I thought of not doing an art summary for this year because I felt like I haven't been as productive as I used to be, and I was afraid to find that I haven't improved at all. But I also wanted to post something here. And I guess it's become some sort of tradition?

It's that time of the year again! I don't think I improved much this year either, although I did try a few things that have always intimidated me. So I guess it wasn't a total loss?

I wrote an art summary blog post last year so I thought I should write one this year too. I think I drew more in 2016 even if it felt like there were long periods of drought, so I should have lots of material to work with this time!

2016 is ending in a few days. It's been one hell of a year. I think it flew by too fast and yet its exit can't get any slower. As much as I want it to end, I'm also afraid of what lies ahead in the future. Anyway, despite my mixed feelings about this year, not everything is terrible. For example, Morning Light opened a branch that's easily accessible for me and my friends, and we were pleasantly surprised to find something else in their new place!

For a while now I've been stalking a few artists' accounts on Instagram, mostly for their art-related posts but also partly because I have been vicariously living through them. They meet up for art dates, have the opportunity to sell their own art, and have the luxury of being able to visit Stickerrific in a relatively regular basis. Compared to me who lives in a city with literally only one tiny art supply shop in a hard-to-reach area, they're basically living the dream.

I lied. This blog entry has no pictures of food. It does, however, have a paper thin connection to the cookies I baked yesterday so I thought it should sort of count! And it's been a while since I posted a Sunday Sweet; it's nice to type that out again.

I had to send my laptop for repair so it was away for a lot longer than I would have preferred. Unfortunately it can't play HD videos anymore but I think I can deal with that. Sometimes sacrifices must be made.

For a long time I've been avoiding adult colouring books, mostly because they're pricey and partly because I feel like I should be working on my own drawings instead of colouring someone else's. But who am I kidding? I've always been a sucker for pretty things so it was only a matter of time before I got myself one.

We're almost at the end of 2015 so 'tis the season for looking back to see how far you've come. Like every year since the day I was born I have not accomplished anything of significance this year either, but I figured I'd have nothing else interesting to write about otherwise so I thought it'd be fun to take a leaf out of those end-of-year art summary things. Even if I'll end up regretting this blog entry, that is. It's always rather embarrassing to look at old works, after all!

Parting is such sweet sorrow, especially since our stay in Osaka was a very pleasant one, not without thanks to our very gracious host. She took very good care of us during our stay, and we also had fun playing with her dogs. All good things end, however, so we had to say goodbye eventually.

Perhaps for a normal unknown civilian like me, a "What's in My Bag" feels like I'm just showing off to the void. After all, nobody really wants to know, right? But I've enjoyed looking at people's posts about the stuff in their bags ever since I discovered that it was a thing, because everyone's bag is different and that makes every single post very interesting! Making a post myself seems like a fun thing to do, and anyway I hope someone out there will find my bag interesting too.

InkTober is a drawing challenge for artists all over the world that involves creating one ink drawing every day for the entire month of October. Since my inking skills are really lacking, I've decided to take on the challenge this year in an attempt to improve.

In my quest for a very light gray marker for shading and a black marker for filling big areas, I discovered that Scribe Writing Essentials actually sells similar products as Stickerrific. They seem to have a bigger selection of calligraphy inks, though, and a few other things I didn't see at Stickerrific. Since they have a branch that's more easily accessible to me, I felt my wallet tremble in fear.

I was planning on getting gray Letraset Tria Promarkers, which has brush tips, but the Fully Booked at Eastwood didn't have the Trias, just the regular Promarkers. Kuretake's Brushables and Clean Color are around the same price range as the Promarkers so I decided on trying them out.

The Brushables has two tips, one in Pure Black and the other in a slightly lighter shade. The ink is waterproof and apparently lightfast, and so the pen itself is more expensive than the Clean Color, which is waterbased. Clean Color in Mid Gray turned out a lot darker than its bottom cap would suggest and much darker than what I wanted (the pen was wrapped in plastic so I couldn't test it before buying). Unfortunately, I don't know if either are blendable. I now use the Brushables for filling large areas, while I have yet to use the Clean Color for something more extensive than Kaworu's shirt.

Baby, the stars shine bright☆ #inktober #inktober2015

A photo posted by nozaku (@galacticlycoris) on Oct 5, 2015 at 5:50pm PDT

Would I buy them again? I want to! But I can't justify doing so because markers are a whole new medium to spend more money on, which I cannot afford. For now I'd like to focus my efforts on watercolors and just make use of drawing challenges like InkTober for inking practice.

In other news: Before InkTober caught me by surprise, I had the chance to drop by Deovir at SM North Edsa to grab a few tubes of Holbein watercolors. They sadly didn't have Opera available; however, the tubes I managed to snag are absolutely gorgeous. Horizon Blue has been my crush for a while now and it did not disappoint one bit!

The palette pictured here is from the Daiso in Pavilion at KL.

Decent art supplies stores are hard to find where I live. National Bookstore, while abundant in the Philippines, are never consistent with their stocks. They offer very few choices and almost never what I need.

