Small paintings and opening an Etsy shop

This summer, I've started painting small watercolor pieces (post card size). I enjoy doing small pieces because they don't take a lot of time to finish.

Finally, my Etsy printables shop has been opened! I have 3 products right now and I'm slowly adding more. I was torn between making it look generic or making it really artistic. I preferred making it look more creative - yet simple. That means more experimenting and plain work. I know the start requires all the hard work, failures, bloopers and I pray that my work will  be blessed. I've read my journal and realized that it was my goal to open an Etsy shop since 2012. I'm really thankful to God I can finally work on my shop. It is still under construction so I won't link it for now.

My summer vacation (I'm a teacher) is almost over! I'll be reporting to school next week. I will surely make time to still paint and update this blog.

Watercolor flowers

It's 2017 already! I totally forgot about this blog already. I was planning on creating a new blog but when I logged in, I was surprised to see 3 posts. My last post was back in 2013 and I was thinking of the reason why I stopped posting. It's probably because I studied again, took the board exam and had a job (not freelancing anymore). I'm starting my 4th year in my job (How fast time flies). I have been painting a lot lately so I also want to document my learning here. Anyway, I'm back to posting here.

About the picture above, last year I was practicing how to paint flowers for my friend's wedding invitation. I wasn't satisfied with the outcome and I'm not sure if my scanner will do justice to the paintings so I abandoned the idea and kept the papers. I found them earlier while looking for stuff to throw away and thought that they're actually not that bad. I have to paint more flowers! Okay, that's it for my comeback post.

The year is almost over.

Here we go with the last days of 2012. I thank God for His goodness for the whole year :) I've finally decided that I will use this blog for my traditional artworks. I've just finished an artwork (a fan art in traditional form) for a friend. I should feel accomplished somehow, maybe I am but I still have this feeling of being inadequate. I'm really critical with my own work. Maybe because I expose my eyes to seeing the best artworks (on the web) and I compare too much? Sometimes I plan of not looking at my favorite art blog or not opening deviantart so I can focus on my own work. I'll definitely do that. With that, I remember this quote:

“ Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through. ” — Ira Glass

I know, i know, we should be patient, right? Anyway this is the painting I've worked on, It's 8x10 inches, watercolor and acrylic on Canson Montval.

Another Start

I've decided to create another personal blog. It didn't take so long to think of the url to use. Diligent Hands just popped out from my mind. It's a good title. It reminds me to be productive, to avoid being lazy.