Taking the leap into the year of the sheep!

Jan 1, 2015 How time flies! To celebrate the new year I made an illustration of a fluffy sheep! :) 2014 has been awesome and I'm looking forward to 2015, this year I have bigger and better goals. One of them is to improve my skill, so I will be making time to enroll at an online course, read more art books, create more art, and share my learnings in this blog. :) I have made a learning fund from my budget. I really wanted to get Imaginism studios' classes & SVS online course on children's book illustration, I'm still looking on how to afford them both but from my current income I can only afford one per year.

I want to improve my character poses making them more dynamic and relatable and also the character expression (I think I need to look at the mirror more often). And do a lot of drawing from life, and outdoor sketching. :)

Below are the steps on how I made this illustration. Start off with the usual grayscale illustration to get the values right. Then slowly adding colors by adding another layer of color overlay and build up the colors from there.

I hope this new year brings more blessings and learnings to you. And I want to thank you for reading my posts through the years! :) 

Christmas is in the air

Christmas is in the air most of the houses I pass by already have parols, and the music I hear on the radio are christmas songs. Even the guards at our office are wearing santa hats or reindeer headbands. :) The people at the office are all talking about how to spend their 13th month and if we have bonus this year (fingers crossed!). And also don't forget the list of people that you will be giving gifts! I'm hoping that I saved enough money to buy christmas presents! >_<

Since it's christmas is near, an artists job is to christma-fy every design he-she is doing, it's the season of santa hats, christmas trees, reindeers and snow! So here are some Christmas designs I made. :) The first one is for project guard this is in collaboration with my friend's passion project which I'm really excited about! (will talk about this on my next post) :)

And also some new year posts for "The Adventures of Pepot and Dora" and for my fb page. :) I wasn't able to create new sets of postcards this christmas, but will definitely make one for next year, I already added it on my 2015 goals! :) 

What happened

Well I was promoted at work as a senior art director. I'm still adjusting to the work hours and finding time to juggle my work, life, advocacies, passion projects and add christmas parties to that! (I really don't know how to juggle in real life!)

So I always try to incorporate my illustrations on my projects at the office here's another poster for our December incitement talk. I was really excited about this talk but I wasn't able to attend since I have the deadliest deadline before lunch! :(

Peacocking

Jizz Jazz artwork. Used watercolor & watercolor pencils. Took me about a week to finish each piece, doing most of the work on weekends.

The Adventures of Pepot Kuripot & Dora Gastadora

Project brewing, "The Adventures of Pepot Kuripot (frugal) & Dora Gastadora (extravagant)". This will be a comic strip collaboration with Burn Gutierrez & Angat Pilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy. :) 

Here are some character studies I made.

 Dora Gastadora (extravagant) By Des Feliciano & Burn Gutierrez

Pepot Kuripot (frugal) By Des Feliciano & Burn Gutierrez

The Adventures of Pepot Kuripot (frugal) & Dora Gastadora (extravagant)By Des Feliciano & Burn Gutierrez

You can read more from Burn's article. 

Ang Pakikipagsapalaran ni Pepot Kuripot at Dora Gastadora

And so my being kuripot (frugal) and big fan of Pugad Baboy gave birth to the bright idea of writing my own comic book in the same tradition but will mostly focus on frugality (and occassional stinginess) and impulsiveness of the two lead characters.

In collaboration with my advocacy partner and visual artist Des Feliciano, who is also the Director for Artist Missions of Angat Pilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy, the characters Pepot Kuripot and Dora Gastadora were created.
Read more>

Book of Life

Saw the trailer of The Book of Life!
And a chibi Manolo is just too cute. :)
I want to watch the movie but I'm saving up for something.
I haven't posted much since my camera is at the shop, so most of my posts will be digital for now. :)

Halloweeny

Haven't posted in a while. :( Created something for Halloween. :) I have done this character way back and made a quick illustration of the background to create the halloweeny feel to it. :) (added the moon skull as a final touch!)

Beard Month

September 6 is world beard day! (Like I grow one haha)
So I made the whole month of September a beard illustration series. :)
I'm currently on Day 42 and I'm getting the hang of it, I realized that it can be helpful to have themes especially when there are days when I don't have any idea what to draw.
Here are some of my drawing a day challenge works.

You can see all my daily drawings at pinterest.

5 Things I Learned from Starting the Draw a Day Challenge

On to Day 21 of my drawing a day challenge! :) Here I was thinking that drawing for 21 days will make this a habit, until I stumble upon an article that says that it will take more than that! Read the article here. Haha anyway I still want to congratulate myself for sticking to this project.

