#YolandaPh

Over the past three days, I've been receiving emails from my colleagues in different countries, asking how my family is and how badly affected I am by the storm. I'm really thankful that Manila was spared, but I didn't realize how bad the damage was until I tuned into CNN on Sunday evening. Apart from the loss of power in B.F. on Friday evening, no damage has been done. I was on weekend mode, doing arts and crafts with my cousins and working on a promo material for the cupcake business on Sunday. After the news had sunk in, I was feeling restless on Monday because I had to go to the office and felt quite guilty that I was breezing through with the same conveniences and privileges of everyday life, while others are going through the worst time of theirs. But guilt won't make things better. The most immediate help that we can provide if we cannot be physically present in repacking goods is monetary assistance. I was spreading links to my onshore counterparts on how they can donate online. For us here in Manila, the easiest way to donate is through SMS. At this day and age, everyone has a cellphone after all. 

You can donate to the Philippine Red Cross through text.

Type in RED and send to:

4143 for SMART

2899 for GLOBE

You can donate the following denominations:

Globe: 5, 25, 100, 300, 500 or 1000

Smart: 10, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500 or 1000

Other ways to help:

  1.     In-Kind Donations

Donations can be dropped off in Accenture offices in Manila and Cebu. Please see the Accenture offices below. If you happen to be in this area, you can drop off your donations to these offices. 

Mckinley Hill, Taguig

Mckinley Bldg A, Campus Ave, Taguig City

Ayala Ave, Makati

MSE Building, Ayala Avenue 1200, Makati City

Pioneer, Mandaluyong

Cybergate Center Tower 1 (Pioneer St), Mandaluyong City

Eastwood, QC

Eastwood City Cyberpark (E-Commerce Ave), Quezon City

LBC Branches also accept donations in kind

 The following items are urgently needed:

·         Rice

·         Canned goods

·         Biscuits

·         Blankets

·         Sleeping mats

·         Over the counter medicines for children and adults (cough, cold, fever, etc.)

·         Water

2.     Cash Donations

You may directly remit your cash donations through bank deposit or wire transfer through any of the following Philippine Red Cross bank accounts: 

Banco De Oro
Peso: 00-453-0018647
Dollar: 10-453-0039482

Swift code: BNORPHMM

Metrobank
Peso: 151-3-041631228
Dollar: 151-2-15100218-2

Swift code: MBTCPHMM

Philippine National Bank
Peso: 3752 8350 0034
Dollar: 3752 8350 0042

Swift code: PNBMPHMM

Unionbank of the Philippines
Peso: 1015 4000 0201
Dollar: 1315 4000 0090

Swift code: UBPHPHMM

3. Relief Goods Pre-packing efforts

You may also volunteer on your own with the following organizations doing relief work.  Please pre-register to ensure your slot in the activity.
 

NAME OF ORGANIZATION	VENUE	PHONE NO.
ABS-CBN Sagip Kapamilya	13 Examiner St., West Triangle, Quezon City	4152272 local 3765, 4114995
DSWD-National Relief Operations Center	Ninoy Aquino Ave., Cor. Chapel Road, Pasay City (behind Air Transporation Office)	852 8081, 851 2681

I've always been proud of Filipino resilience, hospitality and bayanihan. Despite the hardships and trials that our nation is going through, I still believe that we can rise again and recover from the damages of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, all in God's grace.  Bangon Pilipinas! Kaya natin ito!

Read more

Ink Drawing: Lady Sunflower

Hello everyone! Just wanted to quickly share this piece I did yesterday. I was in the mood for some inking and digital coloring after all that watercolor practice. So I digitized one of my drawings and played around with the good ol' Photoshop.

The lyrics were taken from my favorite song by Joni Mitchell coz of the flowers-in-your-hair-hippie-kinda-vibe. 

Have a lovely start of week! :)

Read more

Ink Drawing: Heart In Chaos

Today has been really productive in the creativity front. The morning was spent frosting cupcakes for a client then drawing and inking all afternoon plus working on a design project with a photography studio's website. I finally re-made this doodle, digitalized it and properly edited it in Photoshop. I've been neglecting ink as a medium for my drawings, so I just thought I'd take a break from the watercolors and go back to basics. Oh if only all my Saturdays are as productive and as awesome as today!

