Miranda Kerr portrait

Can you believe she's been modeling for over 20 years?!
She looks so young and is still one of the most gorgeous faces in the professional modeling world.
Although she never ranked in the Top 10's in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" yearly polls, she has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" in 2012 by Esquire UK.
It isn't a surprise that Miranda also made it to Men's Health list of "100 Hottest Women of All-Time".
Having already been married twice and with two children, it truly is remarkable how she maintains such youthful looks. You'd wonder if it has anything to do with her pixie-ish beauty.
Anyway, it took a while but now I've finally done a portrait of one of longest, long-time crushes ever.

Alice Dixson portrait

Licensed realtor, commercial model, beauty pageant titleholder, award-winning actress, and one of the most gorgeous faces among Filipino celebrities of any age, is there something she can't accomplish?
Initially gaining popularity in a Palmolive shampoo television commercial in the late 1980's, timeless beauty Ms. Alice Dixson represented the Philippines in the Miss International Pageant held in Japan in 1986. She went on to pursue a career in acting first in a TV sitcom, "Okay ka, Fairy ko" in the title role of the fairy Princess Chlorateam heir to the throne of Engkantasya who fell for the mortal Enteng Kabisote and adopted the human identity, Faye, to be with him.
Ms Dixson took a break from showbiz after winning Best Actress for the movie "Sambahin ang Ngalan Mo" in 1998 and went on to live with family overseas where she pursued a career in real estate as a licensed realtor in Florida, USA and then in Canada.
She came back to the Philippines around 2011 and her career in the local entertainment industry has gotten stronger and she has been busy with one project after another ever since.
One of her more recognizable features is how young she appears among her contemporaries as she has maintained her classy, sexy, and elegant looks and her sweet, down-to-earth demeanor.

I feel that I didn't quite get the portrait right because it is hardly recognizable nor spot-on. I know my sketch is close but the final product is off especially around the eyes. I'll make another attempt at this soon.

Bulla SSJ 3 vs Tora Commission

This is another Dragon Ball Z fan art commission.
It's a series of covers of a more mature Bulla transforming to a Super Saiyan level 3.
These were used a comic book covers for a fan manga that pits Bulla against Tora.
The fan manga were done months apart and I had used different apps for each one. The first one was inked on Retas Stylos and colored on Photoshop and the second one with Bulla fully transformed was done completely on Paint Tool SAI.
Dragon Ball characters are some of my favorites and it is always enjoyable to draw them and get paid doing it.

 

Golden Girl Volume 1 Color Commission

Comic book art comes in three steps, pencils, inks, and color and these are done by separate artists for each step. The process works better that way as each artist focuses on their part only and ensures that quality work is done and deadlines are met.
These days when most artists use digital media which is also preferred by clients and publishers there are a lot of artists can do all steps especially for self-published or indie books.
As a freelance comic book illustrator I mostly just do pencil and ink digitally and only color pin-ups, covers or my own non-commissioned art. It's a breather when I get to do just colors for a project or commission because I get to practice a different aspect of creativity by bringing to life somebody else's work. Being at the finishing part of completing a comic book art, I get to do one of the most enjoyable things about being an artist -collaboration. You're mostly free to interpret a piece according to how it is scripted just as you would be at the line art stage but at this point you'd have to note what the penciler's vision was as much as interpreting the writer's script.
This collab with Healthy Fetish was of somewhat adult-themed superhero parody nature but does not contain nudity or sexual themes. You may get your copy of the complete volume 1 on itch.io.

 

 

 

 

Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle Fan Art Commission

This commission was fun to do as a former animator at Toei. Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle was one of the earliest movies in the Dragon Ball series.I think I haven't even heard of or seen Dragon Ball when it came out.
I honestly don't remember the anime much and I don't know if the scene I was commissioned to do was even part of the original, although any chance I could get to draw Dragon Ball characters is always enjoyable and getting paid to do it is a good bonus.

Princess Frog Commission

The Frog Prince is probably one of the most recognizable fairy tales. One of the most familiar version is from the written stories from the Brothers Grimm.
It is a classic that has been told and retold in so many different ways but what could be the original is the German folk tale which translates as "The Iron Heinrich" or "The Frog King".
There have been numerous modern media adaptations throughout the history of film and theatre, most notable of which are "The Tale of the Frog Prince",the first story presented by Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre in 1982, The Frog Prince ,a 1986 film starring John Paragon and Aileen Quinn, and The Princess and the Frog, a 2009 Disney animated film, loosely based on the 2002 novel The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker.

