I’m kinda stupid. I’ve been driving all over Metro Manila chasing the instruments I needed for my new obsession when Art Whale is just right at my doorstep. I didn’t have to drive to Manila, Makati, or even to Q. Ave just to get the right brushes and individual half pans of artist grade watercolors. It’s just right there—a bike ride away.

I finally found that elusive #000 brush that is 10x better than my current one from Scriva. I could barely make lines with the Scriva #000 (the hairs are all falling apart) while this da Vinci is right on the money. And it’s only PHP 75. They carry Escoda (the very expensive kind) and Princeton brushes but da Vinci is fine with me.

I was also able to buy the Holbein Jaune Brilliant which has been in my Shopee cart. I can finally quit mixing my own colors for skin, which always turn out yellowish (that’s why in my sketches the people there look like they have Hepatitis).

I’m not happy with the single Winsor & Newton Cotman pan I bought; it’s quite chalky and it needs a lot of water and dipping before I could get the color. I found that I’m quite happy with Tokyo Finds Bento Picasso Pro and I’ll just fill it with Holbein colors now that I know where to buy these elusive things. Bento Picasso Pro have brilliant colors and enough transparency and can easily be reactivated with water, I can even reactivate the blots of colors on my pans that have dried up and use them up again.

When it comes to paper, they only have Strathmore in the “affordable”/non-professional line, which is quite pricey. So I can buy the 300 gsm papers from Art Bar (Cansons, MontMarte) and Tokyo Finds from Shopee Mall.

They have good brands for other medium (oil, acrylics, gouache) but they’re the higher end ones.

Here’s to my art therapy. It has been 15 months but I’m getting there. I have setbacks but I will get there eventually.

The girls are with their dad so I have solo time today. I went all Japanese today again for my dinner after discovering the Kewpie sesame soy sauce for that is perfect for shredded napa cabbage.

I had tuna sashimi (surface pan seared a bit) with the last of my wasabi paste, omurice (the rice I seasoned for sushi), shredded napa cabbage with sesame soy sauce, and tonkatsu ramen. It’s too much for dinner but I didn’t have lunch and barely had breakfast today so it’s kinda ok. I’ll just have to walk off the calories tomorrow. Save for the trip to Art Whale and grocery shopping at Puregold tonight, I didn’t do anything much but sleep.

Let’s see what I can create tonight.

Two of my botanicals have been reserved by my bff L so I’ve touched them up before I would give them. So I was able to make room in my two frames for one botanical and for the Himeji Castle Garden.