Hi all! Thought I’d drop by to post this new Youtube video where I show some interesting finds in Porto, Portugal. I got some nice watercolor postcard paper from Fabriano and Winsor & Newton, and acrylic paper block also from Winsor & Newton. I also got some souvenir items that I thought would be interesting to share in my channel.
Thanks for dropping by, and have a good weekend!
New item on the zazzle shop — original watercolor stickers and prints of Sampaguita, the Philippine National flower.
This artwork, together with a few others (see picture gallery below) were on exhibit during the Philippine Independence Day celebration of the Filipino-French community here in Toulouse last June.
I have been super busy with work, and life in general during the past months. I barely had time to update. But in the coming weeks, I shall be posting about our mini-garden / terasse renovation, recent road trip to Italy, and the upcoming watercolor retreat I shall be joining.
Thanks for dropping by, and have a good week ahead!
In this youtube video, I take you to one of my favorite cities in the Basque Region — Donostia, San Sebastian, Spain. I was there a couple of weekends ago, to break the monotony of cold, gray, wintry weather in Toulouse. And also, to get some nice dose of Vitamin “Sea”. We were blessed with a superb sunny weather, and a lovely AirBnB apartment with a huge balcony overlooking the city center, which inspired me to paint plein air.
And so, I share with you a very quick and loose watercolor urban sketch of the view of San Sebastian’s rooftops in its city center, where you can also see the gigantic statue of the Virgin Mary, looking over the beautiful city. I also had some opportunity to visit a small art supplies shop called, La Casa del Artista.
I used my usual Silver Brush Black Velvet brush, and Da Vinci Casaneo brushes. And for pigments, I used Holbein Watercolors, and my trusty Portable Painter Micro to hold the pigments. For the sketch pad, I used my mini sketch pad from Moleskine.
Thanks for watching! 🙂
My online shop on Zazzle for shopping my original Filipino themed artworks
Nice restos in San Sebastian:
Hey there! I know I’ve been slacking on posts lately. My new job has taken over most of my time lately. But since, it’s the holiday season, things are getting a bit more slow-paced at work starting this weekend. So I’ve taken the opportunity to post a watercolor painting demo, finally!
In this video, I was inspired by the Christmas lanterns that I found in Ikea here in France. They remind me so much of the Christmas lanterns that we have back in the Philippines (Parol), I just had to make a watercolor version of them in a Christmas greeting card.
Since I’m always missing the tropics, especially, the beach, I’ve created this tropical themed greeting card. If you guys are interested, I sell some greeting cards, and other gift items with my original watercolor prints on them on zazzle.com. Mostly, Filipino themed. This year, I am so happy to have sold quite a lot! I’m finally going to be able to cash out my earnings! 🙂 What a treat. Thanks to those who patronized my humble artworks.
Hope you have a great holiday. Cheers!
Last month, I celebrated my birthday in Paris with the hubs and some friends. We stayed at one of our friends’s very lovely apartment, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower. It was wonderful!!! I didn’t wanna leave the room with the view. 😀
We also saw Yoyo Ma at the Philharmonie de Paris. We booked the ticket early this year, and it was almost fully booked! We were still lucky to get seats third row from the stage, facing the front. Here is a video of some of snaps and video shorts I took during the mini-breaks in the concert.
The Philharmonie de Paris was majestic outside, but a bit disappointing inside. But I still had fun watching the concert. It was a birthday gift from my wonderful husband. We had a great time despite the noisy people in the audience violently coughing and sneezing all the time. It was so nerve-wrackingly distracting. I do not know how Yo-Yo Ma managed to keep his calm and cool throughout all the noise. And having said that, I think it will be the last time I will be watching him live. It was too distracting. But it was a real pleasure seeing him live in the flesh. Best birthday gift ever!
Lastly, a bit of update on the job hunt: before going on this trip, exactly a day before, actually, I received a very good news from one of the companies I have applied to. I started working two weeks after this trip. I was ecstatic!!! I have been on the job for two weeks now, and so far, I’m still not disappointed. It’s a great company, one of the biggest French IT Consulting companies, and my client is the biggest aviation company in Europe. Also, I’m working on their big data platform, doing Data Engineering until the end of this year. After that, I might go into another project, of which, I do not know yet. 🙂 I am quite happy. C’est fini, la tristesse.
Cheers, and have a good week ahead!
Hello, hello, lovely people! How’s the first few days of 2022, so far?
As for me, I feel like celebrating since I have just finished completing and passing all the exams (five in all, including the grueling Applied Maths Subjects) due this holiday. And I still have a week to rest a bit before my classes start again!
