Category: updates

Mont Saint-Michel Watercolor Painting Demo

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Hello everyone! How have you been? I hope you’re one of the chosen few who managed to escape the ire of Omicron. It seems to be very much omnipresent and omnipotent these past few months. Only the hashtag blessed (according to some instagram people) have managed to slip through unnoticed.

I, myself, have been under the weather for the last few days now. It’s not COVID, though. Just the common flu. The symptoms might be even worse than Omicron’s, though. I have been feeling like somebody slapped me around the whole night, every morning I wake up. My whole head hurts, especially my eye sockets, my scalp and even my teeth! I got nasty joint pains the first night. I hardly slept. From time to time, I get sharp nasty pains in my ear. Maybe I should redo the auto-test to check if I really don’t have COVID.

Today, I feel much better, though. I now only have a bit of cough and colds, and I sound a bit like Marge Simpson (or a bit like the sexy French Lola voice you usually hear on French TV doing the voice-over on magazine shows (think Edith Piaf!)… only in France! 😀 ) when I talk. That, and despite the fact that I’ve unwittingly wiped out clean my entire local project folder with all my Python Labs Machine Learning codes in it yesterday morning. Who does that?!!! I wanted to slap myself, but my sickness was already making me feel as if I have been slapped around enough already.

What’s good about all these is that I managed to get some free time (no classes also last Thurs and Fri) to paint again. I have been postponing for the longest time to paint Mont-Saint Michel. My family and I had the occasion to visit this magical place up in Normandie during the summer.

I painted it in a loose, quick, relaxing and fun way, as usual. I don’t want to take my paintings too seriously. I just want to have fun doing them. That’s the most important thing to me.

Thanks for dropping by. Cheers, and keep safe, everyone! 🙂

Random Thoughts and Updates

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Hi everyone! I hope you’re all having a good holiday. As for me, I have a three-week school break at the moment. I am only on my first week but I have already finished doing THREE out of FIVE exams. It’s not fun but I’m surviving. I find this course very interesting. I have learned so much in a span of three months! We had classes on Python programming, Machine Learning, AI and Data Laws (very sensitive, touchy subject), Applied Maths (Calculus, Algebra, Matrix Manipulations), Statistics and programming in R, Databases (which was a very good review), etc.

So far, my favorite was Artificial Intelligence and Data Laws. We talked about AI for Good, The GDPR, Patents on Algorithms, Ethics and Morality. I am suddenly ever more aware and conscious about all the information that I share about myself and my loved ones online. I’ve started deleting pictures of myself and my immediate family, which I wouldn’t want anybody (especially my classmates) to see while trying to scrape for image datasets for our school projects! LOL!

As for the Maths, I am still trying to catch up on Calculus. I never really had a strong background on it since, first and foremost, I never really realized before how fascinating it was when I was first introduced the subject. My interest in Maths, back then especially, Calculus unfortunately heavily relied upon my interest in the teacher conducting the class. I would say that my Calculus teacher was mostly absent, treated us like idiots, except for maybe one or two people in the class, and shamelessly collected money from students in exchange of a passing grade. I can only hope that she really needed the money. Otherwise, I hope someday she grows a conscience.

I never totally hated Maths, I was really interested in Trigonometry and even Algebra when I was in HS and College. In fact, I always like to watch a lot of videos about Maths. This one today, I found very intriguing, touching, and surprisingly poetic...

This video talks about Incompleteness and how, after a certain point, we keep getting back to the problems of infinite loops, who guards the guards and turtles all the way down. This might just be connected to this gnawing, nagging thought that I always get whenever I look out into space, especially looking up at night and just seeing blackness and the stars… it always, always makes me wonder whether I am looking outside, trying to see what’s way out there or I am really way outside trying to look deep within.

What do you guys think?

Also, in the spirit of total randomness… just wanna say that, it’s always difficult to find that balance in a conversation among friends where each person talks about himself/herself just enough. Sometimes, I feel like I’m being interrogated when I talk to French people. They almost always do not share anything about themselves but like to ask questions instead. I guess it stems from the fact that in most (non-Asian) cultures, it’s considered bad form or impolite to talk about oneself all the time. While the people from my home country are just the exact opposite. Filipinos almost always just talk about themselves. Never really even asking you even a simple, “how are you doing”. We were never really taught a lot of social graces, especially when it comes to oversharing and talking too much about ourselves. Tough. Not sure which one I prefer.

Anyway, hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Hopefully, I’ll be back again with some watercolor video with a Christmasy vibe. Ciao for now.

Watercolor Painting of Santorini

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Finally, after almost two years, I managed to travel outside of France once again. My family and I stayed in the lovely island of Santorini in Greece for a week during the school holiday. We stayed in this beautiful apartment in Pyrgos, a quiet area in the middle of the island, away from the bustle of the touristy areas of Oia and Fira.

We had a lovely view of the sea, some of the islands, and the mountains from the balcony of our Airbnb apartment. The view, and the Bougainvillea flowers at the entrance of the apartment inspired me to paint plein air on the balcony, one day, when I had the occasion to take a break from our usual walks.

