A Rose Among Weeds…

I just thought of writing here this wonderful message that was sent to me, in the hope that someone else may be inspired by it…

"I noticed a beautiful flower standing in the midst of all the weeds. It was so colorful, so vivid and amazingly it had blossomed right there in the midst of those drab, dreary weeds. I thought that is exactly what God wants us to do: to bloom wherever we're planted. You may live or work around a bunch of weeds, but don't let that stop you from blooming. Realize that your environment does not prevent you from being happy. If you'll make the decision to stay faithful and be content, at the right time, God will change those circumstances. He'll get you out of those old weeds and put you in a better place. You may never know the answer. But don't use that as an excuse to wallow in self-pity. Leave it alone, get you, and move on with your life. Many of the "why" questions of life will remain a conundrum. But trust in God, and accept the fact that there will be some unanswered questions. Keep in mind, just because you don't know the answer doesn't mean that one does not exist. You simply haven't discovered it yet."

There’s a duwende in my house…

Do you believe in duwendes? Have you ever seen one?

Lately, I had a recent brush with the paranormal when I invited a friend to visit my home and have a look at our cats. I was surprised to know that she had a "third-eye", meaning she has the ability to see the metaphysical which is otherwise mythological for some. Well, I've always had an obsessive fascination with the mythic, the mystic, the legendary and the folkloric, having had my own set of experiences: from personal to gathered anecdotes, from demonic possessions to exorcisms, from sightings to spirit quests; so it wouldn't come as a surprise when people would start claiming they see duwendes in our house.

My folks told me that when I was a kid, I used to play in the yard on my own, run in the open fields. One time when I was stricken with an unexplainable fever, an albularyo was promptly called and I was diagnosed "tawas" style to have been in association with the duwendes in our yard. I've always wondered whether duwendes was used as an etiological explanation by our forebears for children who apparently had autism or "a world of their own." Oftentimes, when my mom would drop objects on the kitchen floor, try to look for it and not find it anywhere, my Lola Isang would exclaim "Hay, tinago na 'yan ng mga duwende… (The duwendes already took and hid it…)!"

Interestingly, quite recently, my friend saw one of the duwendes living in our house and she described it in such detail, I was simply in awe. She mentioned that although she only saw one of the duwendes, there were many of them – a whole community, a kingdom for that matter! They were of the maharlika type, donning gold and white garments, of the medieval fashion. Interesting, I remember the old folks here in Cainta, Rizal mention that in the fields were our house was built (our house was one of the first in Ortigas Avenue Extension, which was an expanse of open fields then 30 years ago), there would be sightings of regiments of duwendes armed with pointy spears and swords even riding on horses which were interestingly in proportion to their minute size. And they were indeed small, only around 4 to 6 inches tall. I've heard that having such duwendes in the house would bring great luck and blessings to those living in the household. She says I have this special affiliation with this duwende who looked really fat ("bursting from his clothes") but regal. He has a name, but I won't tell here. He enjoys the same food as I do, and really enjoys it when I bring home delicious delicacies. Amusingly, she mentioned that when I find myself having a hard time putting down my midnight snacks, it is actually the duwendes tugging at me to eat more so they could have a feast (but I thought to myself, matakaw lang talaga ako, hehe). All this was verified when a respectable priest visited our house to confirm these sightings.

It is interesting to note, that the duwende has its counterparts in other cultures: it has the equivalent in the western gnomes, elves and sprites. I suspect that the anito of our ancient ancestors may have somehow been acknowledged as the duwende when the Spanish arrived on our shores. It still found its way into the popular mindset of Filipinos (Folk Catholicism), even among progressive modern urban dwellers. Though, I find the thought of having duwendes at home to be very intriguing, I can't help but take it with a grain of salt. At the back of my head, something tells me that all this may just be a meticulous product of an overactive imagination, but I still admit that there are some things that just cannot be explained and you simply have to believe with faith. I'm sure every one of us has our own set of stories of unseen housemates and there's this dreaded but at the same time uplifting sense of awe and wonder in it, that just prompts us to believe in their existence. But really, how I wish I could see them again the same way I did when I was a kid. But as my friend says, one can only see them with a pure heart. Oh well… nothing wrong in still hoping.

Vienna: Please Come Home…

This is Vienna. She's a black/brown mini-dachschund who has been with the family for more than 7 years. We saw her grow up from a puppy to a cheerful dog. We allowed her to freely roam the house, hunting down the mice to her heart's content. She's intelligent in a unique way, and she would do almost the most outrageous things to get our attention. It seemed she envied the attention we gave the cats in the house to the point that she would even climb the chairs and table the way cats do, to our grave surprise when she would suddenly lick our lips during meals. She's the only dog I know who enjoys eating cat food. She's the only dog I know who doesn't bark at strangers but instead invites them to play with her. She likes being tickled on her belly, but be careful not to do it too much, because she tends to pee when she's at the point of ecstasy. She likes her face to be mashed up in your hands and doesn't mind a bit, as long as she can still breath. On one of her pregnancies, she suffered an hernia, where she needed to be operated on. The doctor said not to excite her so much so she wouldn't move too much to hasten her healing. But I guess with Vienna, that's impossible.

