Book: The Shack

I first knew about this story from watching the movie that was recommended by a friend. I was moved and cried buckets watching it and decided to read the book.

It has a wonderful way of presenting a conversation with God through the painful story of the main character Mackenzie, a father, a husband and a friend.

I've had my questions and the dialogues gave me some answers. What I especially liked is how I was able to visualize God in a way that is different than what he is usually portrayed.. as an invisible man residing in the clouds, only hearing an authoritative voice. The book gives you another way of getting to know God that is easier to comprehend.

It also talks about forgiveness and judgement among many other things.

If you've read it, I'd be glad to know what you thought of this book.

White and Simple Invitations for an intimate wedding

I made these invitations for a couple tying the knot in the new year. They wanted a simple and light theme but with a rustic accent. The dried flowers and the jute twine were perfect additions to the creamy white matte paper. The design features some light hand drawn leaves and tiny flowers, which were added sparingly on each page. It's finished with kraft envelopes, which I made myself using WRMK Envelope Punch, because these types are not readily available in the city. Guest names were done in calligraphy using white ink Dr PH Martin's Bleed Proof White ink.

Working on these was quite enjoyable especially when I came to the part of adding the flowers. I was very satisfied how they all came together wonderfully. I hope you like them too!

Feature: Galleria 6200 by Carmel June "CJ" Saga

Back in September, I had the wonderful opportunity to be interviewed and featured in Carmel June "CJ" Saga's vlog series "Galleria 6200". This series includes brands and small business that are located in Dumaguete City ranging from arts, crafts, food, culture and more.

We shot the interview at a friend's house in Valencia, Negros Oriental. The day was a lot of fun. They took photos and clips of some of my work, we had a quick demonstration on painting loose flowers and calligraphy. After the shoot, we sat and exchanged fun stories.

This video premiered in her Youtube channel on November 29, 2020.

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!

Wedding Vow Journals (Handmade paper)

A new set of handmade journals for a November couple. Such beauty! I could stare at this for a while.

Barter stories

The current barter trend is something I never expected to pick up so fast in just a few days. I first knew about it from being invited to the group of more than 22k members.

I'm actually not so much into trends but this one got my attention. Because for so long I have wanted to declutter and bring more peace to my work space slash living space. It can be difficult to live minimally especially if you're running an online shop and being a semi artist, semi-designer, semi-photographer.

So I found the barter concept very helpful, but it does challenge my introversion. I did it anyway.
6 barters after, 5 out of 6 being successful, I'm thankful that I got mostly things I needed that I didnt have to get myself and also freeing up a bit more of my space. Another good thing is knowing that my stuff went to safe and goof hands and it brought joy and use to them. Some new people I exchanged with are very nice that I was happy to add a little extra to the package.

I was also very happy to know that they dedicate Thursdays to local farmers because it helps that the essential grocery items we take for granted (rice, sugar, coffee) reach them easier than usual.

Bartering has helped a lot of people during this Covid season.

Pastel Filipiniana Birthday Party Favor Bags

A friend throwing a joint birthday party for her son and daughter asked me to do write guest names in calligraphy for their party favors. She likes these bags made of buri or pandan leaves. It's a great fit for the party's theme which is Filipiniana pastels.

The bag contained a lot of goodies that kids would love, traditional Filipino toys like jack stones, pickup sticks, rubber bands, marbles and a few sweets.

For the adult guests, she used the same type of bags and put calico bags with Pinoy goodies like tableya (cocoa), rice and coffee beans. I made kraft gift tags that were attached to the bags to label their contents.

I love how they all turned out!

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.

Handpainted pantone swatch cards

This is an idea that came to me while I was browsing through color palettes in Pinterest. I saw a lot of beautiful shades of neutrals and pastels. I wanted to paint some washes on paper but thought of something nice to make out of them. I love how they turned out!

These are just for fun so the colors and names are not accurate. I assigned them pretty names to finish the whole look.

I'm thinking these are great to use in journaling or scrapbooking. They'd look wonderful with a nice word or phrase written on them, don't you think?

Mini Kraft Cards - Open When

These are mini envelopes with blank folding card inserts. You can write a special note to someone, give it to them and let them open and read it at the specified time. It's really cute and unique.

I made these using kraft paper, WRMK envelope punch and alphabet rubber stamps.

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.

A year older [37]: Quarantine birthday

Today is special among all birthdays because it falls on a quarantine period. Everything today was most likely expected because there's less likely a chance that I would be going anywhere but home. I always look forward to going outdoors on my birthdays because I am a typical home-buddy. Going somewhere outdoors like hiking or exploring somewhere new is my way of making my birthdays more special than the rest of the days of the year. I just really want to make this day stand out.

I write this as this day comes to an end with a smile on my face. It wasn't bad. It's not as eventful as I would usually hope but it was good, that's the most important thing. My friends sent greetings through text and chat, ordered food for some people in my dorm, got a visit from a friend and spent the rest of the day with family.

Most importantly, I'm so thankful that I got to start my day with God. Because after all, I owe this day and all other days to Him. In the past, I keep reminding myself of the lesson that you will live or feel better if you try to keep being thankful to God, even the smallest things. It will give you a better perspective on things and it should make you appreciate life more, instead of be sad and anxious about a lot of things.

So today, among other things, I am thankful for:

- new beginnings
- family and friends who genuinely care for me and support my endeavors
- the gift of passion and creativity and the joy that it brings to me when I do it
- an able body, mind, heart and spirit to perform my work and duties
- thoughtful words and prayers from others
- bountiful blessings from God, that I am able to acquire things I need and even things I want
- the gift of experiencing God's magnificent creations
- the gift of peace, safety and protection everyday from the virus

A special message and gratitude goes out to a special someone in the past. I will always think fondly of you on days like today and all other days after that. I'll always wish I have a birthday candle to blow every year. There isn't a day I don't think about you and wish I had done things differently. Thank you for all the sweet memories. They are all that I have now. I hope you also thought fondly about me today. I miss you everyday. I miss you always.

Here is something that I picked up from a devotion I listened to the other day. I've always focused on a particular thing in my past that I feel is important to be minimized. It's a challenge for me but I hope I can always remember it:

I am still in the years that ask questions.

04.23.20

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

Quarantine days

I've kept my new nibs for a long time now and I finally decided to use them again. I love the output of pointed nibs better than brush pens but I prefer to use the latter because there's less to clean up after. For this, I used watercolors instead of ink. They work just the same but takes a bit more time because I'm using a paintbrush to take the paint and then transfer it to the nib, as compared to just dipping it in an ink bottle.

Most of us are in the safety of our homes and this is how simple we can help those who are out there serving and helping others. In my community, in my country, some people still can't stay put and stay home. Somehow they don't understand how staying home is the means of how we do teamwork. We can defeat the enemy if we work together. Our enemy is invisible and fast, but it isn’t immortal. It cannot spread if we work together by stopping it from spreading and claiming more precious lives. For those of us who are able to stay home, please do so. . Expressing deep gratitude to all of you who brave each day and go to work in the frontline. #staystrong 🌼🌸 . 

Pointed pen using watercolors

Alphabet Art

This is something I did to combine calligraphy and art. It was quite a fun project and my letter A turned our really well. I'm actually really fond of doing galaxy artworks because the blending of colors are so fascinating and pretty much not so hard to do. 

I'd say it all starts to come together when I added the stars. I'm planning on adding more letters soon!

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.