Urban Sketchers Kyusi – UP Diliman

The last event of the 2022 is with USK QC at UP Diliman. Hannah and Shine were not able to join, but Kathleen (@deartoourhearts) was! She’s one of my botanical art friends in instagram, and apparently Aira’s classmate from high school. What a small world! We met up at UP Diliman, Sunken Garden.

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I’ve visited UP Diliman a number of times before. This is where Inggo spent half of his life. He also accompanied me that day as a moral support/body guard lol. He was supposed to jog but changed his mind. When we met up with Kath, we spent our first painting session near the benches. We tried painting the whole sunken garden. I hated my fist painting HAHAHA.

It started to rain so we looked for cover. I found a cluster of birds of paradise under the pavilion area and started painting those. I really liked this one because I got to do negative space painting. My talented friend started another painting, this time she painted the library:

Then it was latag time! Sadly didn’t get some pictures. I had a lot of fun that day. Inggo and I walked all the way to Maginhawa after. Plein air and landscape art isn’t really my thing I’m still game for future events! I think that I’ll learn something from joining more of this type of events.

PGW On the Spot Painting Competition

I mentioned before that PGW Convention is a whole month long event. I participated in the online on the spot still life painting competitions. It started in the morning until noon. The camera needed to be turned on, facing toward me while I’m painting.

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We were given numerous reference photos of the still life set-up. It was up to us on how will we interpret or express the composition of our artworks. I painted in portrait and focused on the leaves. What an experience. It was a continuous painting session that lasted for 3 to 4 hours. I was tired physically and mentally afterwards. But what an experience! Will definitely attend again.

Bini Album Showcase

Multiple events made me unstable/depressed (not diagnosed) last year, which led to me buying 3 VIP tickets to Bini’s album showcase concert. I wanted to be happy so I spent money. No regrets. Bini is an all-girl pinoy pop group. I love all of their songs. Plus their vip ticket was around 1250php, so it was really worth it. We got an album + random photocard + a poster.

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It was held at SM North Skydome. It was a good thing we went there immediately after work. The rain was pouring!

The fandom name was Blooms. I was a baby bloom. I LOVE their songs “Na na na”, “Lagi”, and “Feel Good” – I can sing them by heart. But I couldn’t memorize their names and faces at first. Inggo and Hannah weren’t blooms. The goal was to convert one of them into a fan. It was also Inggo’s first concert experience — not sure if it was a good or traumatic experience though HAHA. The energy of the other blooms singing the commercials while waiting for the main program tired us out. It was a good thing that this concert had chairs.

After the event, I finally managed to memorize Bini’s names HAHAHA. Can I also just say that the SM Skydome acoustics were great?! Finally happy that I could hear them live.

Next up, hopefully, is an Alamat concert HAHAHA.

PGW Convention

I wanted to write my experience of my first PGW Convention. The kick off event was held at GSIS Museo ng Sining in Manila. It happened the day before StickerCon MNL 2022, so imagine my fully booked schedule lol.

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I joined PGW on January 1, 2022 because I wanted to learn. So why not join a watercolor group? They have events every other month, and the biggest one is the month-long convention. I went there by myself, but I didn’t really mind. I bought great art materials for a discounted price, got freebies, met new people, won raffles, and learned a lot by watching the pros paint. I also joined the art exchange event. Received a bougainvillea painting from sir Manny Vailoces. A person who had a Day Pass ticket received my painting.

The most significant program that happened on that day was the artist personality test by Seeworthy. I realized that I’m a North West kind of person — and I agree 100%. Introverted, quiet, and someone who really loves organization.

I went home inspired, tired, and ready to fight the next day for Stickercon 2022. The convention continued for another month, with artist demos and live selling every other month. Was it worth it? YES!

Office events

I’m not sure why the I wrote this as one of my posts in my OneNote, but okay. Also not sure if I mentioned it here yet, but our office has an art club thing and I’m the head for that. We’re not that active, but we try our best! I even had our club logo printed on the excess spaces of my individual sticker sheets:

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Last October, HR asked us to make a lettering in our pantry blackboard for our office’s anniversary. I suck at lettering, but thankfully I had a lot of officemates who are talented! The above photo was done by Danica, with me as the assistant.

A few weeks after that, we had our Halloween event. HR tasked us again on decorating the pantry and reception area with the halloween theme – Coco. I had no idea why they picked this theme when its years old already, but anyway. We printed a bunch of coco-inspired graphics and taped them everywhere. The banderitas were hand cut by the art club members.

Grabbed the photos from our office’s Photography club. The photos looks so good!

I also did the welcome sign in our reception area. My metallic paints were finally used on something! HAHA. And that’s all of the photos! There also was a committee for our Office Christmas party and Design department party, thankfully we weren’t tasked for those!

And now its time to do all of my pending artwork trades with officemates.

