My type of therapy these days is a creative kind of
watercolor painting, which is coffee painting. When I read about Freeway’s
Art Bag Design Contest, I immediately thought that it’s the perfect
opportunity to get creative, enjoy the process, and hopefully win something for
myself. So there I go – I cleaned my brushes and pans, cut a whole size
watercolor paper in half, and started a productive ritual of making a coffee
painting artwork.
Before I started sketching on the watercolor paper, I first
doodled my “idea” on my recycled paper journal. It looks something like this
and the doodle was finished within minutes. I had to doodle fast so as not to
lose the vision that I had in mind for the painting.
Next, I made the sketch clearer with a pen to finalize the
image on paper. I used a Point 0.3 G-TEC pen for this, as it is my favorite pen
for doing coffee and ink artworks. It really does wonders not just for writing
but also for drawing.
Before dabbing on some paint, I erased the pencil lines on
the watercolor paper to make the drawing crisp and clean.
Tada! This is how it looks like before painting it with
coffee.
Since I’m right-handed, I started painting on the left side
of the paper, working my way from the top to the bottom. This strategy is to
make sure that I don’t smudge the coffee paint due to the motion of my hands
and arms.
It took me three days to finish the painting, as I was doing
other things and I had to wait for the coffee to dry on some areas before
proceeding.
The last thing that I had to do was paint some areas with a
darker shade of coffee to make the painting pop out and establish the image.
After drying the painting, I took a picture of it and
submitted the digital image to Freeway’s Art Bag Design Contest.
This is the final image after some brightness and contrast
modifications.
There you go! I hope I was able to contribute to your art
knowledge for today. Coffee painting is really a fun process. It’s totally easy
because you are dealing with a monochromatic kind of painting. Plus, the aroma
of coffee while painting is pure bliss.
The T’boli Tinalak Loomweavers of Mindanao inspired the
theme of my painting. I’m always at awe at the mystery and beauty of their
creative process in making the Tinalak fabrics. The materials of their fabrics
come from their immediate surroundings. The patterns on their fabrics come from
their dreams, which is a rare ability from a few women of their tribe. Every
Tinalak fabric, for this matter, is unique, which is derived from the dreams of
a specific T’boli woman.
While I was traveling around Central Visayas and Northern
Luzon last 2010, I also discovered that there are also different places in the
country that hold their own loomweaving tradition. In Bohol, they have loomweavers
in a municipality called Tubigon, which was the place where my grandfather
grew up. When I also went to Vigan in Ilocos Sur, there’s a place called Camangaan were Inabel
loomweavers reside. Compared to the hard and strong fabric of the Tinalak,
the Inabel fabric is soft and stretchy.
So basically, the whole process of making this painting is
my devotion towards this special tradition of our country. I am always in awe
with the creativity and resourcefulness of our own craftspeople. As a Filipino,
I don’t want to leave this world without contributing to the preservation of
our country’s most treasured traditions.
If you want to support me in the contest (pretty please),
kindly vote for my entry by clicking
this link. Don’t forget to like Freeway Online first before voting
my entry to the Art Bag Design Contest!
Thank you once again and may you prosper for the love of coffee
and loomweavers!
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