Hello everyone! It has been fifteen days since I made my last update. I was suppose to update you with all my shenanigans from life after work or life before work (either of which is correct hahaha!) but apparently after work, my battery/ energy ran out and all I want to do is lie in my bed and think of nothing. Or play Animal Crossing on my Switch... Or think of endless stuff such as pursuing a career that I really love.
Oh well, speaking of which, pursuing a career which really is not your choosing gets a load of your energy. Hey! That's what has been happening to me. I get a lot of energy by meeting kids, teaching kids, teaching art to kids, and making art works. But the job I have now, I am somehow happy naman , but I do not get the sense of fulfilment that I usually feel whenever I work with kids or make artworks.
Opening Up to my Parents During a Dinner
My family means a lot to me that is why I always speak my mind to them even that includes my plans for myself in the near and far future. I told my mom that I have other plans other than working in the government. Like I said, I really enjoy teaching, I also enjoy kids, and most of all, I enjoy art. A university has invited me to teach for part-time and I told her I would be glad to accept it.
I know my mother would not be all positive about it. As expected she would question me as to what I really want to become in my life. She also reminded me that it was my dream to be part of the national agency that I am working at right now. I do not want to be rude to her so I just told her that for one, I asked God for a job that would be a source of income for the meantime. I am loving my work right now, but no matter how I see it, I really do not see myself getting old and still working in the same office 20, 10, or just even 5 years from now. I also added that, in our generation, we had been yearning for a job that would not just help us economically, but also liberate us. I know you all get my point.
Love of my Life to the Rescue
Amiel observed that as well and he came to resolve it by looking for a job that in the future would finance us as a family. Sure thing, working in the government is helpful for the two of us but he has seen how it has affected me on a day to day basis. He told me, if we both get lucky, we will just work at home. He will be working in a Japanese company that would provide technical assistance to its Japanese clients, while I could continue blogging about my artworks. We could also stream videogames as a couple or make fun contents for a number of people to see. Aside from now, we had been thinking of pursuing a business that would involve computers and artworks. I honestly love his ideas. Hopefully, it would come true soon. We just really need to strategize for those plans of ours and save enough money for initial capital.
Consulting Other People
I also got to talk to some of my workmates about my current state right now. Ma'am Sarah told me that there is nothing wrong if I would venture a career outside the government. Anyhow, according to her, I have a lot of talent and skills. I am also an intelligent person. Her words somehow persuaded me to push through my dream career. I really do hope that with the plans I have in my mind, I would be able to make it come true and become successful with the standards that I set.
On the other hand, Sir Bong, a workmate of mine as well, told me that I could push for it because I am still young and contrary to him, he has a family to think about before making a decision. But he, just like I, has been thinking of looking for other opportunities that would be great not just for their finances but for his mental health as well.
Anyhow, I have given you a life update now, let's get started!
I had been meaning to share to you all one of the artworks I made few months ago, and that is the Waterlilies Artwork that I made using Gouache.
The first thing that I did was to sketch, of course! I used my mechanical pencil. Unfortunately, I could not find it within the stashes of my art materials inside my room. Perhaps I dropped it somewhere inside my room.
My broken glasses was still okay at the time I made this artwork. Hahaha!
I tried applying the color blocking technique using my watercolor first, but I guess I am still not that well-versed when it comes to this technique. I used a black watercolor first but I diluted it with some drops of water to make the shade lighter.
I then added a hint of pink on the waterlily. I have thought that since I was using watercolor, I could just eventually activate it using water when I would try to mix it with another color that would complement it.
For the greens or leaves, I decided to paint it with light yellow first. Later on, I could blend it with different hues of green or even just with blue to make a green that seems to compliment with the other colors.
After having a base color for the leaves, I decided to paint the corners of the biggest waterlily with purple. I have thought that it would be better if I used my other watercolor sets which has more pigmented colors.
As you can see, I wanted to make the background darker that is why I pushed on using gouache instead of watercolor only. As most artists know, gouache is more opaque than watercolor, alongside with the fact that it gives me the effect that I wanted to have with my artwork.
I also wanted to give a dramatic effect on my artwork that is why I made the shoots darker using brown and black.
Since the colors that I used for the flowers were not that good for me, I decided to use various shades of purple and blue. I also picked a yellow and green for the leaves of our waterlilies.
Trust the process indeed! Just like in my life right now, all I needed is to trust the process and enjoy the beautiful changes that I had been observing. Through this work of mine, I realized that I usually look on the negative things, and what is stressing me most is that I overthink on the negative things instead of trying to put emphasis on the positive ones.
This may not seem to be the end product, but I have thought, well, it does not really look bad at all. I just need to add few more details like what I usually do with my other artworks.
Well, it usually take hours, days, weeks, months, or even days before an artist sees that his or her work needs few or more details to add.
And when I tried putting it on my wall, well, it does not look bad after few touches at all!
As always, thank you for reading and checking my works. Have a great day ahead. To more fancy and perhaps fascinating artworks soon!
-Gail
She loves to work as an art teacher during summer -- sharing her expertise in art to young minds. She also loves to tutor students and make learning worthwhile. On the other hand, she works as a young leader in various organizations such as the Young Centrists Union. She also volunteers in one of the chapters of JCI or Junior Chamber International.
She always dreamed of creating her dream art studio and wish to inspire young minds to be more creative.