One of my greatest
childhood dreams is to become an animator/manga artist or a children’s book
illustrator. Aside from teaching, my passion and shall I say, my “God-given”
talent is drawing. I have been drawing since when I was two or three I think.
My father was an upholsterer, and he used to lay leatherette on our floor. The
other side of the leatherette was actually my first canvas where my father
taught me to draw elephants and other animals. Animals then turned into human
characters like angels and saints (not kidding, I love to draw cherubs and
archangels, Mama Mary, St. Antonio and many more…hehe...talking about how
religious I am, or was?..hehe). At about 11, I became an otaku and turned my
drawing style to anime. When I was in high school, I was a regular contestant
in poster making contests (and bragging aside, I usually end up in top three
places). In college, drawing helped me a financially since I usually was asked
to draw SIMS for my classmates whenever we had demo teaching.
All my techniques
are self-taught. I remembered going to National Bookstore just to read “how to
draw” books. I didn’t watch TV that much back in high school and all I did was
to be in my room drawing and drawing until I get contented with my work.
Now talking about my
present job as a teacher, it became obvious among my colleagues that I was quite
good in drawing. My bulletin boards which I posted last time caught a lot of
attention whenever my colleagues come in my room, and because of this I started
to become a judge or a coach in poster making contests.
My break in drawing actually
started when my former teacher and now a colleague asked to illustrate a big story
book for her. It was a story of a fairy and a cat. I said yes since it was Christmas
vacation and I had nothing to do and of course, a fulfillment of being a
children’s book illustrator. To make the story short, our LRMDS (Learning
Resources Management and Development System) supervisor got impressed with our
work that the big book with my illustration got approved for display and
reproduction in our division. It was also followed by another two story books
all of which also got approved.
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| My first big book illustration...I forgot the title sorry..heheh |
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| My second drawing..Ang Damgo ni Miyo (Miyo's Dream) |
Last September, I was
honored that I got chosen to be one of the representatives to attend a regional
seminar-workshop for illustrators and graphic artists in our region. The seminar
was held in Magic Island, Guimaras which was the same resort where we had our
faculty summer outing last 2015. There was a typhoon at that time and we
actually had second-thoughts if the said training will push through. Thank God
we got to our venue safe and sound despite of the bad weather. The seminar was
attended by more than a hundred participants from Panay and Negros Island
Region.
The seminar-workshop
was my favorite seminar so far. It wasn’t cerebral but more of a development
and a showcase of our drawing skills. We were taught how to illustrate based on
the guidelines given by the Department of Education in making textbooks and
learning materials. We were also trained how to use computer application like
Photoshop to efficiently and aesthetically improve our drawings.
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| The drawing I made during seminar,,,"Lupad Pinalangga" (Fly, My Beloved) |
I got a specific style
when I drew my illustration and I decided to stick with it in every book that I
do so as to have my own identity as an artist. And I am happy that my fellow illustrators
appreciate my work. They called it “doodling” but I thought I was doing
zentangles. One illustrator commented that my work has similarities to those with
“award-winning” children’s story book illustrations in the country. All I do
was to smile and got embarrassed because I don’t think I am that good. If my
drawing will be placed side to side with the work of other artist, my drawings
are amateurish though it has specific style. Perhaps this made my illustrations
unique from others.
What I love the most
about the seminar is the conglomeration of such talented people. I am not saying
that I am “talented” but I felt “belonged”. It is so nice to be surrounded with
people with the same talents as you have and whom you share a common passion. And
the best part of this is the fact that each artist respects each other. Each artist
has their own style and to necessarily compare each is futile. Hopefully, there
still will be another seminar similar to this and I will still be chosen to
attend…hehe…
