The early stages

Deciding whether or not i should get a tattoo was never a battle, it was more of like WHAT to permanently ink on my body that i will (hopefully) not regret for the rest of my life. So it took me a while to come up with something. 

Then there's the pressure of coming up with a profound meaning behind the design. Of course, I would wanna be able to explain it to people when they ask. :-|

So there's that, and there's this..

(this is not the final design)

Whether it was profound or not, the idea was more personal. Mermaids have always fascinated me. These mythical creatures that have been spawn from creative mind were perfect as my subject. Two mermaids entangled passionately in love and hate but are bound and connected by carnal desire. One poses an an alter-ego.

Quick post: Jenna Fischer

A portrait of  Jenna Fischer in ballpoint pen. This will be published tomorrow in the paper. Just getting ahead. :D

Untitled (for now)

This will go untitled for now. I did this sketch while killing time 3 days ago. Will render this when i get the time or shall i say, if i don't get lazy. hihi

Nalumos (Drowning)

'Nalumos' is Visayan word for drowning. This is an artwork i submitted a few days back for the Graphika Manila 2011. They will only select 100 artworks to be published in the book. Crossing fingers now! :)

Final artwork, graphite pen rendered in photoshop. 5.75" x 8.5"

 

This is the first version, a bit saturated. Since i cannot resist a warm colored artwork with that dreamlike feel on the hues, i decided this one will just remain on my disc space. hehe

Original sketch in graphite pen

Danger!

The topic was about how women can defend when they find themselves in the hands of an attacker. The instant thing that came to mind is that perennial image of a retro pop illustration of a frightened or sad woman with a huge thought bubble on its head. Haha!  I didn't think twice to use that style for this article.

And walaah! My first retro pop illustration in super bright colors! :)

 

Wouldn't you agree that this style was just perfect?? :D  Oh and i lurve that purse!

Shakira

The rare opportunity to do celebrity faces came along once again! And it's Shakira this time. For this illustration i tried a new thing- sketching without using any pen and paper just direct to the computer with my tablet. I actually haven't done it before so this would have been my first time. Thanks to Jeff Durham for inspiring me to do it. hehehe It does save me a lot of time plus being paperless makes me feel so earth-friendly! hihi :)

The original photo which i traced so lamelessly. hehehe



My Sketchbook Project

When i received my sketchbook late last month i got so giddy to start with the first pages. but i only started sketching early this month! hahaha i need to finish the whole sketchbook by December so that i can send it back on time for the exhibition tour.

Here are a few pages that i've started working on.

while scanning my sketches, i discovered how the light played a pretty role in my sketchbook pages as i lift each pages against the light. it was so cool to see two pages combine when the light hits the surface (like the one above). the brush strokes are so clear that it gives a really cool texture effect on my artworks.

World Cup 2010 Daily Statistics 1

World Cup is almost over and i think i'm gonna miss it. Since Champion's League the paper has been gearing up fot this big event. Al Shabiba, the national paper here in Oman has published a few infographics and posters about the latest news for every matches in world cup. My part is doing most of the illustrations.

The Daily Statistics is one of the graphs we publish, showing the 5 important statics such as the attacks, defend, passes, disciplinary and speed. Stats are always boring specially they all come in numbers! To make sure that this wont look boring especially to the not-so fanatics, we prsented the datas with a lot of illustrations. The center illustration and the one on top were my job.

To add more spice on showing the 5 stats, i illustrated the 5 major stat in a military'r perspective. All five fit just well in its own aspect. this was a fun thing for me to do.

The vector illustrations were done by Winie Ariani. the whole concept was Antonio Farach brainchild. This was a real teamwork.

ink on paper.

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Image via Wikipedia

War On Regulation

This article was published last june 1 and was posted as one of the Best Pages of the Week in the paper. even before i finished this illustration, the idea i came up for the story already made me proud of myself. it is important that i come up with something really simple yet hit the topic big time.

the article is still related with the recession and the euro hullaballo. it's always safe to take thing literally yet produce it in a symbolic way. Srimani, the designer of the page came up with the idea on running the text inside the helmet and the smoke that came out from the gun. it was just perfect. the day before this was published, my design director told us that this will be the best page for paper the next day. oh well i just blushed! :D

added some texture to polish the look.

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