I guess we trained her to be too friendly and accommodating. One morning, she got out of our house without our knowledge (the garden and garage were being renovated) and when we discovered she was gone, she was nowhere to be found. Neighbors last saw her playing with a man. Our suspicion was that she has been taken away by this person. It could be anyone. Who could resist not owning such a friendly pet? Now, what I couldn't fathom is how people could simply grab a dog from a street without thinking that there could be a family looking for this dog. They could have asked around first, a little concern. This is basically kidnapping. We have lost a family member, and our family is grieving. We just pray that whoever took Vienna to please kindly return her to us… and if ever in your cold heart, you wouldn't do so, at least take care of her more than we cared for her.

Spinning: Coming Soon!

That's the teaser poster for "Spinning" the children's book that Irene and I have been working on. We're glad that the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) will be helping out in disseminating information and buzz about this book.

I'm on the last stretch with my illustration for this project and it had been a wonderful adventure bringing the characters and colorful scenes of Irene's story to life… Anvil still has to do the final lay-out as soon as I complete the illustrations so we're targeting to release the book by February. Exciting!

Here's an alternate poster with our bios.

A Beautiful Day…

I woke up early today a little disoriented. You know that feeling when you don't realize you've fallen asleep while watching a show and you wake up with the television still on. You try to figure out whether the dream you had was really a dream because it was so vivid, so detailed you'd think you just watched a movie! I'm no stranger to dreams with fantastic settings and film-like plots, but this is the first time I had a dream starring Colin Firth and Maria Bello… why them? I don't know with my overactive brain. It's about this girl (Maria Bello) who finds an anonymous diary while cleaning up her basement. Now, as she reads the diary, which is actually a recounting of a man's love to a woman, events in the diary coincide with her memories of her own failed relationship with her ex-boyfriend who left her for another girl. Colin Firth is a shy neighbor who is struggling to lead a new life after his wife's tragic death. Colin and Maria seem to relate because of their own personal baggage but at the same time, it is a huge obstacle to their budding relationship. I won't go further into details, but in the end, Maria discovers that it was actually Colin who wrote the diary… and there's a funny twist when Colin realizes that Maria has been reading the diary all along. Weird no? I don't know how original the story is (it somehow reminds me of the Korean movie "The Classic"), but it's worth documenting into a storyboard. It might be a good story to base a project on… I hope I had more dreams like these…

It was coding day, so I have to drive to work early to beat the 7 o' clock curfew. But waking up early is not such a nuisance if you see this beautiful sky smile:

I had an aquatherapy session where I found myself teaching my client how to say "The Prayer of Jabez"… and somehow I realized, it had been quite a long while since I had been of service to God.

I left work early to attend a "Comic Writing for Artists" lecture at the UP College of Fine Arts (which complemented the "Comic Making for Writers" lecture by Jonas Diego last Tuesday at the UP College of Arts and Letters). I arrived early, but I had a chance to roam around the campus, and even though it was my first time, there was a certain familiarity with the ambience there. I thought, "What if I followed my heart's desire 14 years ago and became an artist?" Thanks to Gerry Alanguilan, Elbert Or, and Jamie Bautista for their wonderful insights regarding comic creation. Gosh! College students were all around at the lecture… I felt like I was sticking out like a sore thumb in the classroom… ako ata pinakamatanda! But I thought, you can never be too old for something you like to do. Got this from Sir Gerry:

on my own Moleskine! I'll build an Elmer themed spread around this dedication. Thanks Sir Gerry!

I had to kill time so I drove to the Bahay ng Alumni to have a snack at Chocolate Kiss. But instead of eating there, I ended up watching the dress rehearsals for "100 Years of World-Class Music" featuring the Philippine Madrigal Singers, UP Concert Chorus, Indayog, and many more. It was a rehearsal, but it was almost like the real thing (plus, I get to see the workings behind such a production… including foul mouthed director and confused stage managers!)… The song and dance numbers were so well-performed heartfelt I found myself moved to tears. Gosh, I miss seeing and hearing things of beauty for a long time… I missed singing in the choir… haaay… ang tanda ko na.

And then I met with a new friend at Starbucks… such a beautiful day! Glad I could smile and be genuinely cheerful again… and now, back to spinnninnnnng…

Creative Project: “Raisinhead: A Tale Of A Modern-Day Tiyanak”

There's a time when a story that you have been brewing inside your head ever since you were a small boy has to be told in one way or another. One such story that I have is that of Raisinhead. I don't know, what led me to create a story of a tiyanak and his quest for vengeance. Perhaps it were the nightmares (which mostly featured mangled aborted babies and other anatomy-related gore) that plagued my childhood slumbers or the late-night horror movies with deformed twins or the devil's spawn in unwilling mothers. But through the years, I was able to spin numerous versions of Raisinhead, and the most recent iteration has found its way on a medium I fondly love: graphic fiction or more commonly, the comics.

I've been working on Raisinhead for months now while interspersing my free time with logo design and ambigram work. But what really pushed me to develop this story into its graphic form is because I wanted to join this prestigious contest and what material to use best but one that has been close to my heart.

