SI SEPTEMBER ART JAM : FAIRY TALE MAYHEM

Last Saturday, 28th of September, our group -- I, Glenda and Tinsley (called the Sessions Illustrated) held our monthly art jam at the AFTERS MANILA CAFE, a delightful place with good coffee/cakes/gelato and otherelse. Our group holds this monthly artjam to be able to have fun while boosting up our creative juices and trying out various cafes in the metro.

Anyone is welcome to join us! So you, who is reading this entry, as long as you have the love for art and sketching, even if you can only do stick people (as some may say) --- YES YOU ARE VERY MUCH WELCOME TO JOIN US~ ^^

Thank you, to all who joined us - KC (secret agent),  Tin (web designer), Cess (web designer), Butch (Comic Book Artist), Elaine (CCAgent), and Jane (ESL teacher).

Our theme this time was Fairytale Mayhem -- causing havoc with the childhood stories, and portraying them in our sketches. Ofcourse, the whirlwind that was unleashed was quite unforgiving, as some had the task to portray Ursula as a porn star, or put Puss in Boots in a gay bar scene.

Whatever it is that took place in that event, it left us laughing while we squeeze our minds to portray random situations that we drew from the choices we, ourselves, created.

Here are the scans of some the great sketches of those who were with us last saturday. Try and guess what the situations are:

As for how was the cafe, it was such a charming place. I think at one point, they over heard us talking and flailing about Sherlock Series (sherlock fans here), and thats why they lovingly made a froth art in one of our orders:

Sherlock + Inking

Think b4 u Ink

Well, at least that's what I wanted to think~♥

Oh, and their selections of gelato are absolutely amazing. I haven't had those because I think I ordered more than enough, and I can no longer stuff myself with Gelato. Next time though, I promise I will.

Overall, it was such a blast. Next time, please come. We want to spread the spirit of creativity and help the professional artists find the fun in art again, and also inspiring the aspiring ones.

Mini Art Haul

I know I got a bunch of sketchpads lying around, but its different when you have a sketch journal, that you take anywhere so you can sketch when a sudden inspiration comes. and since my old journal has been filled to the last page, I need to buy a new one.

Beauties and Benedicts (sorry for the reference, I've been absolutely smitten by this Sherlock actor) ---
I bought myself a sketchbook Moleskine!!!

I know, I know. Moleskine is such a luxury for a sketchbook, and I can hear some of you thinking "Yeesh, such lavish waste of money". Well, I'm sorry. But I done it! I bought one. No more turning back.

Anyway, before I tell you how the moleskine was, let me share to you one of my more humble acquired wares:

WILLINGHORSE BLANK JOURNALS (less than P100)

It's a small 3 part softbound blank journal. And I love these. I would love it more if I had a medium sized one. If only they had one, I might have foregone buying a moleskine and bought one medium sized of these instead. The paper is not as great as moleskine's has, but nevertheless, it's still velvety and it's very affordable.

SKETCHBOOK MOLESKINE (about P1200)

Here it is. It really takes a toll on your budget to buy one of these. I have bought good sketchpads that sells from P100 up to P400, and to be able to shell out more than P1000 ($30) for a medium sized sketchbook would be considered a luxury amongst middle income. And yet, even though I said before, I would have bought the other one if they had the right size stock, I would assure you, if I havent bought it now, I would still want to buy in the future --- I cannot not try it.

Here's what the inside looks like.

The texture of the sketchbook is comparable to its blank journal version, but only a bit coarser and thicker. Preference of papers always vary amongst artists. Some prefer the coarser ones, some prefer the smoother ones, and this has it in the middle. Its smooth enough that even if your pencil is blunt, it still glides most at the surface area, but coarse enough to give off a bit of texture.

I tried sketching on it, and I must say, I love the texture of this. Its really good for pencil sketches.

There. If you would ask me if I will purchase another Moleskine sketchbook again, I can't answer you. According to my experience, this will last me for more than a year, so I'd rather not think about it. If I probably have the money and the ability, I would. But who knows, if I can discover a much cheaper but equally good sketch journal out there.

Here's a recap of what I bought from the store today:

and let me bid goodbye to my old journal.

Goodbye dear friend. 

I shall visit you still from time to time,

since you hold a lot of my sketches and ideas,

my notes and some gathered knowledge,

but for now, go rest unto the shelves.

Take your joyous vacation, 

away from the barbaric walls of my bag.

