Conjure!

Good news! to those who doesn't know yet, I got accepted as a member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang I.n.K.) which is an association of artists committed to the creation and promotion of illustrations for children in the Philippines. It is a great stride for my artistic side, as it will further expand my creative horizons… and of course chances of illustrating more children's books. By the way, we're already finalizing the layout of "Spinning" and although the publication is delayed (due to my suggestions and comments), it will be coming out soon. I chose this as my "About the Illustrator" picture…

Silly... Anyway, to my drawing! At first, I thought of drawing "Hampas Palayok" first, like a group of kids catching the blessings of an exploded pot while the blindfolded kid standing in the middle with his stick unaware of the frenzy happening around him – all this from the pot's perspective… then I moved on to using a piñata instead, since these were more colorful. I ended up sketching a girl conjuring the most unexpected characters she has imagined…

I did it using my signature ink, then water-colored and highlighted with colored pencils on illustration board. Try to see what I did to my brushes! Those rubber thingies really help me work even if my right hand is already screaming in pain (De Quervain's).

I really didn't have a story for this one, the characters just came out randomly and if you'd like, make a story out of it… the final scanned piece...

Here's the girl… a diwata? a babaylan in training? The girl looks a lot like my sister Sigrid, hehe.

A snake wearing a top hat and a magician's wand, studded with card suit designs on the length of its body… with three little mice frantically running on his long tongue. And the pig balloons…

A bee who is actually wearing these huge shades to hide his Chinese eyes… and it's a hustler, not your typical jolly bee…

And the carabao jumped over the moon… rather jumped from the moon… and a rocket to witness it…

A flying tailless bubwit and again pig balloons…

And the cutesy putesy flowers… "Conjure!"

What do you think are the characters all about? What story does this picture tell?

Anyway, have to get back to my drawing board and abuse my right hand more, lots of logos and designs to work on. Have to make full use of my free time!