I am having a creative block recently. I want to create an art service package wherein I can provide graphics, video and painting, but each doesn’t communicate with each other. My graphics are corporate, my video is very basic and my painting shifted from Egyptian to grunge to nautical. My Payne’s Gray was set aside and teal came in. Last time I was making a web design mockup for an ecommerce selling sea gears but I stopped. It actually looks tropical. I  just took my sketch pad and gel pen and checked what will come out. I ended up sketching men smoking cigarettes. They have lazy, blank moods as if they don’t care what is happening around them. The following day I updated the About Us section of my website. Somehow I was able to consolidate my services. My tagline is of course going to Egypt  and  South America. These are my destinations. Both are ancient, have pyramids and mummification process, Peru in particular. Both honor the afterlife. This is where Egyptians believed that we will do the same thing after we are transported to the next life. That’s why we need to perfect the life we have at present. While the MExicans believe that the life we have now is just a dream. And it is only when we die that we will truly wake up. Both cultures have a positive attitude towards death. Looking at my taglines gave me this haunting vision while I am about to wake up. Out of the PDf of my master’s thesis came out a Spanish Galleon. The topic of my thesis is about Derrida’s deconstruction, Galleon Trade, Memento Mori and dark still life. And through research I was able to connect the relationship of the Philippines to South America brought about the Spanish Galleon Trade. Galleon Trade is my favorite part of Philippine history. Galleon ships are very beautiful and I love adventures in the sea. That color mahogany brown wood against the raging sea enticed me a lot. I even saw a replica of Andalucia Galleon that sailed from Spain to the Philippines and Mexico in commemoration of the Galleon Trade. When I found out about this big historical connection between the Philippines and South America, it made me want to explore this continent and I know It is coming soon. 

As a large part of my subconscious, the galleon ship came out again. As I posted on my IG and Youtube shorts, just like sinking on a spiral, I ended up sketching a galleon ship. Perhaps It will solve my creative block and make me produce more graphics and paintings. Since last night, I set myself that I will paint today. With the galleon ship in my head, I took my Strathmore sketchpad and  started to draw a galleon ship. The challenge here is too incorporate my homemade Payne’s Gray recipe and use Golden SoFlat again. Golden SoFlat and I are like an on and off relationship. There are times I can use it and many times, I will fail on it. What I noticed is that when I dilute it on water, thats where I can’t manage it. So I decided to use the dry brush technique. I also want to do some Impressionist or Expressionist style in the future. When I started to sketch, my inspiration syncs in. 

I started painting the sea with Ultramarine Blue and Black Noir. Adding titanium White, I made the saturated sky. The orange horizon is a combination of Primrose and Hansa Yellow. The wooden body of the galleon ship is Red Oxide and Black Noir while the sail is titanium white, Yellow hansa and black noir. I didnt fill the background with paint. Through this exercise,  I was able to find momentum again. Sometimes it’s better to let things flow much like the Taoism philosophy. Things are just getting harder when there’s too much control. And there goes my question again, is it the artist who produces an artwork or is the artwork who tells the artist how to produce them. Perhaps the later. It’s the artwork that is immortal and immortalized the artist in the first place. The artist travels to the afterlife but the artworks travel across time. Might as well set yourself and your artwork free. 

So when you’re having a creative block, here are three pieces of advice: 1. Sketch whatever comes in your mind. 2. Dont force yourself too much and get some sleep. 3. By the time you wake up the next day, paint whatever comes first in your mind. And 4. Create artworks for fun. I think it’s when fun is fading away from the process that’s the time you feel so mechanical and burned out. Thinking of earning money and long term goals somehow corrupts the momentum because the monetary value of an artwork is not instant or not continuous at first but for sure it will someday.   

After painting the galleon, I’m looking forward to revisiting my masters thesis and creating more nautical designs like galleon ships, sea creatures and rhums because like traveling, it is adventurous, exciting and rugged. I hope soon I can incorporate this theme to my graphic services and videos soon.  

That ends my story and thanks to my 77 subscribers. I also want to thank Maria Jesusa. Salamat Pre for watching my travel vlog about Puerto Princesa. She said she is happy with my direction of combining painting and traveling. She is also one of my friends who believes that I will be an artist someday. You inspired me a lot to travel more and paint more. Thank you everyone for watching.