See you again soon~♥

Apolaki at Mayari

Just wanted to share my work that got printed in the I.N.K corner~

Mom was mighty proud her daughter's name is in the newspaper, as if I won the Pulitzer award or something of sorts~ hahaha but ofcourse, this is a big privelege I got from I.N.K~ nothing of that sorts. *getting redundant in here, probably the meds talking strange*.

Anyway, I am happy nevertheless, because I got my work printed and be seen in circulation~

it's an experience ^^

Silhouette Challenge

I was sketching roughs for an art piece for next week's paper and also surfing through some blogs, when I chanced upon two artists mentioning silhouettes.

Now I also remember that this morning there was an Art Show for kids on Disney channel, where silhouettes or art with no line structure are being showed and taught.

So i thought, someone's telling me to do one experiment on this, so amidst the conceptualization of the art piece for the next week's paper, I picked up my wacom and did a less than 30 minute experiment.

And this is the result:

Yep, i think i did pretty good. *kinda proud of myself that i took this challenge*

Anyway, whoever you are that is reading this~ Yep. whoever you are, I CHALLENGE you to pick up your tablet (or if you prefer pencil) and do a silhouette art.

For my opinion, the rougher the shades are, the more personality your piece will have. And btw, it also helps that you look at the form of the shades you did, to help you where you are going, but overall, just do the most comfortable method you can do.

It's fun. promise.

P.S.

I'm tagging this awesome girls to do this challenge as well (on your own pace ladies, no pressure)

♥ Tinsley

♥ Glenda Maye

How and Tips on taking care of your paintbrushes

This morning, the first thing I did was to clean my sable brushes. I forgot to clean them the other day since I was rushing out of the house for a deadline. And one of my own personal rules is ALWAYS make time to clean your brushes.

Why?

To prolong the life of your brushes.

Good brushes can make a difference when you paint. I realized that when all this time I was using a cheap round brush bought at local bookstore, and one day I decided to buy one of the cheapest sable watercolor brushes from the local art store.

And the difference? The school grade brushes are limp like a dead cabbage and sheds hair, and the artist grade brush is springy, durable and so wonderful to use.

 Now, the price range of a cheap school grade brush is about 20-50Php each, and the range of an artist grade brush is around 200-500Php - cheapest! I saw that these brushes can go up to 1000+Php each!

This is why we need to take care of our brushes, because good brushes don't come cheap!

HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BRUSHES

You will need:

1. Water

2. Your "just used" brushes

3. Dishwashing soap (or any liquid soap but I use Joy)

Art stores also sell brush cleaners, and that's more appropriate since it is made for brushes, but I don't have the budget for that, so I am using dish washing soap.

Here's how:

1. Run your brushes with water to remove excess paint.

2. Put a dollop of soap in your hand, lather it to a foam bubbles.

3. Isolate a great deal of soap/bubbles in your palm, and take your brushes and swirl it in one by one, carefully. If your brushes are real dirty, you will see excess pigment in the soap.

4. Rinse your brushes. 

5. Shape your brushes with your fingers to what they used to look like before letting them air dry.

1. When letting your brushes airdry, Never EVER put it upside down with brush tip pointing upwards. Doing this can cause the water to trickle down and be absorbed by all the glue that's holding the hairs of your brush.

So always let it air dry lying down, and better if you can buy those tools that can suspend your brushes with the brush tip pointing downwards.

This also goes when using your brushes. Always use your brushes lying down. Don't prop it up, even when using, because all those water you use while painting will trickle down.

2. If your brushes are old and out of shape, or even if you had the mishap of causing your brush to go out of shape, wet your brushes with water, and simply use a tissue to shape it, and let it dry like that. 

____

I hope this helps you prolong those brushes, because a good paintbrush is a good friend and needs a lot of care.

xoxo

Annie

Halloo balloo~

Hello.

This is my very first post to this blog. I haven't done blogging for such a long time now, usually because I tend to stray off. But I'm giving it a chance again, but this time, it will be more about what i draw, what i sketch, and things that I ponder about it.

Well, maybe I'd have a personal post about my personal life, once or twice, but most posts will probably be related to arts, drawing and some certain perculiars, at least that's what I intend to do.

So for my first post, let me share this close up view of what I did a week ago.

I'm actually happy with how this turned out, because I realized I got faster in execution this time. Maybe for some certain reasons, like my hand pulse was on target, or I'm really inspired that day to paint again digitally, or I just got lucky.

Anyway, I'll cut this post short as I am not inspired to blog about anything. I just got the obligatory first post over and done with. 

I'll go back to tweaking the code again.

Later folks.