Hello Oso!

My office mate, Ethel is part of a dance group called the UPLB Sandayaw. In celebration of the school’s centennial year, they’re having an event featuring different ethnic dances from across the Philippines. Abi and I did the poster to help them out.

The event is on January 22, 2008 at the DL Umali Auditorium in UP Los Banos.

Here’s a nifty technique to make all your real-life photographs look like tiny miniatures. It’s called Tilt-Shift Photography. Here’s a tutorial and here are some nice examples.

I love watching designers and illustrators get into the nuts and bolts of their craft. P. Craig Russell has launched a series of videos discussing graphic storytelling and sequential art. In the debut installment, he looks at the opening page of his comics adaptation of Pelléas & Mélisande.

From the New York Public Library’s Channel:

“The New York Public Library holds a wealth of unexpected sources of inspiration for artists and designers—from vintage valentines and textile patterns, to fabric samples and turn-of-the-century menus from around the world. For this online-only miniseries, “Design by the Book,” the Library partnered with the leading design blog Design*Sponge to invite five New York City-based artists to sift through our collections in search of inspiration. Stay tuned for future episodes as the artists, who range from a glassblower to a letterpress printer, create unique works inspired by what they found; special guest Isaac Mizrahi will also join us to share his sources of inspiration. The artists are: Lorena Barrezueta, Rebecca Kutys, Mike Perry, John Pomp and Julia Rothman. Music by Clear Tigers. Visit www.nypl.org/research/chss/bythebook for more information.”

EPISODE 1

EPISODE 2

I watched the first episode awhile back and I loved it. Makes me wish I lived in New York.

Image taken from ffffound.com, quoted from markmalazarte.com/jarmuschquote.jpg

“Originality is the art of concealing your sources”
- Benjamin Franklin

“Good artists copy; great artists steal”
- Pablo Picasso

—

I think it was Gerry Leonardo who told our class that it was okay to “attach” ourselves to another  artist, to have a similar visual vocabulary and artistic concerns. It was normal for artists starting out to reference more established artists. But a break must occur, where an artist must find his or her own vision.

Balloon

It had been drizzling all day. It was one of those wish-i-didn’t-have-to-get-out-of-bed days or those curl-up-with-a-good-book-days. I went to Starbucks to think of a story, the kind of story where a product you sold on a supermarket was a hero and “branding” was as important as conflict. The story had to be an “engaging” story and the product had to be “integral to the action”. Those kinds of stories. I wrote down snippets of ideas on scrap papers I brought along. Mostly I doodled images when the words felt to cumbersome to write down.

The rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon so I headed out into the street and used the scraps of paper I brought along as an umbrella. By the time I got back into the office, the papers were soggy and the doodles were smeared. All the little snippets and idea germs ran together in little puddles of ink, almost indecipherable from one another.

At the office, Leader Class Optimus Prime was waiting on my table. Erwin had brought it along to remind me how I wish I had my own. He and the other guys got it at a bargain price of PhP 999 – two thousand pesos cheaper than the original price.

I played with the Prime toy on my desk, all the while thinking that this was the kind of product that deserved to be a hero.

The wait for my medium format Holga shots to process is almost unbearable. It takes two to three days to process after I take the rolls to Digiprint. They deliver it via LBC courier to my office after that.

Sometimes, the wait is worth it. Sometimes all you get are turds. But one thing’s for sure, it’s always unpredictable.

More lomo shots here.

Something wrong with my thumb, it hurts when I write or draw.

Kisses can be violent and explosive but holding hands will always be tender, or so it was explained to me. In the movies, couples locked in torrid kisses look like they’re eating each other’s faces off, but people holding hands look so peaceful and at rest. If desire is in the lips, intimacy must be in held hands.

My hands, unfortunately, sweat a lot. I  bought Driclor a few weeks ago because I saw a print ad showing a handshake between a human hand and a hand shaped sponge soaked and dripping with water. I don’t remember the last time a print ad made me buy a product. Never mind the awards, the ad got me to plunk down over 800 pesos for a small roll-on bottle. It hasn’t worked yet though.

The condition is called hyperhidrosis – an excessive sweating of the glands. One of the first things they taught us in PE 101 was that “pasma”, does not exist. The most popular folk remedy I’ve heard is to piss on the hands first thing in the morning. That first urine stream in the morning is essential. I haven’t tried it yet and I don’t think I want to. I’ll take my chances with the Driclor.

Temperature and stress cause the abnormal sweating. That’s why interviews and Our Fathers are the worst. Imagine worrying about sweaty hands just before the first handshake or holding a seatmate’s hands for one whole song.  It’s a cycle of embarrassment and inconvenience.

Allowing one’s sweaty hands to rest in another’s is an act of surrender and acceptance, a comforting “I don’t care” and “I don’t mind”. A few years back I wrote a little something about it and then made it into a two page comic spread entitled “Pasmado”.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The iPhone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It can’t forward texts, you can’t send MMS and I don’t you can even make a 3G call (since it doesn’t have secondary front camera). But apps are what make it the cool device it is. Take Brushes for example. Disney artist Stef Kardos has made good use of this application.

Makes want to get an iPod Touch or an iPhone myself.

More of his iPhone sketches here.