Painting Simple Flowers using a triangle brush

I recently got myself a triangle brush, Princeton Velvetouch Petals No. 8. I watch some tutorial videos on Youtube on how to use it. At first, it was a bit disorienting, but I got the hang of it and it is actually quite easy. It makes these fluffy florals like carnations. Other types are also possible like loose roses and five petal flowers.

Here showing you my finished work. I made a simple bouquet from it and also, I filmed it so you can try it too!

Drawing sunflowers

Some drawing practice recently. I love sunflowers and I like to paint them. I did some more practice on using ink and later on decided that I'll color them despite drawing on sketch paper. I was very careful with the amount of water I used so that the paper wouldn't buckle.

I will admit that I struggle a bit with upturned leaves, drawing them folded and curling in or out. I guess here I got lucky, I was pretty much winging it.

Painting sunflowers

Sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers. I love them together with roses! Today, I felt like practicing on flower angles so I'm doing a bunch of sunflower stems facing slightly sideways and facing up to make them look more realistic.

I started with the buri pouch. I drew a bit of guide lines using pencil but I actually really don't like much doing it. I like to paint directly but sometimes there really needs to be a guide so I don't make mistakes in my composition. I am more spontaneous when I paint. It's not really the best practice because usually you'll need to plan out your painting but I dunno, I just really want to skip the sketching most times.

I used the acryl gouache, which dries out pretty quickly so I had to work a little faster while I filmed it. I had some leftover paint so I grabbed a watercolor pad and painted more sunflowers. When I'm working on acrylic or any paint that dries, I feel a lot time pressured and I really hate that. Gladly, this one was done quickly. I like this speckled background style, I think I will be adding this to more future paintings.

Music provided by Argofox: A Himitsu - Adventures
https://youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE

Uncertainties

I browse Pinterest especially when I feel uninspired or simply needing to find the words that describe what I feel. Here's one I felt I should write down.

There are days and nights that my anxieties overwhelm me and I find it hard to sleep. Sometimes they are bad enough that they even manifest in my dreams. I'm never a fan of uncertainty and these days, there is a whole lot of it.

In the previous days, I practiced this in prayer. It helps a lot but it takes some effort to fight the worries, as they keep coming back strong. And it needs constant reminding so, I go and stuck it in my fridge.

First night sky

Night skies are some of my favorite subjects to paint. I'm fascinated by the colors of the galaxies and also because they're easy to do.  This is one of my early works, a full night scene I did on a watercolor notebook spread. It took me a lot of time to achieve the shades of blue. It looked very weird and wrong in the beginning but it turned out ok in the end.

Moleskine watercolor notebook

Reeves student grade watercolors

Purple blooms

This is another practice on flowers, this time I did in purple. In particular, I'm trying to get better at perspective painting of the petals. Sometimes they could face sideways, or slightly facing down. I'd really like to get a better and easier way of painting them.

As I filmed this, I didn't realize the camera was off focus so as you will see in my process video, it's blurred out for the first few seconds.

Framed Tiny Painting

I'm so proud to share with you my first tiny painting put in a frame. It's how I've always wanted it, very minimalist and bright.

Painting autumn leaves

A friend recently went to South Korea where autumn leaves are falling and brought back for me these maple leaves from Nami Island! They're so pretty! I may put them in a nice frame in the future but for now I'm keeping them. So it was the perfect idea to paint them one Sunday afternoon! These are actually some of my favorite colors to use, darker shades of red, green and yellow.

My faves below would be the yellow and dark red leaves, lower left and lower center. Showing you my actual desk situation (it's not neat, I know), and the finished illustration!

Here is a video of the painting process.

{ Krafted } Handpainted Wooden Spoons

Gouache on canvas

Sharing this as my first time to use gouache on canvas and I'm so happy with the result! If watercolor and acrylic had a a child, it would be gouache. It's not as popular as watercolor but I love working with it especially that I've always had a love/hate relationship with acrylic. I want to use it more often!

This piece is a gift for Mary Lauren's first birthday. What better way to celebrate life than with flowers!

By the way, I also tried it on black painted wood. Needed to reapply another coat to keep it opaque. But overall it's great. I feel my brush "freer" with gouache.