The version I was commission to draw is a storybook-type comic where the enchanted Frog does not turn into a king or prince after getting a kiss from the beautiful maiden but instead casts a spell that turns the kisser into a frog-like creature.
This is one of the first book art commission that I did line work completely on Paint Tool SAI and started getting used to using it instead of Photoshop for sketching and inking.
I did colors for the cover but got help from my good friend and former student Edwin Domingo for colors on interior art.

Enchantress Fan Art on Patreon

I haven't been actively posting on my patreon for the past year so decided to put something up a couple of weeks ago to hopefully keep my campaign to launch several animation and comics alive.
Most of my fan art posts have been of comic book characters so I my new one is of another one of those, this time Suicide Squad's Enchantress in my version of her movie look.
The movie version of the squad was interesting and had great portrayals and performances by the cast and was overall an enjoyable watch even though the third act played out like a better rehash of "Ghostbusters" than the actual remake.
Harley Quinn, Katana, and The Enchantress were hot as heck, though, and after my fan art of Harley and this one I'd probably do Katana next.
I'd also make a less cartoony version of Harley sometime soon, in the meantime I hope people who'd see this piece would like it as I'm thinking of making an NSFW version of it soon.
To get a full view of my fan art please check it out by clicking here.
If you'd like to work with me on a character design for comics, games, or animation please also check out my Fiverr page here.

 

Simple Gorgon character design

This piece was ordered on my Fiverr account from one my regular clients.
I really enjoy creating art for this customer because his orders are always fun to do and he communicates his concepts very well.
It's always a good thing when a client can be concise and specific about the details for the characters that he/she wants for me to draw up because it helps keep the process smooth and keeps the work
enjoyable.
The idea for the illustration as described by client is a male Gorgon wearing some sort of armor from the waist to the legs but with bare feet, in flight. As usual, this order was to be a part character design, part pin-up so I couldn't draw a typical superhero type flight because that would cover up some details of the design so I came up with something that comes of as floating or levitating very high up in the air in almost upright position.

I think I nailed the job because this earned me another 5-star review on my Fiverr page. If you ever have your own character that needs a somewhat professional render or a favorite comic, game, or cartoon/anime character that you want a unique illustration of done for you check out my fiverr by clicking here.

Letran High School 1992 Silver Jubilee

These are some of the designs of advertising and promotional collateral for the 25th year (Silver Jubilee) of High School Batch 1992 of Colegio de San Juan de Letran of Intramuros, Manila which was celebrated last November 2017.
This occasion coincided with Letran Alumni Association's 100th Homecoming which itself was a milestone as the oldest alumni organization of any school in the Philippines.
Some of these designs were for fund raising activities of LHS'92 as host batch of last year's grand alumni homecoming night.

Tablet wallpaper:

I designed a logo for LHS'92 several years earlier that honors the Knight theme of Letran that identifies all its alumni, adapting their own maltese cross but keeping it a separate identity and unique to batch '92 members.
An all silver version was made specifically for the 25th year jubilee collateral.

Smartphone wallpaper:

Having a unique logo for the batch lets them wear their Letran colors with pride on smartphones and tablets especially when it clearly shows a separate identity from all other alumni using the standard logos and badges.

Commemorative mug, shirt, and hoodie:

These were some merchandise sold to raise funds for grand alumni homecoming celebrations.

Letran Alumni Association Timex watch:

In cooperation with Timex a special edition 100th year commemorative watch was designed for the Letran Alumni Association (LAA) but due to specification limit to print size the actual LAA logo could not be used so some redesign had to be done to maximize the visibility of the Letran identity with the official maltese cross and blue and red shield.

TransKnights Auto-Moto Show:

Another fundraiser for the homecoming and also for the benefit of the Colegio's scholarship program, TransKnights Auto-Moto show organized by LHS'92 was the first ever automotive show in Letran and was held in the school's open grounds.
Some commemorative materials were also designed for this event like mugs and water bottles.

Main Homecoming Night Uniform:

The concept is going for an ivy league look with batch number indicated on chest badge and special silver edition LHS'92 logo on back yet wearable on most casual and semi-formal occasions.

Acrylic medallions:
Designed for special awards to teachers.

Event entrance ticket and staff ID:

Since the event venue can only accomodate a sitting capacity of between 600 to 700 persons, tickets were designed so seats, free food and beverage can be served on a first-come-first-served basis. ID cards are for staff like receptionists, ushers, and waiters.

Certificates of appreciation and participation:
These were designed for guests, keynote speakers, performers and other valuable supporters.

