Portrait of a Train Passenger

This creature appeared on a short comics called PNR 2AM which you can view here at this link:

http://fablesinmelag.blogspot.com/2014/07/pnr-2am.html

My Sketch Bag

Here are the stuff I bring when I go out the house.

• 9" x 10" Small Messenger Canvas Bag

• 7" x 2" Tin Pencil Case

• 3" x 2.25" Altoids Mint Cased Watercolor

• 5.5" x 8.5" Sketchbook

• iPod Classic

• and an ancient Cellular Phone

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Inside the small Altoids Mints case is a #8 Round Grumbacher Brush, #2 Pencil, W&N Watercolor, and a piece of paper where I wrote down the colors of each box.  (very helpful for my colorblindness)

Inside my tin pencil box is a Pencil Sharpener, 0.20 mm Micron Pen, 0.5 Pentel Tech Pencil, and a Namiki Falcon Flexible Nib.
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Lost Bunny|Pinoy Komiks Anthology (UPDATE)

Here are some stuff that my backer for the Pinoy Komiks Anthology kickstarter will get. I hope he'll like them.  The blu-ray by the way contains the HighDef copy of the short 'making of' video that I did while painting the piece, which you can still watch it here: LOST BUNNY

Again, Thank you Maarten for the help and support.

Lost Bunny | Pinoy Komikls Anthology

"Lost Bunny" is a piece originally intended for Borderline.  But I decided to do it in watercolor and donated it for Pinoy Komiks Anthology on kickstarter.  My heartfelt gratitude to Maarten Schilder from Holland, (one of the many backers for this project) who got both the book and this artwork. I also would like to thank Adam Pasion and Zon Petilla for coming up with this anthology. This is certainly a big help for so many Filipinos. THANK YOU.

International Children's Book Day

It was in 2000 that I made this book for my girlfriend. The Dewgazer & The Dewdrop Fairy.

It's basically a story about how we both met composed in fairy tale fit. Divided into 7 chapters, the book was originally written as a short poem, but due to my mind's constant bothering my goodnight sleep to add more spice, sugar and a bit of colored flavoring into it. And Boy, it went on like that for a couple of nights until the short verse transformed into a 175 line Children's Ballade.

Handmade and book bound, artworks in each page were done in watercolor and ink including the written poem. I gave the finish book to my girlfriend's birthday on April of 2001.

And in 2004 I was reading The Dewgazer & The Dewdrop Fairy as a bedtime story to our beautiful daughter.

READ IT HERE

http://thedewgazerandthedewdropfairy.blogspot.com/

Help for Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)

Like majority of artists I know, artworks are like our 'children'.  The following are some of the artworks I'm selling on Ebay.  ALL proceeds from this sale will benefit the people affected by the recent typhoon Yolanda via PHILIPPINE RED CROSS. It is my little way of helping my family and fellow countrymen in need of a helping hand.

By purchasing these pieces you are helping as well, and at the same time owning my beautiful 'children'. So take care of them.
If you would like to help without purchasing my art, just visit the site below:

Philippine Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org.ph/

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

Global Giving
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/philippines-flood-disaster-fund/

Salvation Army
https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/TyphoonHaiyan

World Vision
World Vision Donations

World Food Programme
World Food Programme Donations

Americare
Americare Help Center

"Lasang Pinoy" • Pen and Ink on Bristol, 11 x 14 • 2009 (Published on Mabuhay News)

SOLD

"Pasko Na Naman" • Pen and Ink on Bristol, 11 x 14 • 2008 (Published on Mabuhay News)

SOLD

"Taas Noo Kahit Kanino" • Pen and Ink on Bristol, 11 x 14 • 2008 (Published on Mabuhay News)

SOLD

"Hide & Seek" (Totoro) • Watercolor on Arches Paper, 9" x 13" • 2010 (unframed)

SOLD

Moleskine: Febuary 2013

Happy Birthday, Mom!

A gift for my mother on her birthday.  The original black and white photo that she gave me was taken when she was in college.  We Love you, Mom! Hope you like it.
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Bear and Bird Boutique + Gallery (2012 Group Show)

"Late Night Ballet" will be displayed at the Bear and Bird's upcoming South Florida group show.  This piece was suppose to be exhibited there 2 years ago but for some reason I changed my mind. So if you're in town you might want to visit the gallery between October 5 (which is the opening night) and November 17.  

The Bear and Bird Gallery is inside/upstairs the Tate's Comics + Toys.
Here's a link to the flyer: http://www.bearandbird.com/shows/monster-mash/

Late Night Ballet • 11.75" X 5", Watercolor

"The Cutest Way to End a Ramones' Song" - 8" x 10", Watercolor

Ready for the show at Bear and Bird's Cinema Creep on October. I will be expecting a lot of blood and gore on this exhibit so I did something unpleasantly cute instead (at least that's what I think anyway). If you're familiar with the 1989 film "Pet Sematary" you know this scene.

