Everything Old

October 4, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Whew! With so many things happening in real life, I finally had time to sit down and blog. Since I’m still waiting for our photos during my first workshop with the January Makers PH team, I’ll do this post first lol.

A month ago, I found my old Reeves gouache paints. Thinking that it was a waste to throw them out, I decided to use them with my expired paper for practice. Here are some of the artworks that I did:

Sunflower & Peonies.

I tested my old materials by painting a sunflower first. The Reeves gouache is still usable, but it stinks! I like the brightness of the colors though. The next paintings were of course peonies. Knowing that all of the materials that I used were old, I could practice all I want without any worries of wasting my art materials HAHA.

First and second attempt. ♥

I posted something about this on Instagram:

When you don’t like your first attempt, it’s always okay to start again. 😁 It doesn’t have to be perfect everytime.

Some hydrangea studies.

Because sometimes its okay to paint with “careless, free, loose” strokes. ❤ The important thing is you enjoy what you’re doing. 😊

With hydrangeas, I was exploring on making looser strokes that would still look presentable. Wet on wet, layering, and my usual style. The third photo was a good study for my latest sticker.

Overall, I’m satisfied with experimenting on old art materials. It shows that you really don’t need high end stuff to make great work. There’s also no guilt of wasting expensive paper for practice haha. With this, let me end the post with their ages:

Paper: Canson 200 gsm watercolor paper cut into smaller pieces. Age: 6 years.
Reeves Gouache. Age: 15 years.
Brush: Faber Castel freebie from the watercolor pencil set. Age: 12 years.

Artworks (July 2017- September 2017)

September 14, 2017September 23, 20211 Comment

Another compilation post! The last time I did this was last May, I think. So here are the art works that are yet featured here on my blog. Picture heavy post ahead! ♥

An attempt with landscape.

My cover photo was an attempt at plein air or landscape painting of my client’s farm at Iba, Zambales. I brought my seamountainco set with me, assuming that we’d stop by the beach HAHA. Unfortunately, they were far from the beach.

Left: Practicing hydrangeas again | Right: An attempt at magnolias.

Before & After photo of my phaelaenopsis orchid painting. I turned this one into an individual sticker. ♥

More magnolia practice. I’m also practicing painting white flowers recently. I like the challenge.

Paper tests by painting sunflowers. The left one is the Strathmore Visual Journal paper. The other one is Hahnemuhle watercolor postcard. Portrait practice using my W&N cotman set. ♥

Sunflower during another art tambay at Makati. ♥ This is so beautiful in real life! Andrea gave me a sample of her handmade sparkly watercolor which I used for this piece. ♥

Left: Peony practice on Berkeley paper. I don’t like it, haha. | Right: Peony practice on my Monologue notebook using Mikalaro’s waterbrushes.

Left: More peony practice. I still don’t like it HAHA. | Right: Another peony practice! This was done during another art tambay with friends.

I turned one of my early peony paintings into an individual sticker. Pictured here is seamountainco’s new product: a small tin case that houses 16 handmade watercolors with a separate mixing plate. Its sooooo cute! ♥

And that’s it for now HAHA. Looking at my artworks and my comments, it seems like I’m way too hard on myself. Maybe its because your worst critic is yourself? I’m still not satisfied with the way I do peonies. But I’m trying my best to improve. I think I’m comparing my current artworks with the previous ones. Right now, they are too “controlled” looking compared to my noob days with “careless, loose strokes“. Sigh. Its hard to find the balance that I want.

But let’s keep trying.

Post cards

August 22, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Hello again! So sorry for not updating as much as I used to. I was busy with bazaar preps among other things. Now that things have slowed down a bit, I realized that I haven’t uploaded some better shots of my postcards yet here on my blog. So this blog post is dedicated to it! ♥

My test prints with my seamountainco set.

This was taken during our dinner at Hole in the Wall.

At Seda Vertis North.

My bloom with Kenneth Cobonpue’s bloom chairs. ♥

Another Seda shot.

Sunny Postcard set. 180php.

Pink Flower Postcard set. 180php.

My postcards are 4″ x 6″ sized 300gsm which you can buy as a set or individually through our Facebook page. Please check them out as our other products are also uploaded there. ♥

We also sell our products at a cheaper price during bazaars and the next one is this weekend! August 26-27, 2017 at Providore, Upper Ground, SM Aura. You can check our my Instagram page or our January Makers PH Instagram page for updates! Hope to see you!

Art Tambays

July 8, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts. I’ve rekindled my addiction to Ragnarok Online lol. We’re in Thor server! Weeks after our bazaar, I’ve met up with old & new artist friends for an art tambay.

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The first art tambay was during the Art Mod event at Megamall with Clair aka claircolors, Priane aka priichanpanda, kiyasurin, and Yin aka lostlibraryin. We looked for a vacant coffee stall and had our art tambay there. This is what I did during our art tambay:

Sunflowers again.

I also taught them how to paint sunflowers and hydrangea but I don’t think I’m an effective teacher. The only thing they learned was Step 1: Draw a circle lololol. I also let them try my seamountainco set. I’m also interested in Priane’s White Nights watercolor set. Apparently the price is a good deal for the amount and quality. You can get them at Deovir.

I did this one during my art tambay with my cousin.

The next art tambay was at Greenbelt Makati with Jan Makers PH Jean & Monique, Shine aka tingeofshine, and Andrea aka mabuhaydiy. I also invited other people but they were all busy huhuhu. This was a productive art tambay since everyone were all busy painting. We didn’t do this for a long time! It was refreshing lolololol. Andrea also let me try her handmade watercolors: the Mermaid gold and Rose gold. It made my sunflower painting soooo sparkly! ♥

Sunflowers & Eucalyptus leaves are my current favorites.