The usher staff were students of Letran's College of Tourism and were given certificates for internship credits.

Mang Kepweng Returns

Mang Kepweng was a gag comic strip in the 1970s to 1980s about a village healer and his quirky patients, created by Al Magat.
The success of the comics led to a series of movie adaptations with one of Philippine cinema's great funnymen, Chiquito in the title role.

The movie versions incorporated local folklore's mythical staples like diwatas, kapres, manananggals and aswang and a healer using dark arts or black magic as an arch-nemesis for Mang Kepweng.

The new movie, "Mang Kepweng Returns", shown last January of this year (2017) continues the Chiquito series, now with Mang Kepweng's son played by Vhong Navarro taking over as healer after inheriting his father's magical bandana, with my favorite model turned actress, Kim Domingo as his love interest.This sequel plays out as much as a continuation and tribute to the series for the older audiences and as an update of the franchise for new and younger viewers.

Mang Kepweng Returns marks the director and co-writer, Giuseppe Bede Sampedro's debut into the mainstream film industry after a successful string of indie movie projects.
Direk Giuseppe, or "GB" (read GeeBee) as he is known to friends and in the showbiz industry was a high school and college batchmate of mine who I only got back in touch with after a recent Letran Homecoming event. He contacted me to draw up a couple of sequential pages to tell a comic book - type origin story of the old movie version of Mang Kepweng.

The pages were to be used to introduce new audiences to the concept of the movie as an adaptation of a comic book but in the same "universe" used in the old movie series rather than the original gag strip so we could use Chiquito's more familiar likeness in the drawings and give the old followers of the cinematic version a sense of nostalgia and to show that the new movie is a continuation and not a complete reboot.

I dug up whatever images of the original comic strip are available online to get in the groove of the humor before I was handed the script for the pages that I was going to draw beforehand, and these are some that I found:

   I went for a more loose drawing style than I usually do when I draw comics so that the pages still pull off a cartoony look that won't look old but also not too modern. Direk GB also wanted to go for earthy colors to Mang Kepweng's costume to keep the old aesthetic of the original comic instead of the trademark white shirt with red polka dots used by Chiquito while still keeping to his unmistakably distinct likeness.

Here's another image that was done for promotional materials.

This is a practice portrait of Vhong Navarro as the new Mang Kepweng.

Here's the trailer showing bits of my drawings:

Trying out new stuff: Typography

So, I've been living in a t-shirt printing shop for the past 7 or so months now.
It's part of an arrangement that had to be made to keep a roof above my head after I had to give up an apartment I couldn't afford to lease on my own after my nephew and niece migrated to the U.S.A. on my brother's petition.
The T-shirt printing gig is part of a business of a couple of friends of mine who offered a room in the shop as my new shelter with my services as an artist/designer in return.
It's a really good deal and not as bad as it may sound to some if you think about the state of artists in general.

I've learned a lot of new stuff that I can use to pad my humble portfolio and I've gotten an interest in something I only used to enjoy seeing in vintage poster designs or books and also a bit sparingly, on shirts - typography.

It seems to be getting more attention of late, hasn't it? because there more and more of it in books and advertising materials.

I started out with a simple typographic design for a t-shirt print that a friend asked me for. It was a short passage from the Christian bible, so adding some elements to the text and also adding slight changes to font style and size was a natural choice to make it more aesthetic and dynamic. I'm glad this first time was met with more approval than I expected.

 It was printed on a white shirt in plain blue ink without the stroke and borders as in the photo, and worked quite well.

I did a couple more designs for the same friend/client for shirts with some quotes from a famous local voice actor and businessman. The shirts were meant to be some sort of merchandise for this man's motivational speaking engagements which is why his quotes were used. I don't think it sold well enough for marketing factors but I still like what I came up with.

These are the actual vinyl-printed shirts as sold in a Christmas Bazaar at the Quezon City Circle.

Birthday portrait for my bestfriend

Wow!
It sure has been quite a while since I posted
anything here.
There is so much to catch up to.
This portrait for my girl bestfriend was done
as a gift for her birthday LAST YEAR. Yeah,
post is damn late but the present was done just
in time and I was able to give it on the night
before.
Friends are a blessing and having a best friend
from the opposite gender, one who understands
you on a deeper, more personal level than
all your other friends is special and keeps
a person even more centered because you get
support and advice from their perspective.
I don't get to see her much these days and I do
make myself scarce on purpose, of course,
because she is a married woman with kids now
but like true friends we're always just one
call away if need be.