Heart In Chaos
Ink on paper, digital

There's a lot going on in our lives and countless things keep us worried--deadlines and meetings, things to do's and chores, bills and responsibilities, traffic and oil price hikes, floods and earthquakes, zits and weight gain...the list goes on. I personally have a surplus of worries and it's easy to get lost in the chaos (the weight gain problem alone is really disconcerting) but I've learned that it's just a matter of putting things into perspective.

Last Sunday, Jim and I were walking home from a nearby diner when a kid came over and asked us to buy sampaguita from him. We initially dismissed him but he was persistent, so we decided to buy him food instead of giving him money. Right after ordering a burger for him, he asked if we could just have the food to go because he wanted to share it with his siblings. While waiting for the food to arrive, we asked the kid a few questions and got to know him a little. 

His name is Aries. He's 11 years old and the seventh among nine children. He doesn't know how to read, and he never went to school. He's been selling sampaguita since 3PM that day and would only go home at 12 midnight or until all the flowers were sold. His elder brothers are parking boys and his mom stays at home, taking care of his younger siblings. His dad had passed away already. He held coins in his hand because he didn't have any pockets. He had a shy way about him that was endearing, but the whole time that we were talking to him, I just saw sadness in his eyes. I asked how many flowers he's sold. "Isa pa lang ate.", he replied. It was already 10 pm and I ended up buying the whole bunch just so he can go home. The kid just broke my heart.  I'm hoping to chance upon him again and help him in some way, maybe give him books or buy another bunch of sampaguita from him again. 

That encounter with Aries was a wake up call that there are far more people who have bigger problems than I do. That boy is a reminder that we are very fortunate and that we should remain thankful for all our blessings instead of focusing on what's missing in our lives. Life isn't and will never be perfect but as long as our hearts are in the right place, I think we'll do just fine. 

Read more

Art Stalking: Sara Blake of ZSO

These past couple of months have been quite unproductive for my creative sparks. I've been busy with work, so I needed to put on my I.T. hat and get lost in the world of logic and algorithms and business requirements and such. When I'm not working, I check out the usual blogs, then from one click to another, I chance upon really inspiring finds. I was checking out the Skillshare directory this past week, and I've been strategizing what courses to take first when I came across Sara Blake's class "Create Full Color Digital Illustration from A Handmade Drawing"

Read more

Art Stalking: Gayle Kabaker and Krisatomic

I'm welcoming May with tons of inspiration from a couple of watercolor and gouache artists! These fashion illustrations are uber chic! I love the way they do their washes and how cleverly they draw their subjects.

Here are my favorite watercolor illustrations from Gayle Kabaker (photos courtesy of www.gkabaker.com)

She has a loose way of playing with paint which I absolutely love. The way some colors bleed after a wet on wet application is always so fascinating for me. I find so much mystery and flair in these women's faces, it makes me wonder what they are thinking. There's a certain element of sophistication and elegance about about them, don't you think?

Kristina also known as Kris Atomic is a fashion illustrator and photographer from Brighton. She has been a subject of a previous blog entry, but that was way back in 2009. 4 years later, I still  admire how her blog and her style has evolved and how she manages to make adorable and quirky yet very fashion forward illustrations. Her super fresh and fun take on color and composition is so inspiring and I love that she has a very recognizable and signature way of drawing her subjects.  All photos courtesy of www.krisatomic.com

I was once into drawing human figures and subjects, when I was doing my Flickr 365 Drawings Project in 2008, but eventually got into drawing more nature-inspired subjects this year. I think it's high time to practice drawing faces and figures again!

Read more

Watercolor Wednesday: Kayangan Lake, Coron

Watercolor practice this Wednesday afternoon, because I haven't gotten over Coron just yet. 

Read more

Sugar Lily Promo Girl

I can't bake for crap. There, I said it. For someone who has a cupcake business, that's a real shame. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose that's alright coz I contribute to Sugar Lily in a different way. My sister Katrina is our head of Production and Operations since she's our baker and the whole reason why this business came about is because of her gift, while my eldest sister Tetet is the head of Finance since she is the one who handles all the revenue and costs. I suppose you can call me the head of Marketing because even though baking  is not exactly one of my strengths, I try to compensate with branding and promoting  our super yummy and moist cupcakes.

My usual recipe for promotional stuff for Sugar Lily: high res cupcake photo + logo + white border. It's easy. 

Red velvet, anyone?

How about assorted cupcakes?

