Happy Birthday!

August 8, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

2 days ago was my Inggo’s birthday. We celebrated it by taking advantage of a certain buffet’s birthday promo. The birthday celebrant can eat for free as long as they’re accompanied with one paying adult.

Niu by Vikings at SM Aura.

Special order of Beef Medallion with wine cubes.

Their dessert station has macarons!

2016 08 niu birthday cake

This was supposed to be the end of this entry. But for his birthday dinner, he convinced me to eat at Four Seasons Buffet at Araneta center instead of a restaurant since it will be cheaper due to the birthday promo. He also said that we could eat at Burger King instead if there are no tables left at said buffet, but they had one last table left for two. So by fate, we ate at another buffet that day. Please don’t ask anymore about the aftermath.

Four Seasons Buffet with its Shabby Chic interiors.

Pretty details.

Belated Happy birthday to my Overwatch partner, restaurant & cafe date, travel buddy, best friend, and the love of my life! I love you soooo much! ♥

Portraits (July 2016)

August 5, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

I’m back to doing portraits! The “to do” list is still long but at least there’s progress. It’s a weird yet fuzzy feeling that there are people who requested an artwork from me. So here are the ones I did this July. Apparently, July is also the #WorldWaterColorMonth.

Office mates.

Gifts for the Senior Architects.

Left: My online game friend requested a portrait / Right: Birthday gift for an office mate.

VERY late birthday gifts for my friends. ♥

VERY late birthday gifts for my friends ♥.

My portraits are not 100% the same with the reference photos, but I feel like I’m improving a bit. As usual, progress and continuity are important to me. Whenever I browse my blog, I feel this sense of accomplishment like “Hey, I did something for this month! I’m productive! I didn’t just laze around & played video games all weekend!”. Haha.

Here’s to more art in the future.

Cheers.

Watercolor Ramblings

August 1, 20161 Comment

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. ♥

Cafe Crawls

July 23, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

I am a coffee person. Some of my favorite activities revolve around coffee: discovering new cafes, hanging out at coffee shops with Inggo after dinner, or doing a drawing session with my friends in a coffee shop. I’ve been thinking of a witty way to call this activity, but all I got is Cafe Crawls. So here are some photos from cafes that didn’t have enough photos to make a separate post.

Cafe Mocha at Costa Coffee

Costa Coffee Eastwood branch. London style.

Alab (Chocolate batirol with sili) from Cafe Mithi , Maginhawa Street.

Kori Kohi at UCC Clockwork, Estancia Mall

The second floor of Theo’s Baked + Brewed, Maginhawa Street.

Cortado at Equatorial Coffee, Katipunan.

Wall decor at Serenitea, Tomas Morato.

Shabby Chic vibe at Fancy Crepes, Matalino Street. (I did a review of this place 4 years ago!)

Pretty bike ♥.

Caffe Dolce, Banawe.

I love the hydrangea inspired shell centerpiece at Cafe Mary Grace. ♥ Cutest thing everrrr!

Cafe Bene, Eastwood.

Whew! That’s all for now. Most of my posts recently are interiors, but I’m still painting every other day. Just need to compile them all again. Any coffee shops that you’d recommend ?

Cheers.

Papa Diddi’s

July 12, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Around summer of 2015, we discovered a new dessert place at Maginhawa Street during our usual walks. We thought 3 scoops of unique flavored ice cream for 99php is steal, so we tried it out. And that’s how we became semi-regulars to this place ♥.

Cute display.

Law books turned into lighting fixtures.

Papa Diddi’s is a tribute to the owner’s father. He was a lawyer, hence the law books turned into lighting fixtures. He also loved making ice cream for his family in the province back then. Sigh. I really, really love their story. You should read it when you’re there since I feel I can’t do justice to their story.

You can either choose the ceramic cup…

…or choose this Bird’s Nest for your base! This is Inggo’s.

As of July 2016, we could proudly say that we’ve already tried all of their flavors HAHA. My favorites would be: Davao meets Bicol (Chocolate with a spicy kick), Tres Leches (so creamy!), and Roasted Forbidden Rice. You can have a free taste of every available ice cream for the day if you can’t decide.

Recently, they’ve expanded with another Maginhawa branch called Papa Diddi’s et al. This place now has cafe food and a bigger seating capacity.

2016 07 papa diddis et al

Place mat art.

Papa Diddi’s Facebook page.

Seoul Train

July 6, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

A few weeks ago after work, Inggo & I passed by this newly opened restaurant at Sgt. Esguerra. I love the design of the place! The exterior looks like a train and the interior looks like a train station and train carriage.

Waiting area. The magazine & posters are hints as to who is The girl of Seoul Train.

Bibimbap & unlimited ban chan!

Press the red button to call the waiter!

2016 07 seoul train waiting area

Thank you! The food was delicious. I’ll try this again with my office mates next time. ♥

Monologue (May-July)

July 2, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

I’m back! Still can’t transfer my photos from my phone to laptop through USB connection, but I discovered that I can transfer through the ASUS app Sharelink. SO – I’m halfway through my Monologue notebook. Thinking whether I should get another one soon or to upgrade to Stillman & Birn or Strathmore notebook. The reason? Some pages of the Monologue soft sketch book won’t absorb the paint as shown below. (The hair on the left drawing).

2016 07 monologue 10

Argh. I hate the effect! But still, progress is still progress. As usual, the realistic portraits are referenced from Pinterest. The anime-ish ones are mine. My watercolor set is Prang (unless otherwise stated), and I use my Craftdoodle waterbrushes. 🙂

Left: I like the hands / Right: Galaxy hair without the white speckles yet.

The left drawing doesn’t look the same as the reference HAHA.

Left: My Sola ♥ / Right: I don’t like the final render huhu

Left: I used my Reeves watercolor pan set here / Right: Loose pencil sketch with loose rendering. 😐

Then I tried fashion drawings. Haha.

Left: I already posted this on the last Monologue post / Right: I tried blending the skin by adding water on dried paint.

Left: I used my officemate’s Simbalion watercolor set. Too powdery for me / Right: Kimono girl sketch.

Left: Self portrait with light wash / Right: Sketch of Sona, a League of Legends hero.

Left: Progress artwork with wet on wet technique. / Right: I tried to render with more shadows. Doesn’t look like the original though!

I’m now into drawing leaves as shown here. HAHAHA.

2016 07 monologue 10

The first & last image are my latest drawings. Not sure if I should finish the left one. I like the wash effect but I was supposed to put more detail on the lanterns. The right one is still unfinished. It needs more leaves in the background.

I’m glad that I can still paint. ♥ Mostly during break times in the office. Speaking of which, I need to do those “requested” portraits soon. Argh.

Until next time?

Life, lately.

June 27, 2016December 31, 2017Leave a comment

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..

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!

Painting portraits

June 10, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

I’ve been painting every other day, everywhere, ever since I’ve acquired my Craftdoodle waterbrush. It really helped a lot in keeping up with the momentum. But I’ve stopped painting right now due to other matters – mainly Overwatch HAHAHA. Here are some portraits that I did of my officemates during the rare times when I was waiting for feedback on my projects:

Left: Farewell gift to Royd / Right: Graduation gift to Zarah

Left: Birthday gift to Karen / Right: I drew Sons out of boredom

Sad that I didn’t get to take a photo of the portrait that I did for the boss. Oh well. There’s a long list of requests that I’ll do sometime in the future. Hopefully I’ll start on it soon. I really want to improve more on drawing and painting portraits.