I’ve been taking Electronic Illustration as part of my first batch of Illustration major classes. One of our projects was to do a book cover in a “digital collage” style. I really wanted to do a filipino book, so here’s my take on a wrap-around cover for “Ang Ibong Adarna”. I have translated it into “Adarna, the Songbird” for the sake of a more western audience.
It’s important that I went with Songbird, instead of just “bird”. The Adarna song is an important element in the book since it is what cures illnesses and petrifies people into stone. I felt that the echo would make a good visual touch. For the bird itself, I took inspiration from paintings by Imao for the shapes. My idea for an Adarna bird is less phoenix like and more of the “sarimanok variant”.
Details of the sleeping princes under the diamond tree, and the youngest prince in pursuit.
The dusty texture is something I learned from my professor and he’s so amazing at rusticating the look of his artworks. I feel that the geometric nature of some of my elements is something I’ve gotten from looking at Sir Dan Matutina’s work. My professor chimed in that my treatment of the mountains reminds him of how Mark English treats his landscapes with geometric shapes.
I really am happy with how this turned out and it feels different from what I usually do. There is always room for more improvement in some areas but in a whole, I am content. Much love for Bianca Lesaca and Sandra Dans who have helped immensely while I was working on this.
Happy Easter! I’ve saved up my efforts for this occasion as I felt it apt to mirror this colorful event. Here I present to you my brand new color diary which I have been working on since Spring break.
It was about time that I seriously taught myself how to paint with watercolors and I started off my education with learning the different combinations I could get with the color sets I own. Here I’ve listen down the default colors from my 
I also attempted to mix my 
Still not used to it, but this was an attempt on doing a wet on dry technique. Not so happy with my values but the colors are starting to shape up into my preferred aesthetic.
A roundup of my materials: 
Recalling the Circus
It’s a great honor to have been asked to collaborate with The Ringmaster after having worked with Francis Lorenzo and the rest of the creative team involved in organizing the album art for Sleepwalk Circus. Above are previews to a special art project that should be unveiled soon this year. Hope you could watch out for it!
For those who haven’t discovered their music, please do check out their facebook pages. I can’t for the life of me begin to gush over the surreal and otherwordly quality of their music. It’s sumptuous for the ears.
I don’t remember if I have mentioned this before, but the reason why I’ve gotten into Illustration at all was mostly due to my work with Sleepwalk Circus. It was 2010, and I was invited at a dark time of my life when I’ve hit a bad midlife crisis. It was also during that week when my computer decided to die along with everything I’ve ever made since the 7th grade. Even my college thesis was completely erased. It was during this trying time that I decided that I wanted to draw above all things and that life was too short to compromise.
Learning has been a painful process lately. When I say painful, I mean it in an impatient way that there is so much to digest and absorbing everything requires a lot of experience which you cannot cram. I look back into my life and wonder, “Why didn’t I work as hard as I should have?” or “Why haven’t I done this before?” The best thing we can do is make the most out of the situation we’re in and give it as much heart as we can.
Studies have been preoccupying my time as of late. It’s truly inevitable. I was faced with the grim reality that as an illustrator, I have a terribly limited visual vocabulary that needed expanding. The next entries should have bits on that and I hope that all of my entries on my studies aren’t getting too tedious. New work will be added soon enough. I’m just enjoying the creative process more and more, no matter how slow I seem to be and have realized my full passion late in life- it truly is better late than never.