After our brainstorming-slash-business planning session last month, we came up with the idea of introducing a "special cupcake flavor" every month so that our customers won't get bored with the usual flavors (red velvet, chocolate, carrot, vanilla and banana chocolate chip). For this month, my sisters and I decided to include Strawberry Cupcakes in our menu. It's perfectly apt for Valentine Season since strawberries are in season in February and we can make the cupcakes pink or red (cliche, I know, but can you blame us? :p). In coming up with promo material, I decided to have a different approach in promoting the Sugar Lily Cupcake of The Month. I wanted it to be special and more creative so I decided that instead of using colors, I will make illustrations.

A love story made in the kitchen. Landian mode si Mister Strawberry at si Sugar Lily Cupcake!

I used watercolor for this illustration, and utilized watercolor pencil for my underpainting (a really awesome technique, since my old watercolor drawings had traces of pencil on them)! I'm enjoying this process and it gives me a chance to think more creatively since it requires me to come up with a concept and idea for the image. It's a continuous project, so it's like a monthly mandatory creativity exercise. By the end of 2013, I'll be able to come up with 11 promo material for Sugar Lily and 11 illustrations to add to my portfolio! Yay!

Sugar Lily Cupcakes and Pastries does delivery and meetups in B.F. Homes Paranaque and Alabang Town Center on weekends and Taguig on weekdays. Like us on Facebook and check out our menu here

Read more

Long Long Distance Love Affair, Oh!

Hello everyone! I'm back after more than a year of hiatus. I've been busy with so many things lately that I haven't had the chance to post my drawings here. Expect things to change from now on, as I am back with a new enthusiasm for doing more art projects. To start off, here's my latest ink and gouache drawing.

I made this drawing for my friend Mon Chong who is leaving for Singapore this weekend. I came up with the idea of paper cup phones for this drawing after watching Grown Ups starring Adam Sandler . They had a scene there where the kids started talking to each other using paper cup phones and it gave me a sense of nostalgia. Mon will be based in Singapore for a year or two and will be leaving her beau Charles back here in the Philippines. Oh the tragedy of long distance relationships! But of course I am optimistic that they will get through this challenge and that the distance will only make their relationship stronger.

I'm a believer!

Read more

Weekly Inks!

New drawings today!

A typical Sunday includes brunch with my family and checking out books at the bookstore. Browsing through the Art and Lifestyle section, I came across this book called "New Yorker Lookbook: A Gallery of Street Fashion" whose photos were shot by Jake Chessum. I loved the images contained in this book, specially the expression of the girl in the green coat. I decided to make a quick sketch of her and did the same with the two other girls. When I got home later that day, i proceeded with inking them then added color with felt tip pens.

Check out the book here

*****

Since most of my drawings are colorful, I decided to experiment with just a small bunch of hues for this drawing. Inspired by The Sartorialist's photo of this lady. Although I made a change with the shirt design, I just had to include the contrast of the red clutch against her entire outfit.

Read more

Magazine Stints Anyone?

I got another stint as an illustrator last week and I was so psyched to get in touch with YOU Magazine's editorial coordinator again. I remember getting so worked up the first time I got a text message from one of the magazine's editors who asked me to become a contributing illustrator for their November-December 2008 issue. A writer friend referred me to him and I immediately pulled a bunch of works from my Flickr account for my portfolio. I was simply doing a Project 365 then, and never thought about the idea of getting my work published. But since the opportunity came up, I was definitely up for the challenge.

I was assigned for work in Syracuse, New York in early September 2008 and had managed to make the illustration despite my lack of tools. I lived in a hotel and they didn't have a scanner! I had to drive for 4 miles to the nearest Fed Ex Kinko's on Erie Boulevard to have my drawings scanned. When I checked the file in my flash drive, half of it was ruined (remind me to curse that lady. I paid 2 dollars for that!). I used my friend's high megapixel camera and edited them in photoshop. My raw drawings were not even scanned properly, but they didn't seem to notice. Thank God!

I went back to Manila in December and as I was browsing through a rack of magazines in a bookshop one day, I saw my drawing right there on page 86 of YOU magazine. I grabbed it immediately and bought myself a copy. It was the best feeling.

Doing something for fun is one thing, but to have it become a part of something that is way bigger than you are gives you that sense of accomplishment.

For the record, none of my exes ever stalked me.

Read more