Dingson Balahadia is a Filipino classical realist painter whose compositions are based on Filipino culture and traditions. Most of his portraits are people who wear Filipino traditional costumes such as "barong tagalog", "terno," and "baro at saya." He does not have any formal education or training, but because of his appreciation and love of arts, he studied by himself through demo videos, observations and reading articles about classical portrait painting. During his childhood years, he liked to draw faces of people using pencil and his small sketchbook. Most of his subjects are his parents. The first ever portrait he did using oil paint as a medium on a 24 x 36 inch canvas was in 2008 and his subject was his mother wearing "terno." The outcome was not as good as he expected but he did not stop and tried one more. He studied skin tones, highlights and shadows, and even detailing on embroidered cloth, which is typical to Filipino traditional clothes. In 2010, when he was confident enough to do a portrait of his mother using oil paint as medium on a 3 x 5 foot canvas, the outcome was superb and he finished it with much of fulfillment especially when his mother saw it with a smile. And from then on, he is painting portraits of different people he knows and accepting commissioned paintings. He is still learning different techniques and ideas from different artists... and he is not afraid to explore more possibilities.
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