DIY Cowboy Switch

One day at the Aspac office.

Javy and his DIY cowboy switch

JAVY: (With his cute smile) "Please make me a Cowboy head, arms, and pants, no body okay?"
ME:  "Okay, get me a pen and paper"

After 45 seconds...

JAVY: "Here"
ME: Okay.
(I started creating the face...)

JAVY: "He should have a big hat... And his eyes should be have only, like this" (Javy covers half of his eyes)
ME:  "Okay, what else?"
JAVY: "Oh he should have a moustache"
ME:  "okay"
JAVY:  "Don't create the body, just the head, arms, and legs"
ME:"Okay"



After a few minutes of office hours...

ME: "Yay, it's done!"
JAVY: "Can you please cut it?"
ME: "Okay, but first I need a kiss!"

JAVY: "Okay"

Art for a kiss :)

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! :) 

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! :(

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. :)

My Tradeschool Experience

Did my first workshop for Tradeschool Manila yesterday!
I taught basic watercolor workshop for beginners. This was a 2 hour workshop at Commune in Makati. The participants are all lovely females the age group and their backgrounds vary, from a student, physicist mom to an oceanographer! (yes we are a weird bunch! And I mean this in a good way.)

photo (c) Amanda Lago

Here I am talking about the watercolor materials, the brushes and how to use them, the techniques lifting, washes etc. And after that I did a demo and then they did the application.

photo (c) Anthony Panugao

This is my first time to meet an oceanographer! :)  photo (c) Anthony Panugao

Photo with the physicist! (my nose was bleeding from her english!) photo (c) Anthony Panugao

Amanda's artwork. photo (c) Amanda Lago

Group photo! (c) Anthony Panugao

I hope learned something and had fun. Hope to see them at 98B selling their awesome artworks! :)

And finally the barter items I got are the ff: blog posts (I will have to wait for this one), watercolor papers, a book, and the super cool signed print (This signed print is so unexpected will post a separate story for this!).

Thr tradeschool experience was a blast. I met awesome and passionate people who are eager to learn.
Special thanks goes to my cousin Mita for pushing me to join and teach. To the dedicated volunteers Hara & Clarice thanks for the help!
I would certainly do it again. (I just hope my schedule agrees with me.)

Blush

Hello everyone here's a quick sketch before I hit the sack! Enjoy! Started doing these GIFs of my work.

illustration friday exotic

My entry for this week's illustration friday. Topic is exotic. :)

Art is fair

Got my artwork exhibited at the Art is Fair this Jan 11-15! :)
Yeah Bucket list check!
This year I plan to paint more and do more exhibits, no more excuses! Get your lazy butt out of bed and start painting!

Fresh

My illustration friday post!  this week’s topic is fresh.

Beardog step by step

If  you like bears and dogs why not make... a beardog! :)

Beardogs are very peaceful and playful creatures unless provoked.
If they are angry steer clear out of their way. 

Here's my steps in making this cute hybrid animal. 

Sketch

Step by step color details

The Beardog! 

Add caption

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

the making of lil rapunzel

Tangled steps. Welcome to another tutorial. Today we will go through my process of creating rapunzel. :) 

Messy photo of my workstation.

First step sketch it.

Step 2 : Wet on wet base color. It means I wet the paper with just plain water, then add the color.

Step 3: Let it dry.  Patience is a virtue. You can play temple run first. :)

Step 4: With a fine brush add the details, dry paper with wet brush, hence dry on wet technique. :)

step 5: Asses your work, on the last minute I decided to add the birds. :)

step 6: Give yourself a treat! yay!

Wordless Wedensday 02.20.13