I had so much fun, and felt so relaxed doing this watercolor painting of a scenery in Santorini. It was actually inspired by this picture of myself standing under the lush and lovely Bougainvillea of our Airbnb apartment. I just edited it a bit to make it look more interesting in the painting.

Me and my bougainvillea tree

Hope you are all having a fun week. Thanks for dropping by! Cheers!

Quick, Loose and Relaxing Watercolor Demo

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Hello, everyone! I’ve just recently posted another YT video while I still can. As you know, tomorrow marks the start of my Master’s Degree classes. I’m taking MSc in Data Engineering for Artifical Intelligence, btw. I could not stress that enough because this will greatly affect my schedule. I probably wouldn’t have as much time on SocMed anymore. So, yay?… or nay. Also, I’m so proud of getting into this class and this school in Paris, I just couldn’t stop talking about it. LOL. Sorry about that.

Anyway, this post is about my new Youtube post. I will try my very best to be able to still upload a post once a week. But maybe I will end up doing it once a month, or maybe even less.

So here is the usual loose and quick watercolor doodle that I’ve posted on Youtube, I keep saying.

Here, I used my Holbein watercolor pigments, my Silverbrush Black Velvet brush, etchr lab’s The Perfect Sketchbook and this cute palette by Portable Painter Micro. I also talked a lot in this video (at least in the captions). More than usual. I get like this sometimes when I’m stressed out. It’s more difficult for me to talk about my anxieties in person. I do it better in writing, and seemingly, even way better in Youtube videos. LOL.

Anyway, hope you enjoy my video. And if you did, you know the drill. 😉

Cheerios!

Youtube 100 Subscribers, Master’s Degree, Travels, and Other Updates

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Hello, everyone! It’s been a long time since I last made an update. My family and I went traveling for half a month in the Northwestern region of France last month. We were trying to make the most out of the seemingly very few “sunny” days of summer this year. It has been sooo rainy and windy. It felt more like autumn than summer.

Anyways, I was surprised this morning to find this email from Youtube:

Just when I was about to give up on this channel… hope to find more time for videos soon!

It’s been a long time since I last updated my Youtube art channel. I was surprised to find that I have actually been getting more subscribers. It was such a pleasant surprise. I do hope to be able to post more videos soon. I will try my very best. Although, I am going to be really very, very busy starting next month.

I have actually applied to a Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence. I managed to get accepted in the two schools here in France where I have sent my application. I chose the one whose campus is in Paris and Nice. But I’ll be taking live online classes since I live in Toulouse. As you know, my day job is actually IT-related, not the arts. I have decided that I am just going to keep doing art as a hobby, not as a main source of my bread and butter. Maybe someday. Maybe I just might be able to find a happy mix of art and IT, like maybe something along the lines of NFT’s… maybe. But for now, I’d like to focus on Artificial Intelligence coz I believe, there is a lot of opportunities there. The possibilities are infinite. 😉

As for my travels, my family and I went on a Food Trip Road Trip holiday going from Toulouse to the Northwest of France. It was quite tiring, but nevertheless, wonderful trip to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary this year. We saw a lot of nice places and dined in Michelin-starred restaurants. I think I will write more about this in my travel blog.

Continue reading “Youtube 100 Subscribers, Master’s Degree, Travels, and Other Updates” →

Plein Air Watercolor Painting in Gruissan, France

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Every year, my artist friends and I would take a short road trip to a nearby village in the South of France for a plein air water color session and to chill.

I was very happy with our choice of location this year — the Plage des Chalets, which is the setting of the movie, “Betty Blue”, or “37.2° le matin” as it is known in France. I’ve heard it is also a location of one of Leonardo di Caprio’s movies, but I couldn’t seem to find which one it is. Let me know in the comments if you know which one.

Anyway, here is a short video of our trip to Plage des Chalets and the pink salt mine (yes, “pink”, that’s right!) of Le salin de l’île Saint-Martin. We had a lovely time there. Hope you enjoy watching! And if you did, please give the “like” and “subscribe” button a hit.

Have a lovely summer weekend! 🙂

Happy New Year, etc.

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First of all, Happy New Year!!!

I can’t believe 2020 just happened. It just does not feel like we have really left last year though. It feels as if 2020 was not really done yet. It just wants to be a longer year than it already was. But I really don’t want to spend the first blog of the year ranting and complaining about 2020. I’m back here with some life updates, etc.

First off, I got myself a new iPad. It’s the 4th generation iPad Air. It’s really fancy-schmanzy and all coz I bought with it the Apple Pencil and the keyboard which also acts as a protective cover. So far, I’m really loving it. I bought it for the sole purpose of using Procreate coz I find that Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop nowadays are such an expensive scam. Since I’m already at ease with Apple products, why not just use Procreate, the much cheaper version?

Self-portrait created in Procreate and watercolor

Anyhoo, I’m thinking of creating some digital artworks with it, which I would like to mix with the old and familiar, watercolor. If you could see my new profile pic, I actually did the portrait sketch in Procreate but I did the soft-focus background with watercolor. I just love how the foreground seamlessly merged with the background. After unsuccessfully attempting to achieve this simple effect using Gimp, it is such a welcome respite to find how easy it is to do this with Procreate.