Small Victories - Painting on Ukelele

This project started out as an entry to a contest turned collaboration project sponsored by Inspiredby.ph in which I was invited to participate, to paint a calligraphy design on a ukelele. The theme was "Reasons we love the Philippines" and I chose the theme of the beach for obvious reasons.

I painted on two ukeleles, one of a simple artwork, bird's eye view of beaches and another includes calligraphy design with Filipino words of beach scenery.

The "drone" view of the beach artwork is inspired by the palette knife paintings of Sally West. For the calligraphy piece are words written in Filipino that remind us of the ideal beach scenes.

I take you through my process of painting through these photos.

This was my initial draft.

Acrylic paints and gold mica ink

a new canvas!

Painting miniature artworks using watercolors

I was looking for an alternative to artist's tape and found out I could use washi tape instead. I tried it out on a scrap of paper and was happy to see it worked! So I decided to do a proper painting.

I prepared a 7x5 inch ready-cut watercolor paper and made a grid of twelve blocks, 4 columns and 3 rows. I painted these landscapes and galaxy scapes, some sea scapes and one or two sunsets. It was really fun to do, as they're smaller than the usual size I work with.

After paintng, I was so excited while peeling off the tape. And well, it did not disappoint! The mini's look really great up close. Better than expected. Now I'm wondering if I can do one with flowers.

This reminds me so much of Loraine Loots' Painting for Ants which I absolutely adore. I'm so awed by her talent and her work. She paints very small round paintings of everything in great detail!

So here is my own versiono of painting tiny art. Supplies I used are listed below:

• Strathmore 500 Series Hot Press 5x7 300g/m2
• Winsor Newton Cotmanh
• Brush #3 Sekaido Round
• Brush 5/0 Camlon Pro Plata Artetje

Painting a floral skull using watercolors and gouache

This is a commissioned artwork to be made as a cover for a scrapbook for a group of med students. This took more time and effort than most of my previous work since I had to draw before I paint. I usually avoid drawing first if I can get away with it because the pencil strokes couldn't be erased when it's been painted over. This one's a bit more complicated to paint directly.

It's been fun to make this and a good thing that I filmed while painting because I had to redo the whole thing and resorted to graphic design tools and resources. Client had further changes after artwork was already done.

I'm posting the video at the bottom of this post if you want a preview of how I did the painting process.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies used:

Canson XL Watercolor paper

Winsor and Newton Cotman paint

Marie's Gouache

Silver Black Velvet #6

Caricature

I tried drawing my friends to see if I could really do portraits that resemble them. I started with painting on paper but I could never get it right so I adjust the paintings in Photoshop. It takes forever to do finish one portrait because I struggle at getting the facial characteristics right.

I think I got some of them right but I feel it's too energy consuming if I keep making these. But here they are.

Karla

GB

Jean

Koren

Yuner

So much to love in Dumaguete

I'm excited to finally finish this artwork about my beloved home, Dumaguete! This took me a day and a half, watercolor on paper.

The World in Color

Here is a recent artwork I did for someone who likes to travel a lot. It's done in a 30 x 20 inch watercolor paper. It takes longer to do but so much fun, nevertheless.

DIY Pillow Box

While I was recently browsing through upcycling ideas for items to sell in a thrift shop, I chanced upon this idea on Pinterest that really had me excited.

If you have heaps of toilet paper rolls lying around, transform them from sad pieces of trash into really useful pillow boxes that you can use as containers for various gifts or party favours.


You'll need a few things:

1. Toilet paper rolls
2. Poster paint or ink or pen (or anything that works with paper)
3. Paint brush
4. Cutter/blade (optional)
5. Ribbon or twine

Step 1 : Take a toilet paper roll and flatten it like shown below:

Step 2 : Draw a half-circle on each end to mark the crease. For some, this is an optional step. But I like to be able to easily make the fold and to get a clean and consistent one, so I'm using a cutter. Run the blade lightly through the guides drawn. Don't press the blade too hard, otherwise it will cut the flap.

Step 3 : At this point, the whole look is up to you. Take a paint brush and poster paint or watercolor or any pen and draw simple patterns all over the box. Let it dry.

When blue makes sense

Tried something different. Bigger leaves, using gouache and one color only. I think I like how it turned out.

So far so good.