The Calling

The Calling

pencils and acrylic on plywood

Transmuting passion to a higher purpose.

My work for CANVAS annual banner group show entitled, 

Revolution: Celebrating 150 years of Andres Bonifacio

 On view at the UP Vargas Museum and Oval until June 18, 2013

WHEW, five years of banner art!

Clarity

Artwork for an upcoming exhibit. 
My process in creating personal works usually begins with making random textures. 

I "capture" characters formed from those textures. 
Sometimes, finding those characters takes time and staring long at the canvas.

Voice and clarity: two words that most established artists and illustrators keep mentioning in their talks. I kept repeating those words to know what they really mean because it used to be vague for me.

When they are talking about finding and amplifying "voice," does it mean the things that keep ringing in your head? Is it thinking out loud, visually? Is it really something that you wanted to say visually?

Personally, I think the "voice" refers to your principles, emotions, and your own life story.

When they are talking about "clarity," does it mean sharpness (literal and figurative) of an image? the focus of subject? Effectively translating verbal communication through visual language?

I think clarity in illustration, especially in picture books, simply means the reader can understand what's going on in the scene, or grasp what the images or objects are.

works in progress

Detail of our upcoming book 

Detail of artwork for an exhibit

Work in progress for the annual banner show

On the Spot!

On-the-spot art contest is more than judging what meets the eye.

I thought judging an on-the-spot art contest was easy. It should technically be simple: gather works that have something relevant to say and has appeal according to one's taste, rank them in order, and you have a winner. It turns out judging is more than that. You also take into consideration not only to whom you'll give hope for their future artistic career but also whose family you think needs the prize most. Well, I wish there could be criteria percentage for that.

I joined my first on-the-spot art contest in the 4th grade, it was also my first time to join the art club. One sunny saturday, our art teacher brought us to the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. It was my first time to go out on my own with fellows. The theme of the contest was interpreting the Grimm brothers' tales. I chose Rumpelstiltskin, drawing the princess without a face like Modigliani in black-purple gown weaving some gold out of hay. I think my entry was inspired by a Modigliani's painting from a back cover of the Reader's Digest my dad sends from Saudi Arabia where he worked as OFW, which I wasn't familiar about the painter yet at the time. As far as I remember, my work was unfinished. We also left early so we didn't know who won but we went home happy with freebies and new experiences. My favorite art teacher treated us snacks.

My second on-the-spot art contest was more successful. The event was at the Cultural Center of the Philippines grounds organized by Nido, dubbed as "Mga Munting Daliri On-the-Spot Art Contest." It was actually a fun day, my mom and siblings were there to support me while having a picnic at the bay area. I never thought I'd win but I offered my prize to my dad who was at home sick and depressed for being jobless.

Yeah, like a real telenovela!

Some of the succeeding art contests were also quite successful. As I grew up, my intentions became different. Times were becoming more difficult so I joined these contests hopefully to win the prize money and help my growing family.

By then, I acquired the techniques and particular look of the popular art style that kids and coaches think will be successful in local art contests. So, I also used the same style while relying on good concept to make it standout. The prevalent art style was this simple abstract geometrical figures colorized in gradated and saturated hues style. That was more than 20 years ago, and kids today still use the same style. Everyone uses the same visual language, medium, composition, technique, and palette. Does this mean that their coaches' or art teachers' knowledge on art stopped at Abstraction? I hope they teach more about art and other kinds of visual expression in various media.

My top pick: the only work in the batch which I think that yields narratives and looks happy to me. And also because this work strongly reminds me of my works back then, same style and technique, the prevalent "successful" style on every local kid art contests even today.

Usually, kids who join art contests mostly come from underprivileged families. If your art entry was like Amorsolo's or Juan Luna's, Picasso's or Michelangelo's, then you are probably one of those privileged kids who could visit museums, attend workshops, and knew art was more than this prevailing style. Usually one or two of these kids in the group join only for the sake of fun. The rest, it's gonna be for their family's food on the table or to pay for schooling.

Now that it's my time to judge a small art contest at the Ayala Museum one sunday afternoon, my view on art contests has changed. I went on to observe how the kids work, parents and teachers coaching on their side, full of hope and working their best effort. I could almost see myself in them.

I shared the judging with two senior and well-established artists. Surprisingly, we all had different favorites. Honestly, it was intense for me because it was hard to convince someone who's more experienced than you are. I couldn't express myself clearly and wasn't that assertive enough to both of my co-judges, I felt voiceless.