Local stores near me seem to have something against watercolorists. They never seem to stock watercolor paints and related materials, much less good quality ones, and when they do, they're gone too fast! The only way to get what you really want is to order them online, but since the postal service system where I live isn't very kind to people with anxiety (meaning: me), I long decided to stay off online shopping for the foreseeable future.

The last time I posted about my return to the world of traditional art, I said I was thinking of picking up watercolors again, so that's exactly what I ended up doing. What was intended to be a light little hobby became a rapid downward spiral to insanity—and I'm having a blast.

As I've said in the previous post, I collected a good number of colored pencils during my high school days. I have Faber Castell watercolor pencils that I unfortunately never figured out how to properly use and some cheaper Li'l Hands colored pencils that, to the inexperienced and talent-less 13-year old me, wasn't much different from more expensive brands.

Colored pencils may not be for me. It's probably the texture? The amount of control I have when using them is something I miss, but it just doesn't have the look that I want. I don't know if there's a proper artsy fartsy term for that.

The little spray bottle is for wetting the cotton swabs that I use to color with.

Someday I might go back to them. For now I decided to experiment with something else: colored markers! Copics are too expensive (and much like Pokemon—gotta catch 'em all!) and I will never be able to justify buying even just one so I'm fine with a box of Crayola, which is surprisingly fun and satisfying to work with.

Because I belatedly realized that I should have invested on a waterproof pen like a Sakura Pigma Micron or a Uni Pin Fine Line, I picked up these pens with the intention to use them for lineart. They're mostly fine as long as I make sure to use them after everything is properly dry.

These were cheaper than the Stabilo Point 88. They bleed if I'm not careful.

I asked for a silver marker but the lady gave me this Dong-A pen and I didn't read the label. This gray marker turned out useful anyway.

I did eventually pick up a Uni Pin Fine Line (0.1mm), which I'm happy with, though I remember owning one (a 0.5mm) a long time ago and the tip eventually bent in a weird way.


The white thing is actually a battery-powered eraser that I got from Saizen. It was fairly useful for little areas that eraser blocks can't reach, but it's not gentle on the paper at all, so I picked up a cheap dust-free rubber.

For a while I was determined to make the Liquid Paper correction pen work as an alternative to a white gel pen. Don't do it, kids. It clumps and it's not at all easy to control. Now I'm looking forward to picking up a white gel pen the next time I have the chance.

The Faber Castell mechanical pencil has been with me for a long time. So far I've only found 0.5mm and 0.7mm mechanical pencils at National Bookstore, though I'm hoping to try a thinner lead.

My pencil case (not pictured) was also from Saizen, though it's in dire need of replacement because it's falling apart and I've recently acquired more pens than would fit in it.


The gold pen I've had for a while now, while the silver one I picked up because I couldn't find a white gel pen at that time. I found it most useful when I drew this fanart of JKT48's Priscillia.

She wore this outfit at an event and I liked it enough to try to draw it.

I actually don't follow idol groups anymore and I know nothing about JKT48, but I have friends who are fans, so sometimes there are a lot of Ghaida and a little bit of Sisil on my Twitter feed. If they're wearing something nice, I get the urge to draw them. Unfortunately they're apparently back to plaid uniforms for their new single. That's one thing I'm not going to attempt to draw again any time soon!

I accidentally colored her hair black so I had to scramble to replace it with brown, resulting to a ruined paper.

A friend gave me this sketchpad for Christmas around five years ago and I didn't open it until recently when I decided to draw traditionally again. It already has signs of old age, with some yellowing at the edges of the pages, though nothing that's a big issue. The paper is thick even if it's not the watercolor kind, though it's yellowish so it might turn off those who prefer white paper. When water is involved, it wrinkles a little and, depending on the amount of water, it fuzzes terribly, but it's fine if little water is used.

They also have a watercolor pad, which I hope to try someday.


I'm thinking of picking up watercolors again. I've always loved the watercolor effect in digital art so it only makes sense to want to learn it traditionally, right? Watercolors are intimidating, but the more I play with my markers, the more I feel the urge to experiment with watercolors and the different textures and layering I can do with it. Now that I've looked into it a little more, I've discovered so many styles and techniques I want to try. Hopefully the old watercolors I have (from elementary school art class!) can still be salvaged.

My Instragram account has some pictures of the beginnings of my return to traditional art and future works and works-in-progress will be posted there as well. You can also check out the accounts I follow, since I've recently added some very talented artists (or if you like dogs and cats, I follow some cute accounts too!).


Art is a constant learning process. I've only used around ten or so pages of my sketchbook but there's already a noticeable difference in the coloring style because I've been experimenting and constantly discovering better ways to do things. Rediscovering my love for paper, for art tools, and for drawing itself is a wonderful journey and it's been a while since I've had this much fun doing anything I used to enjoy.

That's the end of the other half of Make Art With Love, I suppose, unless there other art-related things you think I should write about to turn this into a series. Write a comment below or on my Instagram, or tweet me for any suggestions!

Back in high school I drew a lot. Things you've produced at thirteen may have been pretty good at that time but when you look back at ten years later, all you want to do is toss them at a bonfire to never see the light of day again. Still, I was thirteen and I thought I was decently talented so I drew almost every day and even dreamt of someday becoming a famous artist or something.