Part of my output for the research project is a tourist map of the community of Bahong, dubbed "The Rose Capital of the Philippines". Bahong is in La Trinidad, around seven kilometers from Baguio City. Most, if not all of the roses sold in bulk in Dangwa in Manila come from Bahong.
It's my first time making a tourist map, and though I'm pretty excited about it, I'm also quite nervous it wouldn't turn out the way I'd envisioned. I'm doing almost everything manually, especially the spot illustrations. I'm taking some inspiration from They Draw & Travel.
I'm in a cloud!
This is a tourist map of Sagada, which has become one of the most popular destinations in Northern Philippines. When done, my map will look a bit like this, but not really. I'm planning to make two versions, a black and white one and another one in color. The map will be given to the community so they can use it for their tourism project/s.
A view of the flower gardens of Bahong. At the foreground, in the open fields are roses. Grown in the greenhouses at the background are chrysanthemums and Malaysian mums.
Women sorting (according to size), cleaning, and packaging white anthurium flowers. Each bloom is carefully encased in a small plastic sleeve.
A garden of pink roses. Most of the blooms have already been cut that morning.
"So this is what pitimini flowers look like!" / "So that's what this flower is called!"
Some initial sketches for the spot illustrations. I've never drawn so many flowers and plants in my life. I need to draw more.
A portion of the stuff I've acquired in the last week. May I direct your attention to my 'new' pen holder? I'm out of sunflower brittle, but I promised myself I'd buy more when I'm done with this project. ;)
I came here with only my 'usual' on-location sketching tools: some ink pens, a few colored pencils, a few pieces of cream-colored watercolor paper, and a tiny watercolor set. As I was thinking of how to go about the map, I realized I was severely lacking in materials. I panicked and looked for other stuff that I can use, just in case: colored pencils (with free crayons haha), oil pastels, more watercolors, and acrylics. Plus lots of paper, heehee.
The box of acrylic paints I think is a steal at Php 150--it has six 25-ml bottles of basic colors, a mini palette, six small bamboo sticks, and a thin brush. Baguio has a lot of mom&pop school and office supply stores, but these usually have only student-grade stuff (which is really good enough for me). I might not be able to use the oil pastels as I earlier thought, but we'll see.
To be honest, I never thought I'd join a research project as an "artist", haha. Anyway, I hope to finish the tourist map this week so I can move on to my other tasks. Wish me luck! :)