5 things I learned starting this drawing a day project:

1. Bring your sketchbook & pens with you all the time.
   When I started this and went on vacation last week, I forgot to bring my sketchbook! So I bought a notepad and borrowed a pen from a friend (actually I haven't returned the pen yet). There was also one time that traffic was so bad I was able to draw while riding a jeep.
2. Start drawing even if you don't feel like it.
   Creating a habit needs discipline. It's easy to draw when you are in the zone, but when the lazy day comes you need to push yourself to do it. Get yourself motivated look at your favorite artists drawings and be inspired. 
3. Make it a part of you schedule.
   Doing this is a commitment so you really need to squeeze it in your day. You make time for the things you love. And for me drawing helps me relax it's my anti-stress pill, that's why I always love to draw/paint first thing in the morning.
4. Post them on social media.
   You have a gift why hide it? Share & show it to the world! Plus criticisms from other people would also help you improve. :) Also this is another way of keeping yourself accountable, people can see if you are really drawing everyday or not. :) This is also a good way of keeping track of your work just in case you lost your sketchbook or you used it as tissue paper when you were out hiking... 
5. It's okay to make mistakes.
   If you look closely at my daily drawings you will always find mistakes. (Just notice the R's on my drawing below)  I would defend it as it's part of the charm. hahaha What I'm saying is, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just enjoy it and have fun. The important thing is that you are learning and becoming better every day. 

That's it for now. :) You can check out my daily drawings at pinterest.

Drawing on Vacation

Went to Palawan with my sister and friends. I have a travel hangover so I might post more of these in the following days. :)

day 13: crocodile farm @ puerto princesa, palawan

day 14: Went snorkeling at helicopter island :)

day 15: watch the sunset on a zipline :)

day 16: Ate a turtle shaped watermelon for dessert made by our tour guide/chef

day 12: Sunkissed flower :)

Saved my day to day posts at pinterest.

Day 7 & 8

Will be saving all my daily sketches here. It's been a week and I'm still not used to this. :( Still waiting for myself to make this a habit. :)

Day 6: Eye bags and coffee

Sooooo much work this week. :(

Day 5 Eyescream II

On to Day 5 :)

day 4 Eyescream

If ice cream have eyes would you eat them? :)

Day 3

On to day 3. Goodmorning! :)

Day 2

Draw A Day

Draw every day and post them. Saw this Ted talk by David Litchfield on how drawing a day changed his life. :)



After watching this I decided to accept this challenge.
Mainly because I'm slacking off, I haven't been making the time to do what I love.
And it makes me feel like crap. So draw a day project it is!

Day 1

This is the character I'm currently working on. :)

Painting for Myself

Woke up at 3 am and painted for myself. No deadlines, no worries. :) Happy Sunday!

Share your time & talent on advocacies

2 years ago I wanted to help my fellow artists about financial literacy. But I don't know how. Luckily I stumble upon Angat Pilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy and I volunteered my design skills to help promote it. Doing something to help other people is awesome! :) 

Just want to share Burn's article on:

The Power of Images in Advocacies

Two years before, our event posters suck. Our advocacy group’s logo sucked. We could not create credible promotional materials because we were only relying on templates available on MS Powerpoint and Publisher. We sucked big time. Read the rest of the story here>

If you want to share your talents and help, go volunteer! :)

Do you have a Passion Project?

YOUR ART IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN NO ONE CAN TELL YOU EXACTLY HOW TO DO IT. YOUR ART IS THE ACT OF TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO, AND CHANGING PEOPLE.” – SETH GODIN

So What is a passion project? 
It is something that you work on (painting, writing a book, growing a garden) that makes you happy, satisfied, and puts you in the zone. It’s something that makes you stay up to 3 in the morning!
You do it for your own enjoyment and not because of the money.

Benefits of Passion Projects:

• Decreases stress levels:
  One thing I noticed when I'm doing my passion project is that I get to relax. After painting or drawing I feel happier. (That's why I always try to paint first thing in the morning.)
• Improves your skill:
  Of course the more I paint/draw the better I get.
• You become more productive:
  Instead of checking my facebook, or surfing the net aimlessly, I get to make better use of my time
• Sometimes you get to earn from it:
  And last but not the least I was able to get commissioned paintings and turn some of my works into postcards and sell it.  

My latest passion project is this children's book written by Sofia Santiago.
It's still in the early stages but hopefully we can have it out before the year ends.
We are still developing the main character, will update you as we go along. :)

Start your Passion Project Now!
Starting something is not easy, that's why I suggest that you make it a habit.
Start to sketch daily for a month and see what happens. :)