I Will Miss You

For the one who keeps me sane, who gives me a good night's sleep. :)

Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Gold

I tweaked this photo a bit, cooling down the yellow and added glowing things. :)

Taken by Charlie Javier during the HF Christmas Party. Fortunately, oldies like me in HF were still invited. :)

Adobe Photoshop CS3.

In Love in 2010

Let's be happy and in love this year! :)

Adobe Photoshop CS3 (3d rendered in Adobe Illustrator Cs3).

The Valley

Note: another poem that I posted in my Facebook account, long before I made this blog.

careening off the coast of blue stars and sullen waves

create my masterpiece; the sky is my canvas

weave my tapestry of expressive surreal landscapes

run off to the fields and color the grass blue and call it music

dream of raining beer and kiss them and quench drying lips

explore deeper levels of symbols and meanings

that try to find a way into this poem

this poem that popped right out of my brain

The Night Scene

Note: this poem was posted long ago in my Facebook account.

the pale waxing moon sends a cold air

to the hopefuls late at night

the skies watches over them with a tearful eye

the scene so encapsulating became of despair

fireflies break away from vines with thorns

they save what's left of their fire

the only music is the rustling of crisp leaves

cars sounds speedy like the speed of sound and the sound of speed

speeds everything, leaving everything devoid of life and love.

the air so cold encapsulates everything in the scene

the moon sleeps tonight.

A Fool

"How do I, how do I mend the rules? I need you, I want you here, 'cause I'm afraid"

Urbandub, Runaway

Repost2: The Dilemma in Life

Repost:

"Anong silbe ng abs sa tiyan mo, kung wala namang laman 'yang utak mo?" - Lourd de Veyra, from the episode "Bitin sa Kanin" of Word of the Lourd.

Repost1: Docu Days

Repost:

A trip down memory lane.

on the photo: Me, Elaine Francisco, Aira Simon, Lourd de Veyra, and is that Francis de Veyra at the back?

location: Nine Mile Bar, Quezon City.

Shot when we were doing a documentary on Lourd de Veyra. This project was one of the things that we took seriously. We went to gigs (not that we hated it, we actually wanted to do such things), we drank beer, we had to think of questions spontaneously, and we actually had high hopes for this project.

After this documentary, I was opened to the world of poetry. Hindi na ako virgin, kumbaga. My poems sucks crap still, but I had enough inspiration to do all sorts of things like graphic design.

Maraming salamat ser! Kahit na lagi mong inuubos yosi ko. :)

Salamat Aira Simon for the photo.

December 25th Post

Now I know this blog means a lot more than a repository of graphic designs and rantings about social workings.

This blog helped build something really, really special for me now. Something really meaningful, and something I'm not letting go no matter what.

Thank you. :)

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas Cards

I was commissioned to design studies for a Christmas Card to be given to the DLSHSI community, as well as - i reckon - donors and significant people Br. Gus Boquer reckons be given a card. This is the final study, after a grueling process of editing and revisions.

They wanted to mix with the concept the idea of environmentalism, signified by the green, green grass. And the crumpled paper texture deep within the design.

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS2.

Hello Readers!

Merry Fucking-Christmas to you!

Old Designs

These are some of my designs for our first shot at starting a t-shirt gig. It kind of wilted out in time, though, and all three of us just thought that maybe it wasn't a really good idea.

The first one, the Revenge of the Disease mk2, was my debut t-shirt print, using Heat Press technique.

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS2.

Welcome

My good friend Alden recently made a blog, out of curiosity over Tumblr. He said he always wanted to blog.

Check him out!

Run Away

"Would you run away with me if it's tonight? Leave everything behind"

-Urbandub, An Invitation

Pathways

To keep me in touch with reality.

Hiphop Hypnosis v.2

In addition to my previous post, I think Gloc 9's music is pretty observant and experiential of the social status of the masses. And he ponders on the classic love stories of underprivileged men falling in love with women high above the social ladder.

Also, hiphop music makes good reference material for new beats.

Hiphop Hypnosis

Frankly, I don't get hiphop music.

Yeah, I know its roots. I'd be damn proud of myself if I could call myself a true-blooded gangsta. The roots are based on social violence and alienation, and discrimination. And guess what, the pioneering hiphop artists have their beats rooting from African tribal music. That has got to mean the culture of the Africans live on in different cultures, in different societies in different countries.

So, would their ancestors and hiphop forefathers be proud of the song Birthday Sex?

That's why I don't get it. How come hiphop artists nowadays only sing about booty, bling, and money? I know being filthy rich is like an offshoot of the ghetto upbringing, that they wanted to raise from their social status and show their brothers that they have achieved that through showing off their booty, bling, and money.

But what else? Violence committed by them, and inspiring little kids who fancy the music to a life of violence? Violence because of what? It's no longer because of discrimination. Hell, hiphop is mainstream, nobody gets discriminated anymore because they're hiphop. It's pointless.

Moving to a more local point of view, let me say this in Tagalog: hindi bagay sa mga Pilipino ang maging hiphop dahil mukha lang tayong pumipilit gumaya sa kultura na hindi naman talagang likas sa atin.

