me. Maybe it was from too much clams and oysters. They were so cheap here HAHA. Yes, they were fresh. It was too bad that we didn’t consider the season of other seafoods like the diwal – a native shellfish famous here, and crabs & shrimp we also not in season so they were not as cheap as we imagined.
But it was still a nice experience. Next post will be about the town.
Freedom
A lot of things happened within a month that I wasn’t able to keep track of. I’m so sorry, my blog!
We went to Roxas City last month (pending blog post for this). My grandfather died the same week as that. I filed my resignation a week after. Then I left my job last December 2 (after a year & 4 months there). No sadness, anger, or anything. Just… relief. “Finally!” and “I’m freeeeee!” came to mind. I went to the PIID Christmas Party, did some work for someone, bought a gaming laptop (partly for work also).
WHEW. So I was busy with life lol. BUT! Since this is supposed to be my “break month”. I need to do blog posts soon. Really soon. When I have the time. Sigh! Still so many things to do.
Sorry for the rambling.
The long weekend
Hi. Sorry for not updating these past two weeks. I’ve been busy with life lately. HAHA. We went to Manila FAME last week, but unfortunately photos are not allowed inside so I don’t have anything to blog about there. But it is a must attend event if you are interested in Philippine designs of furniture, home decors, and fashion. Support local!
It’s going to be a long weekend now because of All Saints’ Day here in the Philippines. Hopefully I’ll get to edit photos for this blog. Maybe, hopefully, I’ll create some new art over the weekend. ♥ I also bought the The ABCs of Journaling & the Daily Journal from Abbey Sy. The small things that I’ve collected from way, waaaaaay back will now have a purpose. I’m excited to start my journal! (More content for this blog too!)
Speaking of which, the Instagram widget is finally fixed! Hooray!
Hopeful for a productive long weekend. Wish me luck! ♥
Watercolor Ramblings
I am envious of the watercolor collection of my watercolorist peers. I only have my trusty Prang & the occasional Reeves pan set with me. Oh, but how I want, and I mean really, REALLY want my own Windsor & Newton 45 pan set. I’ve been dreaming of this set for years, but I never had the money to buy it. Then, my watercolor brand knowledge became wider when I joined local art groups. Now, I also want to try the Gansai Tambi for florals, White Nights, Mijello, and lots of Daniel Smith colors!
Sigh.
What an expensive hobby. But you know what? I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. It makes me happy, and that’s the only thing that matters. ♥
Life, lately.
I was supposed to blog today but I can’t transfer my phone photos to my laptop. Sigh. And it’s already past midnight so… I’ll try to fix it later after work, hopefully. Speaking of work, this was my desk last week:
I’ve been making efforts on drawing again. That’s a good thing, right? Keeping up the momentum for myself. Though it would be nice if I could spend a whole day painting..