Of Secrets and Innocence

I am very fond of kimonos. I grew up watching anime and have imagined wearing one someday. So, every once in a while, I draw something inspired by the Asian culture, particularly those of the Japanese.

The title of my illustration this time is 'Of Secrets and Innocence'. Unlike all the works I have ever made, I think this is the first time I am going to draw someone facing back. I want the people who will see this work to make their imagination come alive. 

By not drawing her face, I want to remove her identity and her emotion, leaving my audience all the remaining elements to tell her story. I also chose to put smoke to cover up everything that the character may possibly see or may be facing, so that the people seeing my illustration would only focus on her. 

I chose a Westernized hair bun for a reason. As usual, doing her hair was a delight. I also chose to give her a wavy hair so as to make my character sensually appealing.

My creative juices got worked up in thinking of a design for her kimono. I tried to balance the negative spaces and the elaborate details of the cloth. Also, I wanted continuity in my overall illustration - meaning, no sudden kimono cut off; thus, the irregularly shaped patterns and textile butterflies on the lower left part.

I have good news. I were finally able to buy colored pencils so my next works would most likely have color in them. Hoorah. It is quite troublesome sometimes when you have a sibling who is also into illustration. Our art materials get mixed up. I need to find a place to stash them.

Speaking of stash, I my sister and I got featured in Stache Magazine. Feel free to view our work, together with 29 other artists here: http://stachemagazineonline.com/

Below is the work I submitted for their April issue, entitled 'Warm in Winter'. I think this particular piece is lucky. This was one of my works that made it when I got invited to be one of the featured artists in a particular event in our university. It also gave me the opportunity to get acquainted with Valerie Chua (Google her, she is awesome) in DA. Lastly, this. If you guys want to buy a print, a collab or would just like to drop a line, contact me via my e-mail at joanna_empit@yahoo.com.

When I Talk About Acting

One e-mail made my day today - an e-mail from Stache Magazine. It is an online magazine which targets the creative Filipino youth. My sister and I both got our entries accepted for their all-out art issue. They are going to publish it tomorrow around 8:00pm! Psyched! I'll keep you guys posted.

I just made a new artwork yesterday. It's quite experimental of the art style I usually use, and it is colored! However, it is not this one.

This new piece I made is entitled 'When I Talk About Acting'. I was watching America's Next Top Model for the past few days, thus the inspiration to do something along the lines of fashion.

Aside from the hair, I really enjoy doing design for my characters' clothes, particularly the fabric. This time however, I opted to do it with hats.

Making the hat designs were really fun to do. Whenever I am out of inspiration for patterns. I usually Google pictures of textile patterns or in this case, hat designs. Then from there, I make a version of my own.

This particular hat was inspired by the gown I wore for my Junior-Senior Prom back then. It was Salmon in color and very simple. However, the bead work made the dress elegant. I also like how it reminded me of star clusters adorning the night sky.

I am not used to drawing my characters naked, but I opted to make this one nude for a reason, having a wide variety of hats covering her. 

I am quite happy with my works. I can't wait to color them. I just found out that my favorite Faber Castell colored pencils are missing. Bummer. I have a hunch my sister lost it along with the other art materials she left in a cab. Maybe I should try asking her to split the expense with me, for now, all I have is the watercolor pencils that are so hard to blend. Spectacular.

Deceit (Line Art)

I have trouble scanning my previous work, so I decided to blog about my new work, 'Deceit'. I miss having our old HP Scanner which is a thousand times better than our new one. So if you guys are going to buy one, I recommend to opt for the scanner-only feature, ours is a printer and scanner in one and my sister and I are not very happy with its quality. Right now, all the pictures I am taking are made possible by my iPhone's awesome camera.

Moving on, the inspiration for my next work came to me while I was reading one of my favorite mangas 'Kamisama Hajimemashita'. The idea for this piece revolved around the notion of how foxes symbolize deceit in different cultures.

I also merged the idea of femme fatale in this work. I want her to look sleazy and cunning, having a fox as a mask, and the fox's fur entwined to her body.

I also added roses to the fur. I intend to color them with yellow for a reason.

I also added butterflies, which I intend to color with blue, again, for a certain reason.

My new work is not as detailed as my first one, but as I always try to achieve with my other pieces, this one is also made with a meaning behind it. 

I am yet to find my colored pencils nor scan my recent works. My last work on my DeviantArt account was practically posted ages ago. I need to work faster.

Envy (Line Art)

I've been running a lot of blogs lately, but I haven't been able to make one for my artistic what-not's. The last one I made went down the memory lane and eventually out of it. As much as I want to continue with my previous art blog, I could not remember its password anymore, neither does its name. So, I just had to make a new one.

I've been quite busy with school lately. However, an artistic itch comes to me every now and then until I couldn't take it anymore. Alas, I decided to revive my old habit of drawing.

I do not invest much in art materials, because when I do, my sister ends up taking them. There was a time when I had various points available for my fineliner, but since she is an art major, she ends up using them more than I do. As of the moment, I only have a generic pencil which I picked up somewhere as it was taking temporary residence with the dust bunnies, my Stabilo point 88 fineliner and my Faber Castell Exam-Grade eraser.

This is my new work-in-progress, 'Envy'. I was not able to take pictures while doing the pencil work, because doing this art blog was not in my plans back then. To be honest, I have four more new works waiting to be blogged about. You'll see them in my next entries.

I like drawing girls because I get to put superfluous details on them. I like doing the hair the most because of all the curves and swirls that I get to make. It is quite addicting as you go strand after strand. I would have done this using different pointed fineliners, but I am on budget. I have to be. I mean, my parents told me that I will have my last allowance next month. Adulthood. Oh, joy.

Going back to the topic, above, you can see the details of the lower part of my illustration comprising of thorns, ribbons, laces and flowers. I do not like telling my audience the meaning behind my works. I like leaving them a sense of mystery - the joy of having to discover things by yourself. So wonder, 'why'.

I worked on the line art for this piece for a few hours. Then, I allotted the next day for scrutinizing the overall details of my illustration. Drawing is sort of like writing, you have to step back, take a break and browse over your work again in order to notice things you were not able to before.

Next time I'll post my next work if I do not feel like coloring or putting digital effects on 'Envy' yet.