Well, that's it, actually. I like some hiphop artists like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Kanye West, for their style and musicality. And they have songs that still talk about the ghetto lifestyle.

Kirsten Dunst

Just a simple concept for a new wallpaper. :)

And I did additions to the design. Actually it became another concept. I used the Digital Bokeh tutorial courtesy of the guys in Abduzeedo.com. Rocking site guys!

Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Link to the tutorial.

Cosmic Love

I'm sorry to have made such a big fuss over this illustration. Anyway, I like it.

This is the end product of my work in Adobe Illustrator, before I exported it to Photoshop and did some additions there.

Well, there you go. :)

Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS3.

My Brain

Take a look at my brain.

Adobe Illustrator CS3. Yes, I upgraded.

Kaput

"I don't want to see you go.

The sky is over."

-Serj Tankian, Sky is Over

*sigh*

The Rain

the rain outside

raindrops dance in a sixteenth-beat syncopated frenzy

Reminds me of girls in skirts belly-dancing in drinking sprees

Spree of beer, bellies, and beer-bellies bloated, fleeing for more

angry clashes of water and earth when it rains outside

psychedelic lights spark dreams of suicide with glycerin and cyanide

I can't decide from more beer or sleep.

I turn on the radio instead but then-

bats rushed out as if hiding inside the speakers' crevices.

They fly out the blaring irises, then the windows,

and into the falling debris of gin bottles and cigarette butts

-and then they die, when it rains outside.

When it rains outside, the estero is flooded with blood and beer.

And I'm inside this house filled with smoke,

alone with broken beer bottles

and a glass filled with vomit and gin.

***

A poem I made almost a year ago. This was critiqued by Lourd de Veyra.

I've been engrossed with poetry since I was told to make words for songs for our band.

Unfinished-ish

I did this a long time ago. I was supposed to add more details but when I opened this file today, I wanted it as it is.

Adobe Illustrator CS2.

Angels Inspired

Adobe Photoshop CS2.

T-shirt Draft

Me with Thessa, Anzenne, Chuchi and that girl that I didn't ask her name. :)

The first printed t-shirt for the Broadcast Journalism program. Apparently, I won the "contest" and my design gets printed. Although the design got a major overhaul by the council, they wanted the same character but in an another position. :)

This is the best I can shoot with my webcam with poor lighting.

***

I am depressed. For no apparent reason.

Alumni

Me and Angelo before the meeting.

Angelo, Ann, Karla, and Me.

The Sacred Heart Academy Pasig batch 2005 (or at least the only ones who attended).

Photos taken by Christopher Nino Santos. Link.

The Song

hot, empty canisters jolt and hit the ground in a 32nd frenzied beat.

like mike mangini's single stroke roll record

no one could match that feat

bodies fell into the ditch, one by one, like strong bass drums in a lounge jazz song.

and its a long, enduring song. a song that everyone wept for.

sacred temples putrefied while screeching bellows of pain are the breaking clang of crash cymbals.

heard across the land, it echoes. oh the pain.

sanctity, religion, and all those abstractions, where art thou?

and then the sirens screamed, more shots were heard as the song went to its bitter, terrifying end.

21 Guns

Wow, now I really want to watch the American Idiot stage play.

Here's a sample given by the folks of Spinner.com.

On Goals

Just to keep my priorities in check:

1. Save up for design school. That will be the first of my not-so-long-term goals. I really need the vast amount of knowledge I can learn from school.

2. Look for a competitive, cost-effective, commute-friendly design school. Or somewhere which is nearer from home.

3. Save up for education units. You'll know where this is headed.

4. Apply at DLSU-D as a professor in visual design, or video productions, or media theory.

While working to attain them, I will:

1. Work for more experience. Probably get a new jobs, or more freelance jobs.

2. Save up for contingency expenses.

Me, with Medo and Ate Donna. :)

Luckily, I found a blog linked to Definitely Filipino, a Facebook group composed of, well, Filipinos. It's about teaching. Here's an excerpt:

One of the reasons I want to become a teacher is because of professors like Ma’am Ick and Ma’am Aquino and the many, many life-changing, inspiring teachers I’ve had in UP, in the College of Arts and Letters, and in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. They make Beowulf come alive. They make the Norman Conquest of 1066 relevant. They make us see the beauty of syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. May mga moments na gusto ko nalang tumayo at pumalakpak na dahan-dahan habang nakapikit. With matching shake of head para drama. My tuition is about PhP 6, 500 per semester, but you can’t put a price on learning and on passion. And especially not on our professors.

Link to the blog.

Hanep na Trabaho Final

The final product of Hanep na Trabaho poster after another revision.

Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Stupidity

Don't get me wrong: even if I hang out at Starbucks sometimes, I still think of those people who go there to prove that they've risen up the social ladder as losers.

It's just a friggin' coffee shop, not a status symbol.

And yeah, tumblr is for people who have got nothing to write about and post the opinions of other people on their blog.

Oh yeah, I carefully selected these words because their letters were easier to cast shadows on.

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS2. Photo taken by Mark Maestro.