For decades, Filipino artist Elito Circa has literally been pouring his own sweat and blood into his paintings, and the medium he uses has raised a few eyebrows.

Circa uses his own blood, all freshly drawn, dripped, and dipped from brush to canvas.

The 52-year-old artist said that it was a mix of circumstances arising from a lack of resources and poverty that forced him to start using his own blood as paint. Growing up in the rural mountain ranges of Pantabangan, a town located 135 kilometres north of Manila, Circa had little access to school supplies, including art materials.

“If anyone wanted to buy supplies, they would have to travel five to six hours before they could get to the next town. That's how hard life was for us back then," said Circa, in between dabbing a white canvas with strokes of blood.

Although he had some access to charcoal, Circa wanted to paint, and started trying out other materials that effectively stained cloth canvasses. At first he used whatever he could get his hands on, such as plums and tomatoes. It wasn't until he scraped himself at the age seven during playtime that he turned his loss of bodily fluid into a stroke of genius.

"Every time I got scraped, I would use my own blood since bloodstains are also hard to remove," said Circa.

These days, Circa gets his blood drawn professionally at the local town health centre once every three months, usually in increments of 500 ml (17 oz). He keeps the drawn blood in a cooler in his studio for future projects.

Circa said it takes him around 15 ml of his blood (0.5 oz) and at least five hours to fully finish a painting. Sometimes he even uses his own hair on the paintings for texture.

“My artwork is very important to me because they come from me, it is from my own blood, my DNA is part of it... My philosophy is that life is circular and everything is a cycle, so (my blood) is a tool that serves as a reminder of where I came from," Circa added.

Although blood isn't the only medium that Circa uses to paint, his blood paintings are deeply personal, and they aren't for sale, but they're on display for the public at his private gallery in San Jose, where he currently resides.

He said that while his blood artwork may not be for everyone, he still pursues it as a hobby, while making most of his income from art workshops that he holds for children.

In terms of his work's subject matter, Circa said he is particularly interested in folktales as well as the history of his hometown Pantabangan and the Philippines.

Circa’s largest blood painting to date is a 122 x 244 cm (4 x 8 ft) mural depicting the history of Pantabangan municipality, which took him over two weeks to complete.

He aims to paint the largest blood painting ever on a 100-metre (328 ft) canvas, with hopes of setting new world record in 2023. REUTERS