Drawing for Kicks

Magneto Sketch

Nothing much to say except that I'm in a phase where I am enjoying drawing so much it's like being a kid again :) I thank God for this career and for an awesome family that supports this geekiness that I have hehe.

The Artist's Dilemma

Emma Frost, inking drills :)

I wanted to write something about being inspired (or the lack of it) but when I think about it, it is something I cannot fully grasp.  When I was in college I often felt disconnected from this whole "Fine Art" thing because I really wasn't interested in self-expression. When I think of art I think of robots and comics and spaceships and dinosaurs. Those things excite me, they fill my head most of my waking hours then even until now. I guess being inspired based on how I feel is foreign to me because I don't think that deep when it comes to art. I know that there are times when what I give to my client makes me feel happy and during those times I like to think I am inspired but more often than not I just do what I need to do and hopefully there's something in what I need to draw that will excite me and if there is none, I switch on the documentaries and everything is alright again.

I've worked as a commercial artist since I graduated in 2004. This meant that happy, sad, depressed, ecstatic or whatever I needed to submit something irrelevant of how I feel at the moment. Most artists frown at this and think that what artists like me do is soul less because of the lack of the "self" in our art but isn't that how commercial art/illustrating works? Our inspiration comes from the material provided by the client and the world that we make out of it. This offers plenty of opportunities for imagination and regardless of how I feel making stuff up will always be fun.

But I don't frown on people's emotional because sometimes they help. I know, because I've been there, just not as often as how people like to imagine us artists whenever we are working. Art is a very fun thing to work with and if our emotions keep getting in the way then it will be very hard for us to enjoy this life and there'd be so much less dinosaurs, comics, spaceships and robots in this world that we live in.

Life Advice from Steve Vai

Emma Frost WIP

Terribly busy as of the moment but I try to devote at least an hour daily for my personal drawing time.

Sometimes, when there is just so art to make and it feels like it has become a chore I find that working on something personal and allowing myself the time to just draw for kicks sets me up quite well for the challenges of the day ahead. Whenever I draw for myself I go back to my high school days living in Obando where I'd spend the early mornings before going to school drawing and the summers I spent indoors poring over Loomis' Anatomy and reading comics. I remember being blessed with friends in high school and college who were into drawing as well and how hard it was for us to acquire references for anatomy because the internet wasn't such a big thing then and whatever we had we photocopied. Fun days, really really fun days.

There is so much wisdom from what Steve Vai said in one of his guitar clinics where he said that when you get frustrated always go back to see the big picture and to that place of excitement for you. That place of excitement for me was in our old room in Obando, with my brother's hand-me-down drafting table and that photocopied book of Loomis surrounded by stacks of Spawn. When I go there, specially when I am neck deep in deadlines, I feel ok and I know that the rest of my drawing day will be alright.

By the way, here's the link to the video from Steve Vai. I don't play guitar that much anymore but his advice here applies to all things in life.

Remembering Habagat

Ei guys! I haven't been able to post much here in the blog and again largely in part of me being busy with work but hopefully I could get around to posting some more personal stuff over the next couple of weeks.

I've just gotten around to setting up my studio again after rushing to move everything up to storage in my brother's place because of an impending flash flood due to heavy monsoon rain. Thankfully we were not hit, unlike last year where our house was submerged in neck deep waters and my studio was a total wreck.

As it was raining heavily and I was taking my quiet time I realized how angry I was when we were hit by Habagat last year. I was just about to start around 3 projects then when the flood hit. I was really angry at the Lord for allowing that to happen to us, especially when the rescue boats came and rescued my sister-in-law who was 8 months pregnant, my sister and her daughter Bella who was 2 years old then. I cried when I saw my niece crying frantically as she was taken by the rescuers. It was more painful when I learned that the rescue boat got punctured and they won't be able to go back to take my parents and Manay as they had originally planned. I was confused, mad and dead tired. I feared a repeat of Ondoy and while I laugh at that experience 4 years ago and how I jest about how much comics I lost during Ondoy, when the water was rising, I was afraid for my life and Manay's. I was not ready for a repeat of last year and with my whole family gathered here at the house I began to feel really really afraid for everyone else.

This time it was different. After last year's Habagat I realized a lot of things. Habagat made me realize that even if I lose my clients and my work my family will always be here with me. I had a deeper appreciation of my bonds with my siblings and my in-laws and I saw how God acted in spite of the rising waters. No one was harmed. We were safe, we had a house to return to and the projects were restored. I was amazed at how we functioned like a well oiled unit then and I knew that should things like this happen again we would be able to brave them as long as we don't lose faith and allow God to see us through.

As I was getting ready to pack my studio stuff the other day I prayed and told God that this time I would not be angry. I honestly did not know why he would allow the floods to come again but we were ready and I knew that he had greater plans for all of us than what we can see. My perspective is dwarfed greatly by how God sees things and in his divine plan I have learned to trust even if I don't understand.

Whenever personal tragedies strike I remember these two verses:

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
-Matthew 11:29 to 30


Perhaps the greatest lesson and grace I received from Habagat was that God is God in spite of my circumstances. This means that he is in charge and he will take care of everything. It is hard to accept this in light of suffering but trust me when I share with you that if you do surrender tragedies will turn into blessings and the realizations after our painful circumstances are worth every ounce of pain that we go through.

The Centaur, something I was able to squeeze during a weekend break.

Yeah, not much personal art these past few days. I've been swamped with work, and thankful at that and hoping that I get more busy in the next couple of weeks.

Page 5 samples

Here's page 5 of my DD sample set. Whew. It felt like forever since I last worked on this. I've been working on some card art these past few weeks and didn't get much time to work on my personal stuff so I'm just real glad that I had the time today to wrap some things up and get ready for July. 

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Here's something that I've been reading these past few days:

Air Gear by Oh! Great

I know, its old. That and there's just way too much fan service going on in this manga. But I like it, because it makes me feel like a kid again.

Art Update and The Low End Techie

DD Sample Pages, something I work on to start the day right :)

I miss drawing like this! I'ts been ages since I've been asked to work on something that's black and white.

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I'm a low end techie. I've accepted that. Whenever I get to buy stuff I tend to look at the lower or entry level stuff first. Why? That's because I used to buy the mid to high end stuff only to find out that I'm not really using the features that I paid for.

I've been burned a couple of times by this habit, my fiancee can attest to that. I've bought stuff that I'm not completely happy about and I've destroyed some pretty expensive gadgets while trying to mess around with their firmware (and no, I'm not good at that. I just follow tutorials) But the habit sticks and for some weird reason I'm proud of it and that's because I like hacking stuff or finding work-around solutions to problems so that I don't pay for them and then feel like a sucker in the end. 

The high end stuff I consider as tech demonstrators, platforms to show what manufacturers can do. I find that most people I know seldom max out the potential of their gadgets. But its a personal thing and if you want the high end stuff that's great and all but I would rather think about what I want to do with my gadgets before making a purchase  because we pay for those fancy specs and if we are not using them we are wasting money.