Things that confirm me I'm walking on the right path :)

So, I have been busy again these past months. This time is quite different as I have done a lot of creative projects that really help set my goal for next year. It's November and I already think about next year with enthusiasm :D I have so many things to share on this blog, which will take some time to talk about them all. I'd like to put everything in details as each experience means so much to me. They boost up my confidence on my creative career, something that confirm me I'm walking on the right path of my life.

Right now I can only sum up what I have done here:

• I did my very first workshop making MerryDay pop-up card.
• I started painting fabric bags and got a big order to be done before Christmas
• I had a great experience selling my merry items in a Saturday art market.
• I got contacted to be guest blogger for Flow magazine blog in the month of November.
 This is very exciting to me and you can read my first 2 posts here:
How I become MerryDay today
How my draw everyday project is important to me.
• The picture above are stickers I designed to sell on Line, a worldwide chatting service. If you use the service, you can now purchase them here.

There are many more things I plan to do and I hope I can have time and energy to record all these great experiences in this blog. In the meantime, you can look at my daily updates of my draw everyday project on my Facebook Page, that's where I am always :)

See you next post, have a merry day!

My Artist's Date : how to make paints from flowers and leaves

Last week was quite a busy week for me. It was full of family activities as well as of creative ones. I attended 2 live workshops and two online art challenges plus I'm practicing watercolor painting!

There are so many things happening in just one week and now I have stories to write on this blog for maybe 2 or 3 weeks :).  Let's begin with my latest Artist's Date. The Date was for a live workshop with a lovely artist who specializes in painting watercolor with organic paints, the ones that made from leaves of plants and trees and flower petals. Her name is Tongkarn Samathakorn and you can look at her beautiful work at Organic Water Color page.

The workshop was hosted by The Museum of Floral Culture in Bangkok where you can learn about plants, flowers and Thai culture related to flowers.

Here are some of beautiful flower displays around the museum.

The class was held in a small cozy little pavilion in the garden. We were introduced to various kinds of flowers and leaves that could be made into watercolor paints. 

You can make pink paint from Bougainvillea,  blue from Butterfly Pea, yellow from Night Jasmine, green from Pandanus leaves, and the list goes on. How to make it is very easy.  Begin by picking the petals off, put them in a mortar, add little bit of hot water and start grinding until you see the color comes out.

This method needs time and patience. The artist has devoted her time in experimenting until she finds the right paints for her paintings and here are her works all done in organic paints.

The artist has a lot of her paintings published in books and magazines but I have to tell you that the original paintings are much much more gorgeous than the printed ones. So happy to have a chance to see them :D

And here is my attempt of organic watercolor painting.

This workshop inspires me to begin my journey of watercolor practice. If you have been following my facebook page, you may have seen some of my paintings already. After some awkward moments in front of water and paints, I think I'm beginning to fall in love with watercolor painting and I will write about this lovely journey here soon :)

Thanks for coming. Hope you have a merry creative day today :)

Painted Pages workshop , the joy of painting

Last month I took a painting class called Painted Pages workshop with Sarah Ahearn Bellemare. I was so in love with Sarah's book that I signed up for the class right away when she launched her first online class. The class is really in different and more relaxing pace compared with the intensive course of Make Art That Sells I took previously. It should be like that. I don't think there should be a word 'rush' in traditional painting and Sarah did a good job of leading us to a relaxing and fun atmosphere :)

While I was taking this class, a friend who worked mainly in digital illustration also worked on her painting project. She said that she struggled so much as this was not in her field. She was amazed to see me so relaxed with the painting. This is because I know I have never been good at traditional painting. I took a lot of classes in college, colored pencil, water color and acrylic and finished all of them with some mediocre pieces. I enjoyed it but I don't think I have any potential in this art field.

I didn't do any more painting until I took Make Art That Sells class and had to do wall painting. I was so frustrated with this painting at first. But when I finally let go the feeling of wanting to be perfect, I found that I really enjoyed the process.

To me, painting turns out to be not just art, it is a method of meditation and self-exploration. When I am in front of a blank canvas, I feel calm and focused. Like designing, painting is about problem-solving. The difference is, in design, mostly you solve problems to send out a clear, visualized message while in painting you don't need to do that exactly. There is a vast space for imagination for both painter and viewer. I guess that makes me feel more relaxed :)

Below is my painting process I did for the class. I had light green color in mind when I first started and tried to work through it.



Then I used my favorite coffee filter paper. Cut out shapes and played with them.



And here my final. I confess that I don't like this final much and plan to start it over. I enjoy the time though and already excited to be in front of a blank white canvas again :)



I dream of having a nice lovely paintings for my MerryDay shop one day but for now, as I'm still learning and improving, I think I will have it just for my 'play time' :)

Thanks for coming. I hope you have a merry colorful day today :)