Rusty Banana Forge

Remember I was at the MIBF during 2006? That photo with me and Rex above was taken back then. I wrote about my experience from an illustrator’s perspective.

This year, Fully Booked wasn’t part of the MIBF. Friend Blooey says they had invested their efforts in opening their branch in Fort Bonifacio . Hence book choices for the skill-seeking illustrator are kinda thin this year. Spectrum 13 was on sale but still price 2x higher than on Amazon. A book on Digital illustration copyright 2005 caught my eye at the Megatext booth. It was going for around 2,100Php and in cash 1,500Php. Only one copy though, I bet it’ll be gone. A shelf for graphic novels here, and one for manga there… The how-to manga books are now rare and there are very few replacements to them and their ilk. I think skill-seeking illustrators will save more time book-scouting in retail outlets of Fully Booked, Bestsellers, or even Powerbooks.

This is not to say however that inspirational or stylistic books are lacking - but generally I’m not too impressed with the selections this year. The children’s books are still there in force however. In fact, I got to sign some copies of Dalawang Bayani ng Bansa.

I also got to sit in the Speculative Fiction talk by Dean Alfar and friends. Interesting.

On a side note, you can tell things have changed between 2006 and 2007:

I have gained 25 pounds and Rex told me that my new weight looked good on me.

It’s been a pressure cooker of a week what with the deadline for the indie children’s book Hold on Tight approaching and with its revisions that never ever seem to properly revise. Note to self: if someone wants you to illustrate a book that features themselves, give them simpler faces so you can easily illustrate these over and over and over again. Of course, I DID start with simple faces… I don’t know where I went wrong… maybe I showered too much effort into it.

Speaking of book projects, on the 29th of August I will be book-signing Dalawang Bayani ng Bansa at Adarna House’s booth at the upcoming Manila International Book Fair. It’s my first book with Adarna, (don’t mind the colors, the reproduction isn’t all that good):

The INK Exhibit ended its run at the Power Plant mall. If not for the mall venue, we wouldn’t get any decent exposure as the posters we had were never actually posted - and were simply very large flyers. Is distribution getting worse every year or is it just me?

Ang-INK’s first Illustration Clinic did fairly well. We had around 15 to 20 “patients”, even a walk-in! Thanks to Liza Flores, Don Arado, Wilson Tortosa, and Jordan Santos for signing up as participating artists. We thank all the patients who had the courage to brave the rain and engage.

During my rest and recreation time, I’ve been watching Heroes season one, Naruto Shippuuden episodes & its previous movies. But when I want to get a bit more productive, I experiment with digital watercolor on Photoshop. The above illustration is a quick piece I did with the techniques I’ve been developing. No filters were used. I takes a bit more thinking than opaque medium. I’m very excited to produce more work this way, but quite frankly I need more social forms of recreation…

Need professional feedback on your drawings? Are you looking for a mentor in illustration? Can’t decide for yourself (or for your children) which university and art course is best? You can get that from us! To coincide with its IBANG KLASE exhibit on Tuesday August 14, Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan will be holding the Illustration Clinic on the 18th of August Saturday 2:00PM - 4:00PM the same week at the Rockwell Powerplant Mall.

The Artists:
Wilson Tortosa, Comic & Manga artist
Don Arado, Animator and Multimedia professor
Jordan Santos, Illustrator and Adarna House Product Development Officer
Liza Flores, Illustrator Entrepreneur. Vice President of INK

I’ll be there too… We hope to see you and your illustrations there!

And speaking about toys… they will be selling Transformers toys based on the upcoming movie! Click on the image for a closer look:

Transformers Movie marketing deluge is getting me constipated!!