"The Cutest Way to End a Ramones' Song" - 8" x 10", Watercolor

Now that this is done, I can go back to my book project.

Sketchbook: "Remedy" Ink and Watercolor

Sketchbook: "The Arrival of Captain Favian and His Latest News"

Sketchbook: "Flight" • Watercolor and Ink

Sketchbook: "Boka Boka" - Watercolor and Ink

Dylan Monkey & Squishy Face + Pham Kids

I - Coffee Shop

Eight months ago I met Kim Pham thru an online ad she posted somewhere. At first I was hesitant to reply to her email because when I tried Googling her name something 'horrifying' information came out (yeah, you try). But I made a gamble to meet with her in person anyway and the best and safest way was a rendezvous in a public place.

I really dread to say it but I'll say it anyway, Starbucks. "Why in the world did I choose Starbucks to have a business meeting? You know you've always thought that that's where those poseurs, wannabe authors, pretentious artists and rich frappucino lovin spoiled brats hang out. Why can't it be that cuban cafe down that corner over there where an old hobo making love to a true monster of a caffeine with his nicotine-stained mouth while holding a newspaper, the real mccoy of wireless, laughing at a Doonesbury?" -- > That's me by the way talking to myself when I was driving to get to the multi-billion dollar enterprise coffee shop to have a business meeting with a person whose name terrified the hell out of me when I googled (yeah, I'm telling you! google it!)

Well, it turns out Kim is actually a wonderful young and smart lady.

II - The Family
Kim Pham and her sister, Thuong (I call her T), started Pham Kids, LLC, a children's book family-owned company whose main goal is to come up with a series of interactive book apps with a core purpose of educating children, boost their creative brain at an early age by encouraging them to ask questions, generate their own ideas, and use basic critical thinking to solve problems.

With T as the producer and the main writer of the books, Kim as the co-producer, Ngan Pham as the editor and animator, Lee Pham on marketing, Mr. Loc Pham (the father) in software development, everything was ready and all the seats were taken except for an illustrator. That empty seat is where I, a non-Pham, sat and joined the ride on a trip to Humonkee.

First sketch of Humonkee.

III - Illustrating Dylan Monkey & Squishy Face
Dylan Monkey & Squishy Face are the two main characters of the interactive app that the Pham sisters created. It is mainly based on T's two sons, Dylan and Dustin, and her everyday adventures with them. You can read more about the inspiration behind the book by reading the writer's article HERE. -->> http://www.dylanmonkey.com/inspiration.htm



The process of illustrating the book was so much fun for me especially when I did the watercolor textures since I have a borderline obsession with paint textures - most especially the free flowing textures of a water in watercolor, ooohh. Unfortunately for me they decided not to use the watercolor skies that I did and used a real photograph of blue skies and clouds instead.



Doodling, doodling, doodling. That is the first step that I do after reading a scene and finding the right feeling and emotion of what the line is saying on that particular page. After finding the right positioning of characters and how they should act and interact with each other in a page I will then fine tune a cleaner sketch of the very rough drawing and repeat the process on to the next page until all the sketches for the entire book are done.

IV - Layers and Layers...
Approved sketches were then line drawn in Photoshop making sure all characters and stage props were in a separate layers. And since the characters had to be animated their eyes, heads, tails, limbs and so on had to be in a separate layers as well. Multiple keyframes for movements were an additional layers too. Not to mention each and every texture and colors are in each layers.

The final illustration goes to Ngan who does the beautiful animation and then finally goes to Mr. Loc, the wizard that made the interactive app work perfectly stable so children will enjoy and won't have difficulty playing around with it.

So without further adieu, you may see the final result at Pham Kids website and let your funny kids enjoy a funny app.

I would like to THANK the Pham family for giving the opportunity to work with them on this project.

Late Night Ballet (Update)

Last week I have been staring at this painting, Late Night Ballet, for days and just last Monday a light bulb popped out from my head with crystal clear "ting!" sound. I grabbed my notebook and pen then began writing a new children's book. This time the story is based on this watercolor piece.

Like The Dewgazer and the Dewdrop Fairy it will be written in Lyrical Ballad for children, sort of a long Nursery Rhyme. At this moment I am in the process of editing the rough draft and hopefully start illustrating this weekend.

Late Night Ballet • 11.75" X 5", Watercolor

Oneng's Diorama - Eeyore's Lucky Day

Oneng and I just finished her school project which is a Diorama. Students were to choose a book that interest them and make a diorama of their favorite scene. My daughter chose a Winnie The Pooh book titled "Eeyore's Lucky Day". The scene she chose is when Christopher Robin and the gang found a rainbow up the hill which finally made Eeyore (who's having a gloomy day) smile for the first time that day.

It was such fun helping Oneng building the shoebox art. And I am so excited for her when she'll turn this in to her teacher next week. Such excitement on my part that Arceli, my wife, noticed it and told me "Why don't you wear Oneng's uniform and turn it in yourself?"