It was a learning experience.

I gave credit to these two works above for their realistic rendering and graphic compositions among the batch. Two of the three works that I think have advanced skills. Age range of contestants were 12 to 19 years old. Medium is limited to oil pastels on illustration board.

Some of the entries I picked as finalists. The theme was about their perception of being a Filipino. One of the judges quite convinced me over the work on the right most side. He thought although it looks anime, which is understandably the popular and influential style today, it's the only work that speaks about herself as a young Filipino artist full of potential and hope. The rest were using cliched symbolism and concepts.

From afar, young as they are, you can already tell which ones who really have inborn talent and the others who'll spend more years practicing, or pursuing by their parents. 

What I learned about kids

1. If you say NO, they will do so otherwise. 

2. They are suckers for any story. So read them a book.

3. You can't outwit them, no matter how hard you try.

4. Their ears are always glued to silly things, but they are not dumb.

5. You can get a view of today's young adults' minds, feelings, and aspirations through Twitter. Try not to judge, but learn from them instead.

Dear book illustration researcher-student

clay creature heads, work in progress. 

Dear book illustration researcher-student,

Every time I receive your email for an online interview, I'm not sure what to do: should I help you come up with better questions for your thesis, or a better email to secure you an interview? Leaving me wondering what to do keeps me thinking for so long that eventually I forget if I have replied or not. I apologize for that. So, to avoid this in future email interview requests, here are suggestions I think that will get you a successful email interview from me, and perhaps importantly from popular foreign illustrators who might be busier, less patient and understanding than me, haha! :-)

1. Review at least the basic rules in grammar and check your vocabulary. I admit, I don't write that well too but I always take time to review and revise. Though I prefer an informal (conversational) tone of email, it won't hurt writing down a respectful, undemanding, and well-thought-out request. No highfalutin words necessary, just keep it nice and friendly. Always assume that the recipient is busy, say what you mean in short and direct sentences. A simple but effective outline consists of: a greeting!, personal introduction, your thesis topic, type and/or schedule of interview, then your questions (shoot it right away). For me, sending your questions right away is my gauge whether you have done your research or not, and to know if you'd really thought about your questions, which brings us to...

2. Never, ever (!) send a blind-shot or generic email to every illustrator/artist you can find. Ask yourself: do I like receiving spam mails? It works the same way. Although it's much easier now to touch base through the internet, contact only illustrators whose works are really relevant to your concept. To save time, please spare your interviewee the burden of answering general questions you can already find through diligent research. Filter your questions according to their style and ideas. But first, do your homework in getting their previous interviews or publications if there are, then if you think you need more data, that's the only time you email them with additional, again, relevant and specific questions.

Hint: Personally, I think for student projects in illustration (like children's books, comics, or editorial print and web) which usually require a printed output (or online publishing) and meant for public consumption, there's really not much data you can get from illustrators. Sure you can learn some of their techniques, style, or journeys in their creativity or conceptualization but what's important is your personal vision in solving an illustration problem. Some, if not most illustrators still work intuitively like artists do and might not be articulate enough about their processes. You can only infer yourself analyzing how their work solved a particular problem in illustration and how will this information be relevant to your chosen topic. It's your ideas about their work that matters and who knows, you might discover something insightful that the illustrator might not even be aware of.

Since illustration projects are meant for publishing, all projects should be audience-specific and target audience oriented. Hence, interview or get data from your target audience more than the creatives. You should have acquired techniques and developed style in your previous courses.

3. Get only pertinent data for your bibliography to credit sources. In my experience as a researcher, I have not read in any research manuals of style like the APA, MLA, etc., that there's a need for your sources' signature, photo, or whatever proof of your interviewee's presence. A recording of the interview, and not the interviewee, is enough. This may be part of your school's absurd (honestly, I find it really insulting to student's integrity and capability) requirement, but this request will most likely turn you down an interview.

Encourage your advisers, department heads, and dean against this requirement. How can you trust yourself having the confidence in undergoing a research project if they can't trust you in the first place? I think, this requirement is just their excuse for not verifying your work individually. And besides, regardless of how you got your sources, quality and credibility will definitely show in your research anyway, so there's really no shortcut in completing your thesis.

I hope you'll find these suggestions useful for your research. Good luck!

***

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