Practice sketch. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I needed to make this sketch first before making a bigger drawing; it’s like pre-heating the oven when baking.
Initial wash. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I wanted to try the Kuretake Gansai Tambi on large format landscape drawings. I needed to coax this watercolor so it could at least cooperate with me, especially when doing washes. So it seems like this watercolor can do washes on watercolor paper with thickness of 200 gsm or less. Anything higher than that would make the colors sit still. The sketch of the Stabilo Boss and Pigma Micron was done on a smoother and thinner paper so I was able to spread the color and make it behave like an ordinary watercolor.
Now with on this Canson 200 gsm cold press side of the paper, I could do a bit of wash but it’s still a bit harder to spread and blend the colors.
Binangonan sunset during 2021 CNY. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m still thinking if I should ink this or gamble using the #0 brush to add details. The background trees are still flat and I need to add depth after this dries up. I need to relearn how to add depth to this without having to resort to thicker application of watercolor and make it behave like gouache. Either I layer this with other colors or I use ink.
This is how it would look like if I ink it:
Practice drawing on sketchbook. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m kinda feeling it but this may end up looking like an illustration. Whatever.
At least I feel better now that I have used colors again.
I want to achieve this level of mastery of watercolor:
Art by Winslow Homer
For me to be able to do that, I need to draw every night.
Art by Winslow Homer
I need to sleep first. I’ll add details and depth tomorrow after work.
“I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. But if ever, teaching will be good. I’m a lawyer. But entering government? No way. They can’t afford me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll fire all of them.” –Liza Araneta-Marcos
Tax expert Mon Abrea says simple math would have pushed the bill into the stratosphere. Twenty percent interest is slapped on every year the tax is left unpaid. Justice Carpio says the passage of so much time makes a case against the heirs, especially Marcos Jr., of willful refusal to pay. He says there’s a remedy for that.
Beijing stands ready to help Marcos family consolidate power over the long term Alvin Camba April 5, 2022 17:00 JST
Alvin Camba is assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a faculty affiliate at the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on track to win the May 9 Philippine elections.
As Bongbong has himself said, he will move to maintain a strong relationship with Beijing while not completely abandoning ties with the West. Beijing likely expects Marcos to disregard the 2016 ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and kowtow to China on crucial international issues.
The makers of The Kingmaker have made their film about the Marcoses free to view for everybody. Unfortunately, Filipinos are stubborn, especially if their core beliefs are challenged–if they’re corrected.
All my plans for today were wiped out as the weather turned weird. It rained non-stop today, like it’s already August.
Parking area. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Well, it’s a good thing that it rained so Lamesa Dam and Angat Dam can be refilled, if not up to the safe level. This assures us that there will be no water shortage in the coming days…or weeks. The temperature cooled up a bit from 30s down to 26 as of this moment. But because of this weather (and lack of sunlight), I did nothing but sleep. And edit three stories. Do some admin work, touch base with a source, and listen a bit to a webinar. I’m giving myself this day to slack off because—I dunno. I don’t feel like it.
This is my day of letting steam off because of my annoyance with company leadership issues. I couldn’t help my colleague with her job requests because of reporting line issues (vague). It’s really annoying me. It’s already April and there’s nothing definite happening. They couldn’t even give me the proper transition timeline. 🙄
To rid myself of annoyance, I temporarily halted my repetitive curtain sewing and returned to my complicated poppy flower drawing. It’s making me cringe. Either I finish this or I move on to drawing humans.
I suddenly remember my lawyer-artist friend who commented about the girl I was cheated on with by my ex-husband; he said she is not a fine artist but she’s more of an illustrator (they have common friends). That’s why she kept on doing squiggles and abstract graphic arts. I trust this friend because he is a really good fine artist and he has been winning competitions left and right but he chose to be a lawyer because…he wants to earn well. So now he shifted to photography and buying expensive equipment and drones has been his pastime.
So now my question is, what do I want to become? I don’t know. I just draw and paint to express myself. I’m not even good. But it forever frustrates me that I am having a hard time drawing faces or humans for that matter. I need to up the ante. Challenge myself.
Let’s start with this:
Practicing with grid lines. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m not yet brave enough to do full frontal. Probably I’ll do pencil first because I’m more decent with pencils.