StickerCon MNL 2022

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Our 4th StickerCon MNL experience as January Makers PH. It feels familiar and new at the same time. StickerCon MNL 2022 had a new venue – White Space Manila. We had a member shuffle – Monique opt out this time. Aira (@airadenisee) was invited to our group. There were restrictions in how many people were allowed behind the table due to covid protocols of the venue. There’s no custom pin for artist ids this year.

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This is our first time to table with StickerCon MNL on October. It is the organizer’s favorite event of the year, and we were encouraged to come in costume. I bought bunny and cat ears for our group! Sadly, Hannah and Jean weren’t able to attend that day, so it was just 4 of us. We had a random draw on who were our designated sellers that day – Aira and Shine (@tingeofshine) were our hardworking sellers! Clair (@claircolors) was our seller in front who was assisting interested customers.

Thankful to my officemates and friends who came by – Abie, DJ, Jerome, Ate Jen, etc. They bought some of our group’s stickers! As for me, even if I had no cash in hand that day, I managed to buy stickers. In the surprise of no one, every store had QR code payment options (Gcash, Paymaya, Paypal, even BDO pay). This was pretty useful since some people people cashless payments nowadays. It was a good thing that we offered this as well!

My humble set-up. I bought acrylic trays from Daiso for my individual stickers. I also re-used my acrylic display stand for my other stuff. I should also mention that we loved that there’s a food and drink concessionaire outside. The ones they selected had really good food!

Monique also stopped by StickerCon! I would like to congratulate her as she had her first pottery exhibit last November. We weren’t able to visit sadly due to conflicting schedules.

Thankful for the chance to do this once more. ♥

Sticker Catalogue 2022

Flexing my hard work here! I’m pretty proud of my new stickers!

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Above: My circle stickers. Hand cut around 400+ pieces. There used to be 7 designs, I removed 1 because I wasn’t happy with it anymore. But I’m really happy with the newer ones!

Below: My rectangle stickers. They weren’t as popular as the other ones. But I’m pretty satisfied with them as well. Thinking that these would go well with paper frames for journaling?

Above: The solo stickers that are hand cut. 5 of them are in glossy laminate while the rest are in pearl laminate. I’m pretty happy with this collection as well! Its a mix of early works and newer ones.

Below: My sticker sheets! One of my best sellers during StickerCon. I want to make more in the future.

And finally, my washi tapes! I wanted an orchid one and a seafood one. One design is what I’m known for, and one design is “because I want to”. You gotta have a balance of both in order to be happy. ♥

And that’s it! Next up is my StickerCon 2022 post.

Road to Stickercon MNL 2022

July-September 2022

For the fourth time, our group January Makers PH was accepted into Stickercon MNL. I had plenty of time to prepare – around 2 to 3 months, to design, print, and cut my stickers. With almost 3 years worth of art, I had plenty of existing artworks that I could choose from. But I also wanted new sticker sheets. The plan – select the artworks that I want as a sticker, layout, send to printers. I made individual, sticker sheets, and finally, washi tapes for this event. I also got some old stock of my old stickers.

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I had the individual stickers printed at Dexact, my usual supplier. I received the package early September, and after that I had to hand cut most of it. I was also required to work in the office for 1 week straight due to training, so I brought my stickers with me so whenever we had a break time, I would cut my stickers.

I also took photos in our office for the sticker sheets. It was a LOT so please check our my instagram page instead HAHA. Pretty proud of the layout I did below! My resin rose ring fits perfectly:

I then had my sticker sheets printed by my former officemate. She now has her own printing business named DC Designs & Prints. All of my sticker sheets are in glitter laminate. You could see some of the artworks I did on my previous blog entries.

Above: My berries sheet were inspired by the amount of berry desserts I had over the years. The oldest works were the blueberry panna cotta in the middle, and strawberry cakes on the lower left and right side of the sheet. My desserts sheet is a collection of popular stickers (taho, banana con hielo, mango parfait) combined with new ones. I’m pretty proud of this one!

Below: My drinks sheet were mostly 2020 works during the height of ECQ. These were mostly my cravings at the time. I add leaves because why not?!

Above: While creating the sticker sheets, I had this idea that I should make a poppy & anemone sticker sheet as well. I had a big collection of artworks of these flowers. The white anemone is the oldest artwork there which dates back to my first sticker sheet (when cut-it-yourself sticker sheets were popular, so around 2017!).

Below: My 2020 gold orchid sheet. I was supposed to make a colored orchid sticker sheet, but it felt redundant since I already made a washi tape with my orchid artworks. So I chose my gold orchid instead. This was the main reason I had my stickers laminated in glitter. So it would look fabulous lol.

I also sold my stickers at a pre-convention price in my personal account for those who cannot attend Stickercon 2022. The new venue was in Whitespace Manila, somewhere along Magallanes, so most of my friends cannot come. Thankful to my friends who supported my sticker business. I had to re-print my sticker sheets because I almost ran out of stock! ♥ Next post will be my current sticker catalogue, because why not?!

