A Break for a Gallery

Hello everyone!

We had been busy setting up the Komikero Komiks Museum which launched on August 13, 2016. Yes, it was August and it was the 13th. If you're the superstitious Filipino, you know what those things mean. Unfortunately for the superstitious, it was a very successful affair!

Right now, me and my friends (who are the actual owners), are trying to get our act together to finally fill up the Tia Maria's Sining at Kultura gallery cafe with art works from local artists. The owners are very much keen on promoting local arts and culture of San Pablo City. Hopefully, we will have the gallery up and running before the year 2016 ends.

Komikero Komiks Museum is a room within the gallery, and the cafe is in operations.

Tia Maria's Sining at Kultura Gallery Cafe
29 Marasigan Street,
Lakeside Park Subdivision
4000 San Pablo City

Film Negatives


My father loved taking photos of us as a family from when my brother and I were tiny little people till when we were in college, in his trusty Canon SLR camera... don't ask me about the model, I have no idea. We accumulated a number of film negatives from these photo ops, and since he was a hoarder and my mother, a sometime sentimentalist, they were able to keep these negatives in one place.

About 20 years ago, I found them stacked along with other documents and asked my mother if I could keep them. I stashed them in a box filled with silica gel and didn't do anything about it. A month ago, I saw them again and thought to myself, I should buy the film negative binders they sell online. Unfortunately, shipping is so prohibitive that I decided to think of something else to store them.

I read online that these negatives can be stored in either polyethylene or polypropylene containers. So, when I found these clearbooks with polypropylene pockets, I got a few and decided to use them instead. I divided each pocket into seven and made running stitches bothways to secure each strip compartment, and voila! I keep them in a pouch filled with silica gel again to help with moisture control.

I'm going through these film negatives, selecting the strips to print so I can give them to my mother so she can enjoy reminiscing clearer and bigger copies. The old photos are now faded and yellowed. I'm looking forward to a film negative scanner so I can have these preserved digitally. I hope I can find a good one.

2016 Summer Art Workshop Exhibit!


Hello everyone!

Here are some of the photos we took from our exhibit last 21 May 2016. See how proud the kids were for their accomplishment! These artworks in pencil rendering and watercolor were first for them, and they came out wonderfully. Although these workshops were open to any age group, the participants for this summer were children aged 6 to 15 years old.

We had ribbon cutting ceremony and a bit of mocktails going on, and the kids and their parents were very happy with what their children accomplished.

Thank you so much to my friends who own this gallery cafe with no name yet (Calle Sining is one of those names they're still mulling over), and has yet to open sometime in 2016, for offering the space for the exhibit to take place.



Perspective Drawing Workshop Happened!


Hello everyone!

It was an intense Perspective Drawing Workshop last Saturday, 14th of May, mainly because four of the participants were there because they just wanted to know what it was about. A quarter of the time into the Workshop, I shifted gears, because I doubted that they'd appreciate the technical ramblings that came with the original lecture. It was extremely fun, though! Those ladies were something else.

I asked one of the participants, a drafting student, to come back another day so I can give her a more relevant version of the lecture. I'm glad she did.

Someone wasn't able to make it that day, so we agreed that we'd reschedule his workshop for another Saturday. I really don't mind rescheduling for just one person.

Next time, I'll post about the summer art exhibit that happened yesterday!

Perspective Drawing Workshop is On!


Hello everyone! Perspective Drawing Workshop is going to happen soon! A bit of an update, though. It didn't occur to me that May 9th, the deadline for payment, is Election Day. My goodness! So, I'm moving that to May 12. Once we're settled, I'll send you the directions to our workshop venue.

Please send me your inquiries at info.paperbasket(at)gmail.com. I really hope to see you there!

Summer Workshop Ongoing!

Hello everyone! Just updating everyone on what's going on with our little Arts and Crafts Workshop. We're on our sixth week! And so far, it's going great.




Here's my Watercolor Painting Workshop in the morning. We were doing a lesson on color schemes, this one, it's about a Triadic color combination with Primary Colors as applied to a simple still life.


This Pencil Drawing Workshop is in the afternoon (we move to the patio after lunch, because it's cooler there in the afternoon). Here, the kids are doing separate projects because they finish each of their drawings at their own pace. The youngest was doing lines because she started just today. The oldest was doing a pencil rendering of the clay jar on her right side. The two on the left were doing their simple bowl, trying to apply shades and shadows on their drawings. The one on the foreground was finishing up with her set of line drawings of objects based on basic forms like cylinder, sphere, cone, and cuboid.