Another attempt at peonies.

We also did an activity where we exchanged and painted on all papers using our seamountainco products. This was a bit challenging since our timer was only set to 3 minutes each. It was fun though! We all got a souvenir to take home. This is a great idea! We could do this every art tambay next time. ♥

Our seamountainco sets and artworks. ♥

I can’t wait for the next one! ♥

Aside from sunflowers

May 16, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

I’ve been trying to diversify my knowledge of floral watercolor aside from sunflowers. Though its not my favorite flower, I always paint this due to the reason that I think its the easiest HAHA. I noticed that some of the more popular flowers are peonies, roses, and other flowers with complicated petals. I did attempt to paint those like these examples:

Found in a previous post.

But impatience got the better of me. Sigh! And I think asides from that, I need to really take time to sketch instead of making squiggly lines. One of my former office mates just suggested that I’d let my IG friends guess the flower, and so I did with this artwork:

This is a peony. ♥

Recently, I’ve asked people from Instagram for suggestions on what I should paint. Here are some of those that I finished:

The CBTL Table. ♥

Poppies as requested by Frances.

Bar area. ♥

Stargazer Lily as requested by Claircolors.

Asphodelus as requested by Sydney (my cousin).

Couldn’t help painting bouquets!

Carnation is my favorite flower ♥.

Last week’s #MondaysMadeBetter (finally went on a Monday HAHA) art tambay was composed of my cousin & I, plus a random Hannah appeared. During our art session, there was this little girl who was looking at us painting. So I invited her to paint with us! I taught her how to paint my favorite sunflowers. After that, I asked her “What flower do you want to draw next?”. She replied with “Roses”. Eeep.

That’s one of the reasons why I want to learn more flowers. So I could teach people the simplest way to draw realistic flowers (instead of combined rose macaronis). They were challenging, but they taught me a valuable lesson: being patient!

Here’s to more floral diversity. HAHA. ♥

Tuesdays made better

May 2, 2017August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Sydney and I went to the newly opened CBTL branch at Banawe last week. I was supposed to blog about this on Monday to mimic the current hashtag of CBTL Philippines. But we went there last Tuesday so might as well make a parody of it lol. I love the place! It gave ample sunlight that brightened the interior, which in turn made our watercolor session easy.

My Hydrangea postcard that I gave to the baristas. ♥

I painted sunflowers that day. ♥

Sunflower cone & sunflower stems. ♥

I’ve been thinking of organizing an Art Tambay session for the North peeps. Any suggestions on coffee shops / cafes? 🙂

Birthday Month

April 26, 2017August 7, 20201 Comment

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!

Artworks (Dec 2016 – March 2017)

April 13, 2017November 7, 2021Leave a comment

When was the last time I did a compilation post? I think its been months. So here are some artworks I did during December last year up to March. These are the artworks that weren’t featured in previous blog posts.

Self portrait in different styles.

Watercolor test on a local paper brand. I hate it so much lol.

Fabriano paper test. This is the 63php pack that I found at Fullybooked. They also sell it at National bookstore. Both sides are okay for watercolor. Currently loving this brand. ♥

More portrait practice. Left: Berkeley watercolor paper | Right: Monologue notebook.

Sunflower art I did when Hannah came over to visit one day at home. ♥

I need to make more art. I’m running out of blog posts HAHA.

2015 Watercolor Summary 2

March 29, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Hello! I just got back from an out of town trip with my family and my Inggo. We went to Batangas again this year. Anyway… I’m really excited to show here the last part of my 2015 watercolor summary. All of them are bouquets / flower arrangements because I wanted to challenge myself. Happy to say that it paid off!

This was gifted to my RO guildmate as a house warming present for his cafe. I heard he liked sunflowers.

2016 03 sunflower1

I really love the way I did the white flower. This was challenging!

I had a legit reason to use white poster paint here! I used it for the baby’s breath flowers hahaha.

Tried again to loosen my strokes. Happy with this. ♥

Also love this. ♥

I did this when I was sad one day due to an event I cannot control. Painting sunflowers is therapeutic for me.

I did this at a cafe! (a.k.a. the first time I brought my watercolor set outside)

This was done at Mithi Maginhawa. I met Jean there.

And done! This compilation shows that a little bit of patience goes a long way in watercolor. I could really see the improvement on my artworks. And I hope that this will inspire you to keep on making art. 🙂

Now what to write about next? Cheers.

2015 Watercolor Summary 1

March 21, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

2015 was a good year to me as an artist. (I can’t believe I’m writing that hahaha.) I had the time to make a lot of art. I was very, very happy albeit costly. On this post, let me show you the first few months of my rediscovery of watercolor using flowers as my subjects. Most are referenced from Pinterest. I decided to cut the summary into two as it’s too image heavy for one post.

My first attempt at watercolor again after college. This was done on my Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Second attempt on my Moleskine notebook. Since I was too impatient, I decided to finish it off with white speckles using poster paint.

Since Moleskine was too small for me. I switched to the 180gsm Berkeley paper. Struggling with waterlily. Huhu.

This was made during one of the firsts watercolor tambay at my cousin’s place. I was the one who taught her the basics even though I’m not so sure myself HAHA.

One of the first artworks that I love. It shows how careless and free my strokes are. ♥ (Back in college, some block mates used to tease me about my careless/free/loose strokes. It doesn’t look good with interior renderings, they said. I got conscious a bit and tried to change that.) But right now, I love it ♥.