Painting anything that I wanted

July to September 2022 compilation post.

We got news around June that StickerconMNL will be back last 2022. We applied and thankfully got accepted for the fourth time. Knowing that we got in, I started planning and forcing myself to make more artworks so I could choose my new stickers.

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Artwork above is my first page on my Strathmore landscape watercolor pad. Most artists I know are pressured into making the best artwork on the first page so they would continue loving their new sketchbook. As for me, I try not to start another watercolor pad when I know that I still have a bunch more that needs to be filled up. Take note of the word “try“. So far it worked on my Hahnemuhle pad.

But I did fill up my Canson XL Watercolor pad. I really like this paper for food illustrations. Pretty proud of my strawberry cake artwork!

Above: A berry tart I made during one of our art tambays, a purple anemone on my strathmore pad, a blueberry cheesecake. Below: Matcha parfait, halo-halo and leche con hielo from Icebergs (this was the dessert we ate when we learned that I got accepted into the NMNH exhibit. Our dessert tasted sweeter with the news), strawberry cake from Old Baguio Cafe (the one I went to after PGW Art Tambay), and a random pampano fish lol because we noticed that it became popular recently.

Based on the artworks you would notice that most of these are food illustrations. I was thinking of making them into sticker sheets. Stay tuned for the Stickercon prep post!

2023

A few days late, but yes, its that time of the year again.

I wanted 2022 to be a year of learning. Because even though my main priority when creating art is for personal reasons, I think there is still a desire to improve and meet with other people. There was a resolve within me that “I’m gonna join all the events that I could possibly attend, even if I’m alone“. I was tired of the missed opportunities back then because I was waiting for other people. I should have gone alone. That type of regret. With the loss of my future mother-in-law last March, I felt like I shouldn’t have any regrets anymore and do everything that I can to have that kind of life.

I joined two open calls this year from PhilBas – one is the Flora of South East Asia Botanical Exhibit, and the second one to the National Musem of National History exhibit. Both of these needed a really long mental and physical preparation. I didn’t pass the Second Round of FSEA jury deliberation, but I’m proud that I applied in the first place. I did however, got in the NMNH Exhibit. I could say that this is one of my proudest moments this year.

I also finally applied for membership for the Philippine Guild of Watercolorists. I also renewed my membership for 2 years! They had a lot of events every other month that I feel that the membership fee is worth every peso. I also won around 4 raffles just by participating in their events lol. The raffles and discounts were the things that made me renew my membership. Hoping to participate again in the PGW Convention! The nude art tambay, convention opening, and on-the-spot painting competition were some event highlights of PGW for me.

Urban Sketching – while not really my thing, is still one of the interesting events this year. I joined events from both Manila and Quezon City chapters. I got to bond with friends and meet with new people. I hope to do more in the future, even if its not really my thing (yes I’ll repeat it every time until I’ll like it), I feel like I can learn something from pursuing it.

It was also my return to conventions- mainly StickerCon MNL 2022. The post is not yet up on this blog, and its going to be another long series of posts. I made new stickers and finally, washi tapes! I joined with my January Makers PH group once again. After the convention though, there is this feeling that its finally time to move on – either to go solo or to make another group. It feels… one-sided, I think. After StickerCon, I also had the opportunity to design some new products courtesy of a customer. More on that soon.

I didn’t create a lot of artworks this year, less than 60 based on the files in my folders. But it feels like it still had the same impact as the other years.

Our office created an art club back in 2020. This year, Trisha and I both participated in the open calls I mentioned above. We did an inktober contest. We also did the blackboard design for the office anniversary and the halloween decor. Will blog about this soon. The club will finally become legit and have some funding this 2023. Hopefully. I planned some events for this year as well.

I participated in two fundraisers this year. One was for Ruth’s father and another one for my officemate. There were also instances that I became Hannah’s assistant on her mural projects. I’m pretty happy that I got to help some people this year.

Non-art related, I got to play more games this year – mainly the Pokemon franchise. We bought the 9th generation games Scarlet and Violet. Since I also won some money from our office raffle, I also bought Pokemon Legends Arceus. Ah, I also won the raffle from our department party lol. It was a lucky year.

There were some splurges this year, because I think I deserve to be happy. A new phone, clothes, VIP tickets to the Bini concert, pre-order of the Alamat album, art materials, to name a few.

It really was an eventful year.

“Even if I’m alone” was what I was really thinking back then. I’ve experienced so many people who came and left the art community. But I think this year, I’m happy that there are still people who were with me on this adventure. Inggo was there on most of the events. Art tambays with close friends are still a thing. The USK events I always had Inggo and a friend with me. The only time that I was alone was at PGW events, but I didn’t really mind because I made new friends and the community there is so welcoming.

What about 2023? I hope to continue what I started last 2022. More learning, more experiences, more events. We’re planning on moving. After that, I’m planning on opening an online store. Let’s, again, hope it will come true.