Here are previews of the art, and as you can see, I used the classic ink brush approach for the line work. I laid out the pages first with speedy sketches, and from there developed more complicated sketch work until I'm ready for final inking.

I scanned the panels and decided to place the text in via Photoshop since my handwriting is not legible enough to match the art (thanks to my De Quervain's!). Here's a preview of the 1^st page.

I have basically finished Raisinhead already and in the process of having it reviewed, and so far it's been creating some stir in my family and among friends. Here's how the unveiling of the work went during a family dinner. You can basically see my brother (left) pissed off while debating with my mom (right) on its merits and demerits. It's weird how Archie (beside my mom) can give harsh critiques even though he hasn't read it yet, and my ninang (center), intrigued with all the talk, who doesn't read comic books at all, decided to read it and join in the debate…

Hahaha, it was an amusing night! But, I was glad. If Raisinhead could cause such a controversial debate in my family who know me very well and be very very critical… how much more if it is read by the general public! Some of my friends who have read it called it "heartbreaking…". I'm just glad that its 12 pages can have that effect! But hopefully, I'm not priming any of you before you read it. Hmmm, I can't have it available online. But upon request, I can provide you with the link to the .pdf file I have of Raisinhead (50 MB!). I just hope it fares well. But whether it gets a nod or not, I'm just glad it's out of my system in a format I love. Hmmm, you'll never know, I might decide to work on a graphic NOVEL version of it. Actually, I'm already working on the storyline of another graphic work I'll be creating (Hint: "Magkadugtong na bituka…")(while finishing Spinning, of course…). Here are close-ups:

Does the boy above look like me?

Work in Progress: Spinning (Paikot-ikot)

These past few weeks, I have been very busy working on two creative projects simultaneously, and with the available free time I have for creative work, you can say I'm progressing slowly but surely on these. I'll be writing about the other project in another blog entry, but for this one, I'll talk about "Spinning" first.

"Spinning" is a delightful short story written by Irene Carolina A. Sarmiento (Teacher Irene) about Kuya who has autism, his sister, Tin-Tin and their family.

"Like a giant top, he spins, and spins, and spins for fun. Tin-Tin wants to help Kuya so that they can play together and learn new things. In this story about love and understanding, Kuya also has plenty to share with Tin-Tin and with the whole world."

The book aims to highlight what children with autism are capable of being and sharing with others as whole human beings. It seeks to look beyond their handicaps and differences, and see how special these children truly are, with their own special gifts and abilities. As far as I know, this is the first story for children that Irene has ever written (or will be published – I'm sure she's written lots, for that matter). Having read most of her previous works, some of which have already garnered prestigious literary awards (Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards and Philippine Free Press Literary Contest), I'm more accustomed to her work on science-fiction and fantasy mostly using modern twists on Filipino folklore. But after reading "Spinning," I knew she has written a heartwarming tale that families and teachers can relate to, and when she asked me if I could illustrate her book, I was MORE than willing to agree!

First, I had to convince the publisher (Anvil Publications) that I'm qualified in illustrating a children's book. It would have been a lot advantageous if I was a member of INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan), since most publishers get their illustrators from such organizations (mental note to join next time they call for members!). But thanks to my online gallery in deviantART, Flickr, and my (unfinished) website, and most importantly my personal experience in working with kids with autism, the publisher gave me the green light. Here are just some of the sketches I sent them.

And so after signing the contract, I'm now in the slow and grueling (but FUN!) process of setting into pictures the words that inhabit Irene's story. After receiving the specifications of the book, I laid out the needed illustrations based on these. I'll be creating approximately 15 to 20 individual paintings. Irene and the publishers imagined a dreamy (almost pastel-like look), but boldly colorful style for the art and somehow I was more inclined to use watercolors as base with pencil, pen or acrylic highlights for the paintings to achieve this look. Hmmm, I used the word slow, because the process I imposed on myself would require stages before the final actual artwork, and so far, I've only finalized three plates, and each required 3-4 stages, each an artwork by itself already! And with the limited time I have to work on these (I have a day job by the way!), it will indeed be a slow process. But I'm getting there!

The characters are the heart of the story and I have to get them right. For the character of Tin-tin, you will notice that I started out with the cliché girl with the pigtails look, but somehow I felt that I have to infuse the character with the author's personality and look (since she was coursing herself through this character, I think). I asked for Irene's child pictures which I could use as reference.

For Kuya, I had to use a variety of references, from my kids in Quality Life Discoveries to my very own kiddy pictures.

For the cover, which we also intend to use for the promotional, I decided to work on a special customized font for the book. I initially did sketches for the cover to feature Tin-tin in the foreground; however, finally, we decided to put Kuya in front. Also, during this stage, I still wasn't decided on how Tin-tin would look like, but finally settled on a straight hair look to maintain constancy.

Using my initial sketches and mock-ups, I worked on a potential promotional poster which hopefully will be run soon pending approval from Anvil. But, you've seen it first here!

And here's a preview of how another spread is coming about...

And this ain't the final version yet!

Wish us luck, and hoping for the best for the book!