It was every boy’s fantasy to be part of Top Gun after it was shown some thirty-plus years ago—my brother included. The aerial dog fights and anything about flying jet planes tickled their imagination. So I guess my brother is looking forward to watching Top Gun: Maverick. I also remember a poster of Top Gun Tom Cruise in the old house I grew up in…I asked my older sister why she put that up and she said she can’t remember why 😂 I’m thinking twice if I should brave watching this movie in theaters but this kind of movie should be watched on the big screen. I’m wary of being in enclosed spaces because Covid is still very much with us. One of the reporters in my bureau was reinfected with Covid, two months after of getting it in February. I don’t want to get bogged down by Covid again. It was just a nasty experience.
This is the reason why it’s better to completely heal first instead of using another person to “heal”/forget. To basically rebound. You’re still being toxic yourself so it’s gonna be hard to have a healthy relationship with anybody who still carries a lot of baggage.
Some friends don’t understand. It’s not me just holding on to the past; it’s me trying to be healthy first before anything else. I need to learn to completely love myself first before I love another person outside my immediate circle. But I’m not doing this with the goal of meeting a new person. I’m doing this for myself because I OWE it to myself. I’ve been through so much shit and it’s about time I prioritize me.
So right now I’m trying to start my week with good vibes. Like this, a clean workspace to motivate me to be productive on Mondays.
I bought a new desk mat because I’m tired of my mouse pad moving around my table. Photo by CallMeCreation.comWatering and pruning my plants everyday to keep them healthy. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
These are the little things I regularly do to love myself and appreciate life again.
Tomorrow I may go to Marikina to look around a pottery maker’s showroom for reasonably priced decorative clay pots and pedestals.
Pink is the color of tomorrow! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My big roses have started to bloom again. Lots of patience and moving around of pots to learn the optimal sun exposure and watering frequency of these flowering plants. Good things come with patience. You can’t just rush things.
While the world is busy with Ukraine and its effect on each region, Myanmar has been largely ignored these days. The Myanmar central bank suddenly came out with a directive regarding forex:
A Myanmar resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons, expressed concern about being able to access their deposited savings and how much could be withdrawn.
“If we can’t withdraw, everything we earn will be stuck in the bank,” the resident said.
The official central bank exchange rate for the kyat is currently 1,850 per dollar, but this tends to be well below the unofficial black market rate.
The country’s economy is spiraling down further. It’s hard to do my reportage remotely when nobody is willing to talk to me, even anonymously.
Balloons over Bagan, Myanmar. Photo by Boris Ulzibat on Pexels.com
Looking forward to the Holy days next week. Metro Manila will be empty of people eager to go to the provinces as they do their revenge travel. The beaches will be teeming with people. As for me, I’m staying put since I know the provincial roads will be super clogged with SUVs. Maybe the girls and I can go to the Intramuros churches to do visita iglesia and at the same time I can do sketching. We can bring our bikes. We can also bike along Roxas Boulevard, along Manila Bay.
Manila Cathedral. Photo by Gerald Escamos on Pexels.com
Before that, I still need to help them review for their upcoming tests and I’m giving them some pointers for their music lessons.
My drawing for my girls’ music lesson. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Now I know why I had to go through those rigorous piano lessons and rondalla practices all those years: so I can teach my children music down the road. 🤔 I even had to teach them how to properly write a G clef. One day they will learn how to transcribe music notation on music staff, the least favorite of my duties as a music student 🎹 and glee club member.
After the first batch of their final exams, we will be celebrating the girls’ 11th birthday. I need to order food before everything closes down for the Holy Week.
I slept earlier than usual last night but I still woke up at 10 am. The only thing I did today was to grill these pork chops and then repotted some plants in pots that are not draining well. Also planted some marigolds, calendula, aster, and leeks. I have more luck growing flowering plants than vegetables but let’s see again if I can grow leeks, which I consume a lot in a week.
In between, I helped my daughters review their music lesson—textures and dynamics—which they had trouble with because it’s hard understanding triads, monotones, etc through remote teaching without a piano accompaniment. So I told them they should take advantage of their mom who knows a thing or two about music. I demonstrated to them the lessons with the help of my piano playing, Youtube, and Spotify.
It was already 5:30 pm when I was done with the garden. I took a long, luxurious shower, and rested while I was booking a Zennya massage. ThenI fell asleep again! I don’t know what’s my body trying to tell me but maybe it’s making up for weeks/months of not being able to properly sleep. It seems like my mental state is more relaxed now after a tumultuous February so my body has uncurled from its formerly tense and rigid state. Thank God for that! I pray that this will continue so I can move on to bigger things like starting to build my new flat.
And no Zennya. I couldn’t book a massage therapist. It seems like everybody is spending lazy Sundays like I do.