Anyway, the last day of the year, hubs and I had a chance to go on a date and eat out at a fancy two-Michelin star restaurant called, Py-r. The first time we went there was eight years ago. It didn’t have any Michelin star yet, but it was already quite good.
And just after the sumptuous lunch, we strolled around a bit to help digest all the food we ate. We passed by one of my favorite Art Supplies Shop, Rougier et Plé. I thought I’d check out if I could really get a 10% discount from my student card. And I did! Which is really very nice! If you’d like to see my haul, do check out my Youtube video:
Happy New Year, and thanks so much for dropping by! 🙂
UPDATE: I have recently added more designs on the shop:
First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you to all these people who have been buying my Christmas cards, and other gift items on the shop. I wish I could send them a personal thank you letter. I find it very touching that people from across the globe appreciate my artworks.
It has really inspired me to keep painting and keep doing this part-time, small hobby that gives me so much pleasure. And the pleasure is just multiplied a hundred times over when I see people appreciating my humble work. I can’t thank you enough!
And so here I was this weekend, trying to eke out a teensy weensy portion of my free time to do some painting and update my shop. I hope you like my new designs:
Pasko – Paksiw – Pasko is a tongue twister in the Philippines. Paksiw is a local dish with fish and coconut vinegar in a soup. I really miss it. It’s been more than a decade since I last had one!
Tuyo is dried fish. I’m not sure how to translate it in English but the fish is usually either Tulingan or Tawilis in the Tagalog-speaking regions. In the South, there are other varieties of fishes they use for Tuyo. Tuyo literally translates to “dry” in English. It is another one of my favorite dishes, especially for breakfast, much to the chagrin of my husband and other foreign friends who do not appreciate the smell of it. 😀
I was inspired to paint a Tropical Christmas theme because I have been terribly missing the warm tropical beaches of my home country. It’s been years since I was last in a real warm beach. This artwork was mostly done in Procreate, except for the starfishes, which were all done in watercolor.
— END OF UPDATE —
Seeing some people already starting to buy again my Filipino / Pinoy Christmas theme greeting cards online reminded me that it’s that time of the year to post them again! They are still available on my online shop: https://riosebastian.com/shop/ and on Zazzle (with 20% to 50% discount at the moment).
Zazzle is available in the following countries: USA, The UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc. Just don’t forget to click on the correct country in the options (you can see it on the top-right corner of the page, the globe icon).
Maraming salamat at Maligayang Pasko sa lahat! 
On the occasion of Mother’s Day, I thought it would be fun to create and sell some watercolor artwork prints for Mother’s Day Greeting cards.
These are original watercolor artworks by yours truly, printed on high quality greeting card paper. I have hand-painted these beauties and made some enhancements on Procreate.
If you liked what you see here, do go ahead and visit my shop on zazzle. I think they have a discount going on right now. Also, don’t forget to use the correct domain name (country) where you are located.
Speaking of Mother’s Day cards, if you would like to try to create a simple DIY watercolor Mother’s Day card, I’ve created a Youtube video for it:
Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend! 💕
Having recently acquired the sudden urge to create some new collection of artworks for my online shop, I thought it timely to update my blog to let you all know about it. 😉
And just in time (hopefully, not too late), I have made some Valentine cards with my original watercolor artwork prints. You still have time for the SALE, just use the code SENDLOVE2021 before check-out! 😉
For those who do not know, Halo-Halo is a Filipino dessert. Yes, it’s a dessert, even though most of the random stuff in it wouldn’t count as dessert ingredients for those who do not live in the Philippines, or its neighboring countries.
Made some greeting cards and postcards as well…
Tuyo is a dried fish made in the Philippines. The term, tuyo literally means dry or dried. Most of the time, tuyo is made with a fish called Tawilis or Tulingan. It is a local favorite, which, I’m sure, most Filipinos like myself terribly miss the comfort of savoring (especially the distinct putrid smell 😀 ), most especially during the depressing colder months, like, right now.
And while, I was at it, I have incorporated my artwork on some other cute items such as magnets, stickers, posters, tote bags, clothes, etc. Please click away on the images or captions for more details.
I do hope you take the time to visit my shop, and maybe try out an item or two, while you’re at it. 🙂
I hope my Filipino themed products provide the same kind of comfort and sentiment to all the Pinoys / Filipinos out there who are terribly missing all things Pinoy back home.
Happy shopping and Happy Valentine ! 🙂
springfugue.com 