Hello! I finally answered some of your questions. :D I also got some of you heart warming messages. I plan to answer them one by one privately (so it’s more special XD). I hope you can wait for it. I’m so sorry for the delay! Most of the time I get speechless. Or I want to say so many things and I end up not saying anything because of embarrassing feelings. ;_;

Anonymous asked you: What paper do you use for water color? And did you just use acrylic on painting those canvas sneakers? I’m really interested and would be glad if you would answer this. Thank you very much miss Valerie. :)

I use watercolor paper for watercolor works. :) I used acrylic and some primer for the sneakers. You can read about it here. 

Anonymous asked you: How did you start learning how to paint by yourself? Any advice? :)

I started painting during my 2nd year of college. I drew something and I decided that I might want to have it in color. I opt for paint instead of doing it digitally and I kind of stuck through with it. I seemed to enjoy it more than coloring digitally. The only advice I can give is if you like doing it and if you want to be good at it, just do it as often as you can. Learn more about it by experimenting, reading and deliberate practice. I think the logic is the same as all other things you want to be good at (music, sports, science, etc.) There really is no easy way. 

krissyness asked you: i love your pieces. how do you do the white/lighter lines/parts..? for example, your i-havent-checked-my-tumblr-in-ages-im-still post (june 23, 2011)

Hi! The white lines were done digitally using the brush tool in Photoshop. :)

Anonymous asked you: hi miss valerie! I just want to say that your works are amazing and versatile! may I ask what brand of watercolor you prefer/ use…I really need some help for my big biology project. please and thank you :)

Thank you! :D I use Prang and Holbein. 

theincurableweirdness asked you: Ilang hours nyo po natatapos ang isa nyong painting/work? :D and just wanna know what course did you took in college? :)

It depends. If it’s serious/heavy work, I take more than a week to finish it. Or sometimes I complete it 80-90% and go back to it after more than a week to check on it before I close the work. In reality, the entire process from sketch to completion takes more than a month so I do works simultaneously to make up for the time spent. For simple works, I usually finish it in 1-2 days. :) I took up Humanities in college. :D

misteravid asked you: Hello, I’ve seen your beautiful water color art floating about around Tumblr… I initially thought they were scans from a New York fashion magazine. I was surprised that you are Filipina. I wonder though, why are your female drawings (or atleast the one’s I’ve seen on DA) Caucasians? I’d love to see your willowy style on the Filipina face : )

Thanks Avid! It means a lot coming from you. I remember how giddy I was when you watched me on devArt before. Hehe! I usually copy my portraits from magazine models. I’m not very good with constructing faces from scratch and often I have more Western magazines around (and even models in our local fashion mags have Caucasian features) and I guess I reference a lot from them that’s why my women look very Caucasian. I draw females of different races in my sketchbook although I never post them online. I will try to paint one. It does seem interesting! Thank you! <3

dirtythugnasty asked you: Hi val, I really love your work and I’ve been following you on your blog for a while now :) I was just wondering if there was a type of water color you’d recommend for a beginner to use? Or any kind of advice you could give a bigenner who wants to start water color painting? thanks :)

Thank you so much! Prang is good if you want to try out pans/cake! Also Reeves if you like tubes. My advice is be adventurous and try all sorts of things and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If you want to perfect your craft, you have to work really hard!

Anonymous asked you: Can you make a tutorial on how you usually curl your hair? It’s very beautiful! :D

I got around 3 requests for a curling tutorial a few weeks ago so I tried recording, moments later I accidentally clamped the iron to my wrist while I was transferring places. Haha! (I’m so clumsy! Don’t ask how it happened… It’s weird!) So I kind of dropped the entire idea of doing a video tutorial. :( But I’ll give it a shot again soon. :)

Anonymous asked you: Hello! May I know what is the name of the font that you used in the all muddled up inside illustration on nov 06, 2009? (I’m referring to the all muddled up inside font itself not the watermark)? =) I apologize if my question is confusing, the ask box doesn’t accept links.

Oh no! I can’t remember anymore. I painted the work before my CPU crashed so I don’t have most of the downloaded fonts I used to have before. So sorry! :(

Anonymous asked you: HI i am really inspired by your work and was wondering what types and brands of art materials do you use? Really appreciate if you answer this. Xo

Thank you! You can refer to my materials list here. :D

Anonymous asked you: i love your art! i recently started watercolor painting and i am very inspired by ur works. i hope u can do a video or tutorial of some sort on how you blend the colors awesomely XD

Thank you so much! I’ll try making one when I’m free! :)

Anonymous asked you: hi ms val! i draw a little (i mean i know how to, but not good at it), i’m used with color pencils than paints. but when i saw your works, wow! it looks so subtle, soft. i want to paint like you!! :)) can you please share what watercolor and paintbrush you particularly use? and what do you recommend for starters like me. :) thanks!

Thank you so much! You can view my materials list here. All my materials are there and tips for beginners as well.

iaintthat asked you: Hey miss valerie I just want to ask how do you scan your works the way they present to be clean and natural on the computer not with the yellowish parts on watercolor. thank you very much and your works are synonymous to beauty.

I use a camera for scanning and I edit the colors in Photoshop to make them as faithful as the original. Usually it’s just levels and color balance. Thank you! :D