I am resisting the urge to do more DIYs around here but this guy is convincing me to buy that jigsaw and do more magic.
In the meantime, I’m finishing the curtains for the house to block out the intense sunlight and to replace the ones mangled by my cats 🐱😹
Nearly done with this last curtain panel…Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Clothes shopping at SM Marikina. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I took my children clothes shopping because they have again outgrown the clothes I just bought them months ago. Now that we’re more mobile and we will be traveling once again, they needed well-fitting clothes and shoes. I haven’t even bought them their school clothes/shoes/bags because they may no longer fit by June.
Their sizes and styles are already in the teens’ section. Or even adult section. Twin I’s shoe size is already EU 37 while mine is EU 38. Some of my old clothes already fit her.
Before clothes shopping, I tried this Korean-style corn dog I found at Monterey Community Market. The girls liked them.
Chef’s Selection Korean-style corn dog. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m too lazy to cook today so we just had dinner at Calle Reyes in SM Marikina. It was good since it looks like the people behind Calle Reyes are the same ones who put up Reyes Barbecue. I did a very quick sketch while we waited for our food. I only had my passport-sized notebook that was just for jotting down notes and sticking receipts to document the day. It wasn’t meant for drawings or watercolors.
Quick sketch while we wait for our food. Photo by CallMeCreation.comReally bad paper. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The deserts are Filipino, which is good in my book.
Macapuno pandan crepe. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The macapuno inside the crepe is not too sweet as the one I am accustomed to since sweetened macapuno in Batangas, the one I grew up on, was always sickly sweet as they use this to add to halo-halo.
I am addicted to sketching notebooks. I bought new ones even though I haven’t finished one sketch notebook.
Well, the opportunity to fill these up will be coming since it will only be three weeks before we begin diving again. Woohoo!
Not only is he a great dad with sense of humor and a loving husband, he is also a smart beefcake, too. I had been following his Instagram for 4 years now and he is really hands-on with this Centrfit company he has built with his partners. He road-tests the exercises personally that he or his partners devise for this platform. I didn’t try it when he offered a 30-day trial because the exercises are hardcore or high-impact that can shatter my knees.
What I discovered from being active in this campaign which made me really mad, sometimes hopeless, and disturbed. A thread.
Take a look at this video. This is such a great idea (galing @bakitbetmo). What we currently know is there is a massive proliferation of fake news scattered on all platforms possible. pic.twitter.com/YJOX3MmNxr
But just recently, I discovered a more disturbing truth: that perhaps, the fake news we see in social media barely scratched the surface of this whole machinery. Take a look at this query sent to me privately. pic.twitter.com/o4uKY6sgY3
Please read this Twitter thread. This is scary Please get out of your echo chambers. Reach out to the people in your communities.This is extremely disturbing. The enemy is really well versed in the art of black ops. Hiring microinfluencers to shape the psyche of the C, D, E markets who do not have the access to fact checkers because it requires money (data, airtime load, smart phone) to access Tsek.ph.
“When I heard about them hiring micro influencers, I just thought of them as, perhaps, a message conduit, but receiving these questions (lalo na yung most recent. I mean? Saan nanggaling yung ipapatanggal ang ambulant vendors?), kinilabutan ako.”–@hannahbarrantes
As I said during the interview in ________, those in the lower economic level are not being reached by the truth brigade. The battle against “fake news” should be approached at the grassroots level. Apply the different communication tools in AKAP principle in social marketing (Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice). This should not just be a bullet way of using mass media/social media . We’re only scratching the surface and we are failing in the first step–making people aware. Graduates of _________ know what I’m talking about when I say social marketing concepts for rural development. Same principles.
I’m getting tired. This is the longest election season I experienced. I was just chatting with one of my BFFs and she said if BongBong Marcos wins, they will no longer come back to the Philippines from their vacation in Australia and just process their immigration papers from there. Another former colleague already left for Canada, never to come back.
These are educated people. Brain drain. If Marcos wins, there will be an exodus of skilled and educated Filipinos.
This is what we do on Friday nights.
Twin A applying facial mask on me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Twin A bought me facial masks from SaveMore. I don’t know why but she did. And she insisted that she put it on me tonight to help me relax after work. Since she used her own money for this gift, I obliged.
No filters. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Clean face, pampered with love from my daughter. Nothing can beat that.
Yes, I’m already 42 years old and damn proud of it. If he finds me old, then he has a problem, it’s not me who’s the problem.
