Play Time

It really pays to keep a sketchbook and fill it up with ideas as often as you could. Just recently, I wanted to make a vector illustration and had no idea what to illustrate. So here comes my sketchbook to the rescue.

Most of the time, I prefer to sketch my ideas first before doing the vector works in Illustrator. Nothing beats pencil(or any sketching medium you prefer) and paper in fully and freely rendering your ideas. Here’s a peek at my work process. I would love to show you my detailed illustration process in a future post.

Original Pencil Sketch

Tracing the Shapes In Flat Colors

Tracing the Shapes In Flat Colors

Adding the Details - "Play Time" Final Vector Illustration

Adding the Details - “Play Time” Final Vector Illustration

"Play Time" Illustration, Closeup

Illustration Closeup

Rainy Days

There are only two seasons in a tropical country like the Philippines, the dry season and the wet season. I’m loving the cold weather lately. It’s a lot harder to wake up on days like these. The rainy season would be over soon, so I better enjoy it!

Dip pen holders, Pen nibs, India ink

Dip pen holders, Pen nibs, India ink

By the way, I visited the art store last weekend and purchased dip pens and a bottle of India ink. I’m enjoying using them so far for my ink works. It’s quite difficult though to use them at first. Having these new tools makes me think of learning Calligraphy. I’ll find time for that. In the meantime, here’s what I’ve done for the week.

Rainy Season 1 - illustration

“Rainy Season 1” - ink, watercolor, watercolor paper

Rainy Season 2

“Rainy Season 2” - ink, watercolor, watercolor paper

Summer Season 1

“Summer Season 1” - ink, watercolor, watercolor paper

Summer Season 2

“Summer Season 2” - ink, watercolor, marker pens, watercolor paper

Keep It Fresh

Weekend’s here again. Time flies too fast, which means we should really make use of our time wisely. Anyway, I think it’s time to revamp the site a little bit. Check out the new header and the new background (This is actually just a monochrome version of my twitter background.). Here’s a little artwork too to close the week. Cheers!

Fresh Grass - illustration

“Fresh Grass” - 4.5” x 6” watercolor paper; marker pens; watercolor

The Monsters are Coming

There is something fascinating about monster characters. Their uniqueness and out-of-this-world characteristics must be the factors making them interesting, for me at least.

There’s this blog called Monsters in Real Places(MIRP). They allow artists from all over the world to submit art for the MIRP community. For the submissions, they require the use of any photograph, and as the artist, you should create and add a monster into the photo. I got interested in the blog, so I made something to share with the community. Unfortunately, the blog has been idle for months already, so I’ll just share and post my work here.

Chasey with Blue Monster - photograph/vector/illustration

Chasey on my desk

Chasey on my desk. He's actually my cousin's dog.

You can visit the MIRP blog if you want to see the other submissions. Happy weekend!

**Update: It has been uploaded last September 8 in the MIRP blog. Check it out here.

Blogging, Illustrator, and Vector

I just thought blogging would be perfect to share the things I enjoy doing so here it is. I finally found time to sign up with wordpress and figure out the blogging stuff I needed to know.

Anyway, about two years ago I started using Adobe Illustrator, but it was only last year that I really learned using most of the tools and several techniques to create vector works. It’s definitely so much better to do vector stuff in Illustrator rather than in Photoshop. The shapes are easier to select and edit and we’re also talking about precision here. Once I’ve learned the essential tools and techniques, I got pretty much interested in vector. Here are some of my works. Enjoy!

Lily - vector work/ illustration

Jump High - vector work/ illustration

Ahhh - illustration

Dreamland - illustration

Beat the Summer Heat - vector work/ illustration