Last Saturday, we had someone who signed up for a Paper Cutting Workshop. Since it's her first time to do anything related to this craft, we chose to make a simple monogram for her which she also designed. We mounted her finish product after we cleaned up her project.

Next up on our schedule!

April 30 (Saturday) - Mini-Scrapbooking Class
May 7 (Saturday) - Mini-Scrapbooking Class
May 14 (Saturday) - Perspective Drawing Class
May 21 (Saturday) - Exhibit!

Arts and Crafts Summer Workshop


Hello everyone!

These workshops are for everyone who would like to spend time to learn the basics of watercolor painting and pencil drawing. These are skills-based workshops, and less about concepts and ideas.

Who can be participants? Anyone from 7 years old or older. Exercises and projects will be adjusted to age and capabilities of the individual. As long as you have the interest to learn about these things, it’s going to be a breeze. Please, don’t force anyone or be forced to do anything that’s not wanted, it will only lead to resentment and unhappiness, and no one wants that. But I digress.

The fee will only include materials. Just bring yourself… and snacks for yourself.

At the end of the workshop period, around mid-May, there will be an exhibit of selected works of participants at the Art Gallery and Komiks Museum we are in the process of putting up. Details will be announced later.

As for the actual workshops themselves, details are as follows:


Color Theory and Watercolor Painting

We will touch on the Elements and Principles of Art by way of introduction. Exercises will include the Color Wheel (Nobody can escape it!); color properties; color schemes; and, a variety of techniques to achieve various textures and moods.

12 sessions
Registration: Php1, 600.00 (covers first four sessions)
Per Session thereafter: Php400.00
5 available slots
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:00-10:00am
Sessions begin: 29 March 2016


Pencil Drawing

Like in the above workshop, we will begin with the Elements and Principles of Art. Exercises will include freehand line drawing (boring, I know, but necessary); tonal gradation charts using pencils in varying softness; light, shade, shadow, reflective light; and, rendering of different materials of varying textures and shapes.

12 sessions
Registration: Php1, 600.00 (covers first four sessions)
Per Session thereafter: Php400.00
5 available slots
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm
Sessions begin: 29 March 2016


Weekend Workshops
(Saturdays, dates as indicated below)

One (1) session
Workshop Fee: Php500.00

5 available slots
Saturdays, 8:00am-12:00nn
Sessions begin: 2 April 2016

Workshop Choices:

Paper Cutting

An overview of Elements and Principles of Art to help with a simple design for cutting. Tips on making a design to be used for paper cutting. Tips on how to cut paper (Yes! There are techniques to make your life easier and high blood pressure lower.) Mounting of the artwork on a display board. Age requirement: at least 13 years old because there will be sharp objects involved.
(April 2, April 23, May 7)

Mini Scrapbook Album

An overview of Elements and Principles of art to help with composition. We will make a simple 10-page 6”x6” scrapbook album for pocket-sized photos from scratch. Elements of a page as well as color schemes will be discussed. Page layout patterns will be provided as guide, and it will be up to the participants to use them or not.
(April 9, April 30)

Perspective Drawing
Please see details here.
(May 14)

For inquiries and clarifications, please email us at  info.paperbasket(at)gmail.com

Perspective Drawing Workshop!


Hello everyone!

We have a Perspective Drawing Workshop coming up! We know Google SketchUp is a lot of help and by all means use it! Technology is there to make our lives easier. But sometimes, we just want to learn how to draw environments and objects in correct perspective, and apply it to our personal projects. Sometimes, there is satisfaction in doing it ourselves... from scratch. And we can do that!

We are going to touch up on the concepts behind One-Point Perspective, Two-Point Perspective, and Three-Point Perspective. We will discuss the technical version (a little) and the guesswork version (a lot). We will have a few smaller exercises, and a final drawing output (hopefully) by the end of the workshop.

When you sign up, you could tell us the reason for it, so we could adjust the lecture and the exercises to your needs.

This will be limited to 10 participants only so we could have more time with each other, than if the class size is bigger. The workshop fee include all materials that you could need during the session. However, it does not include food, so bring your own snacks.

Registration is until 9 May 2016. For details, please email us at info.paperbasket(at)gmail.com

Ms. Ilyn is a licensed architect who decided that teaching arts and crafts, or making them, is way more fulfilling than dealing with contract documents, estimates and technical specifications. She taught Architectural Drafting and Painting to High School Students for five years, and Arts for Pre-K to Grade 3 Pupils for three years. Now, she's back to dealing with the nitty gritty of architecture, but the meditative aspect of papercrafting remains unchanged.

Please email us at: info.paperbasket@gmail.com