CrocaVenus

I'm heading for Singapore tomorrow so I won't be able to post a blog until I get back next week. It is with that in mind that I thought I'd share this painting I made a few days ago. (click the image for a slightly larger view)

Remember the new book I told you about? The one I'm working on that will hopefully be released in September? I thought I'd say something about my approach to the artwork.

Unlike Bullysaurus Rex, the art in this new book will not have the appearance of having been "painted". The characters are rendered in flat colors like those seen in traditional cel animated cartoons. Likewise, the backgrounds of each spread will take their inspiration from the simple yet delightful backgrounds of the old Hanna Barbera cartoons I grew up with in the 70's.

That said, I could not help the urge of rendering one of the characters in digital painting style. If it isn't a problem with the publisher, I'm hoping to stick this painting somewhere in the finished book.

Gearing up for the Big Race

I'm currently finalizing the artwork for a new book I'm doing for Hiyas. This one is written so that younger readers can join in the fun! I will show more artwork as the weeks progress, but for now I thought I'd introduce the two main characters - Duck and Crocodile. Hopefully the book will be launched at the Philippine Book Fair in September 2011 (if I have my dates right). I hope to see you there!

Double Punch Komiks

Professor Emil Flores of the University of the Philippines wanted to give away special versions of our Triple Punch Komiks to two very special kids, but felt that one of the stories in the anthology was too violent for the target age group. So he kept the two remaining stories and asked us to make variant covers. Jordan Santos, graphic designer of our cover title, altered "triple" into a "double" and for my Poso Maximo half of the book, I came up with a Poso themed cover artwork. Jordan ended up using only a portion of my artwork to make equal room for Ron Escultura's Project BC artwork. The cover featured here showcases a variant of the final Double Punch cover which features the full Poso Maximo artwork.

Dusting off an Old Read

I find that stories I write and illustrate have their origins in the books I was exposed to as a child. I have many good memories of reading comics with my brothers when I was very young. It's interesting to re-read old stories to see how they have influenced the kind of stories I enjoy telling today.

Sometimes, I stumble upon an old book I have not read in a long time and it's wonderful how turning its pages blows the dust from memories that have been patiently waiting for me to recall. It's terrific to be humbled when one's imagination soars high - realizing that no matter how old we get we still secretly crave that child-like sense of wonder, without which our lives would be all the more impoverished.

This book is "Our Fighting Forces #164". One of my brothers had a National Bookstore reprint of this issue back in the 70's. It was one of my earliest introductions to war comics. As a child who could not yet read I would open this book and take in the appearance of the format -the heavy textured inks, and the word balloons containing words which I did not know the meaning of. Yet in my own limited way I did know some of the words. Stringing those few words, placing them in context with the pictures, I managed to come away with the sense of a story - whether it was the intended story or not. But for a boy of four or five, it was more than enough to feed a hungry imagination.

After Many Years of Silence

As one can expect, much has happened to me between this post and the last one - which my cat typed in 2007:

I've made lots of mistakes, and have had my share of successful moments.

I have written and illustrated a few more books (and some comics) for the Philippine market. Those were fun.

On the more dramatic side of things, I closed a 40+ year old family business and from the ashes of that, I helped our good and loyal employees form a cooperative. That was very stressful, but more important - it felt like the right thing to do.

Then at the start of 2010, I became a father. At the end of the same year, I lost my father. Both events were life-shaking - but in very different ways. Both are constant reminders, however, that whatever past life I have been trying so desperately to hold on to truly belongs in the past.

Which brings me to today. I have given some thought to starting up this blog again without the assistance of my cat who, as I should have expected, left it abandoned for over three years. I can only hope to do a better job. My cat would not bet good money on it. Neither should you. I'm hopeful, but let's just see how things go, okay?

The picture above is me at the 2011 Philippine comic convention. I stayed at the Polyhedron Comics table where we sold stuff - some of which included my work. I wrote and illustrated an all-ages silent comic called "Poso Maximo" appearing in the comic anthology entitled "Triple Punch Komiks". We also sold copies of my latest children's book "Bullysaurus Rex" published by Hiyas books. My latest comic work was a four page job drawn from a script by good friend and University of the Philippines professor Emil Flores. The title of the piece is "Colloquy" and it appears in the comic anthology "CADRE classified".

If you want to see some of my work, please visit my page on deviantart.com

Sneaky Dink

Robert has been out visiting schools to talk about his latest children's book What Beetle Can Do. It's by Hiyas. I should know, I tore up a couple of copies awhile ago. Anyway. while he's not around, this is a good opportunity for me to sneak into his drawing room. Maybe I can dig out a page or two from that graphic novel he's working on. I found the Beetle book's paper too shiny and thick. It does not make that fine shrriiipp-ing sound that's absolute music to my ears. The original art for the graphic novel is drawn on thinner paper and should be more fun to shred! I promise to post some pages behind his back.... if any survive my kitty shredding frenzy, that is! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

First Scratch Post

Robert has been very busy lately and it's upsetting me. He spends a lot of time drawing these pages for some publisher and it's hogging all his attention. To keep myself busy, I've decided to start a blog about him. I don't think he'll notice. Today I took a picture of my nose with Robert's camera. My nose is pink.