Continue reading “Happy New Year, etc.” →

Paint-Along-With-Me Filipino Christmas Card

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Hey there!

First of all, some updates… It’s been a while. I have been super busy with my Christmas Greeting Card for a Cause project the past few weeks. I’ve also just recently put up my online shop. Add to that the fact that I’ve started studying French again. The French government has been kind enough to approve my request for full financial support to study one-on-one, customized French course for myself online, so as to improve my conversational skills and to pass the exam to B2 (Advance Intermediate) Level. The last time I took the exam, I was B1 (Lower Intermediate) Level, and that was like 5 years ago, I think. 🙂

Anyway, just want to keep you posted. Been busy with the Christmas shopping, updating my online shop for more items and making videos. Also, preparing documents to submit for a Master’s Degree I’m looking to apply for next year. I might also enroll in the meantime in an online Garden Design class to a prestigious school in the UK. I’m excited about this! I’ll let you know more in the coming weeks.

Anyway, here is a video of me painting one of my Christmas greeting cards. You can follow along, or just watch. Watercolor is so relaxing to watch. Plus, I’ve put some nice and cheerful Christmas songs in the background. It helps to feel more relaxed, more zen and more cheerful, especially during this times of confinement and gloomy winter weather.

Paint-along watercolor painting tutorial of a Filipino themed Christmas card courtesy of yours truly

This Christmas greeting card, along with all my other watercolor artwork prints on Christmas gift items are up on sale, folks!

Also, there is now a new item in my menu (Link Tree) that links to a page containing all my social medial sites, FYI. I first had the idea to do this via linktree (the web site that allows you to create a “link tree” of you social media sites). But then I thought, hey why not just create a link tree of my own in my web site. It’s more practical and I get a nice URL with my own domain name instead of using theirs. Haha! 😉

Maligayang Pasko po! 🙂

My Indoor Plants

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During the confinement period, like most people I know, I have rediscovered my love for plants. Particularly, the indoor kind. I suddenly crave for more greenery inside the house as a result of not being able to visit my favorite garden (Jardin Japonais) right next to my old office. I have accumulated quite a collection of them, some of which, I am about to obligingly enumerate in this blog post… starting with my beautiful tall plants…

Pendant la période de confinement, comme la plupart des gens que je connais, j’ai redécouvert mon amour pour les plantes. En particulier, celles d’intérieur. J’ai soudain envie de plus de verdure à l’intérieur de la maison, car je ne peux pas visiter mon jardin préféré (Jardin Japonais) juste à côté de mon ancien bureau. J’en ai accumulé toute une collection, dont certaines, que je m’apprête à énumérer obligeamment dans ce blog… à commencer par mes belles grandes plantes…

If you have read one of my previous blogs, you would have already seen my Bird of Paradise, which is a Mother’s Day gift by my husband and my daughter. It has grown a lot of new foliage now. It looks quite happy and healthy. I have not repotted it for fear that I might damage its roots. So far, it acclimatized quite well. To take care of this plant, you need to put it closest to the window and water it every three days, or so. Of course, I also wipe the leaves with disinfectant once a week because… why not? I do this for all my other plants as well. Seriously, it’s a good way to remove the dust so that it could absorb more sunlight, and helps ward off bugs at the same time.

Si vous avez lu l’un de mes précédents blogs, vous aurez déjà vu mon Bird of Paradise, un cadeau de mon mari et de ma fille pour la fête des mères. Il a maintenant beaucoup de nouveaux feuillages. Il a l’air très heureux et en bonne santé. Je ne l’ai pas rempoté de peur d’endommager ses racines. Jusqu’à présent, il s’est assez bien acclimaté. Pour prendre soin de cette plante, il faut la mettre le plus près possible de la fenêtre et l’arroser tous les trois jours environ. Bien sûr, j’essuie aussi les feuilles avec du désinfectant une fois par semaine parce que… pourquoi pas ? Je le fais aussi pour toutes mes autres plantes. Sérieusement, c’est une bonne façon d’enlever la poussière pour qu’elle puisse absorber plus de lumière du soleil, et cela aide en même temps à éviter les insectes.

Next on the list is my Red Abyssian Banana. The hubs saw this basking in the sun outside our favorite plants shop in a town nearby. He took a picture and sent it to me. It was love-at-first-sight. So I just had to get it. Like most bananas, it grows sooo fast. I couldn’t believe my eyes. We’d eventually have to plant it outside at the rate that it’s growing! But I really hope not coz it just looks so gorgeous inside the house.

Le prochain sur la liste est ma Red Abyssian Banana. Mon mari a vu cette banane se prélasser au soleil devant notre magasin de plantes préféré dans une ville voisine. Il a pris une photo et me l’a envoyée. C’était l’amour au premier regard. Il fallait donc que je la prenne. Comme la plupart des bananes, elle pousse si vite. Je n’en croyais pas mes yeux. Il faudrait qu’on la plante dehors au rythme où elle pousse ! Mais j’espère vraiment que ce ne sera pas le cas parce qu’elle est si belle à l’intérieur de la maison.

Continue reading “My Indoor Plants” →