Author: Rio

Art and travel, painting and photography -- these are the things I most enjoy writing about.
art, Piano

Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal Piano Cover

by RioLeave a Comment on Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal Piano Cover

This classic piece by the great Ernani Cuenco always reminds me of Lola Haide, my landlady back in the dorm in Manila in the early 2000’s. She would play the original version so beautifully on her old German piano almost every morning. It always gets me in a very good mood waking up to this song as my alarm. It is also what inspired me to study the piano. But then I moved out of the country in 2007, so I stopped playing.

I have been self-studying the piano again since the start of this year (2021). The version that I am playing is a shortened and simplified arrangement of Digna Agra Roxas. This piece is probably way above my level but I tried very hard to give it justice with my playing, having practiced more than a month to arrive at this speed. 😁

By the way, the ear cuff I’m wearing is that famous Miss Universe (Catriona Gray) ear cuff (replica bought from etsy) inspired by the Philippine flag.

I thought it’d be fun to play this piece in perfect time to commemorate the 123rd anniversary of Philippine Independence.

Thanks for watching and I do hope you enjoyed listening to this Original Pilipino Music as much as I did.

art, events,gatherings,occasions, Friends, travel, updates, watercolor

Plein Air Watercolor Painting in Gruissan, France

by RioLeave a Comment on Plein Air Watercolor Painting in Gruissan, France

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! 🙂

art, watercolor

Watercolor Painting Tutorial Beach Scene

by RioLeave a Comment on Watercolor Painting Tutorial Beach Scene

Hello! If you’re like me, who couldn’t wait for summer and is terribly missing the beach, here’s an inspiring and relaxing loose watercolor painting tutorial of a beach scene (a photo I took) in Coron, Palawan, Philippines from 2010.

For this watercolor tutorial / painting demo, I used M. Graham watercolors, the set of five pigments. I like painting with a limited color palette, it keeps everything harmonious, uncluttered and pleasing to the eyes. But don’t be fooled by the term, “limited”. It doesn’t mean that you are using just five colors. If you’re interested on how you can get more out of these five colors by mixing them, you can watch another video that I’ve created just for that.

Watercolor painting is very relaxing and therapeutic. Even if you do not know how to paint, just watching a watercolor painting in process coupled with some chill music, for me, is relaxing enough.

Thanks for watching and please don’t forget to like my videos and hit the subscribe button. Have a great week! 🙂

art, shop, watercolor

Mothers Day Greeting Cards – Watercolor Artwork Prints

by RioLeave a Comment on Mothers Day Greeting Cards – Watercolor Artwork Prints

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.

This is my favorite among the cards I’ve created. I had so much fun doing this. I’ve enjoyed how sketchy this painting feels. Click here to buy this card.

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.

This was my first time ever to create Mother’s Day greeting cards and I totally enjoyed it. Hope you like my creations, and if you do, click here to get card on the left, and here to get the one on the right.

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:

Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe and share, if you liked my video. Thanks and happy painting! 🙂

Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend! 💕

art, watercolor

Procreate Self-Portrait Speed-painting

by RioLeave a Comment on Procreate Self-Portrait Speed-painting

I bought an iPad Air as a Christmas gift to myself last year, and installed Procreate. This was one of my very first attempts at creating a self-portrait with watercolor effect on Procreate.

The background I used was an actual watercolor on paper artwork that I scanned and incorporated in the digital art. I hope you enjoyed this speedpaint / timelapse video.

Thanks for watching! 🙂

art, watercolor

Loose Watercolor Floral Painting Demo of Wisteria Flowers

by RioLeave a Comment on Loose Watercolor Floral Painting Demo of Wisteria Flowers

Back to regular programming…

Here’s a tutorial / painting demo of a loose watercolor painting of Wisteria flowers using Schmincke Horadam watercolor pigments and Etchr lab’s The Perfect Sketchbook.

If you liked my video, please don’t forget to hit the like button. You may also comment, share and subscribe, by all means.

Thanks and hope you all have a good day! 🙂

art, watercolor

Experimenting With Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground

by RioLeave a Comment on Experimenting With Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground

I’ve always wanted to try painting with watercolor on canvas. I tried to research on how to do this, and apparently, you just need to first apply some watercolor ground on the surface.

And so, here’s a video where I have tried using watercolor ground on wood, paper and canvas…

Prior to this, I have tried the Schmincke watercolor ground, the transparent one. I didn’t really like it so much on the wood surface where I have tried it on. But maybe I will try it again another time on canvas.

So far, though, I was quite satisfied with the outcome of my watercolor painting on the canvas where I have used Daniel Smith’s watercolor ground (Titanium white). The only thing I’m not so crazy about is that the watercolor paint looks slightly more opaque than usual due to the titanium white watercolor ground in the background. It looks less luminous than when applied directly on paper.

I do hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please do give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you like this sort of stuff. 🙂

art, events,gatherings,occasions, shop, watercolor

Valentine Cards, etc — New Items on the Online Shop

by RioLeave a Comment on Valentine Cards, etc — New Items on the Online Shop

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! 😉

Halo-Halo Valentine Card with a print of my original watercolor artwork

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.

Philippine Gumamela (Hibiscus) Valentine Card

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.

Some of the items in my new artwork collection

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 ! 🙂

art, events,gatherings,occasions, updates, watercolor

Happy New Year, etc.

by Rio1 Comment on Happy New Year, etc.

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.” →