Exploratorium

Volunteering at the Exploratorium is a blast! I learned a lot, met great people, and got to work around with them. I still have to pinch myself whenever I walk back into the museum for the experience is surreal.

I got to show my design skills when I was assigned to create a 4-panel brochure-souvenir for the Volunteer Appreciation Day. They wanted me to incorporate the current location of the museum moving to the new space which is also reflected with the history text they provided. An awesome idea struck me to create this:

The Palace of Fine Arts and Pier 15 Illustration

It's half of both locations :)

Outer side of panels

Inner side of panels

Final product

The brochure when folded inwards can connect both the locations with some of the faces of the volunteers at the back :)

And it was a success! We printed it out and looked rad! I even had the pleasure of going around San Francisco to find cool print shops and have these brochures folded by me.

The Exploratorium reopens on April 17, 2013 at Pier 15 with more fun, surprises, and knowledge for everybody!

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Larong Pinoy

My colleagues and fellow administrators at Vector X Vexel Philippines Southern Luzon has created a 2013 calendar project I led. We collaborated well and learned a lot from the experience.

We chose the theme Larong Pinoy which is traditional Filipino street games that is rapidly degrading from existence in the Philippines because of technology. We wanted to share our happiness with these games, have others remember as well, and be able to teach all generations to play these games. This calendar is a step to counter the effects of too much digital life.

Aside from leading the 2013 calendar project and creating the layout, I was also assigned to do the back cover.

Larong Pinoy

This illustration (also titled "Larong Pinoy") shows a man jumping through a portal from everything hi-tech to where his roots of playing street games were.

I am very proud of my team! We had fun and succeeded with the final product we envisioned. Hoping to get my copy as soon as possible :)

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Quatrefoil

Quatrefoil is now my official entry for VectorXVexel Philippines Alphabet Collaboration where participating members have to choose a letter from the English Alphabet, pick a word from it then shape it to the letter chosen. I have chosen B with the word Bumbershoot before but issues arise so I opted for another letter, Q, to challenge myself :)

My logophile side began to kick-in when I discovered a bunch of awesome Q words such as Quadratura, Qualtagh, Quoit, Quiff, Quincunx, Quasar, Quirt, and Quiche to name a few lol. In the end, I decided to go with Quatrefoil which is a decorative framework with four overlapping circles usually seen in architecture - Christian churches.

Quatrefoil

I kept the illustration simple and neat to let our eyes focus on the shape of the Quatrefoil and create space for the tail of the letter Q. And voila! A masterpiece :)

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Playground for the Eyes

Playground for the Eyes is a three-part series that focuses nostalgic elements at the playground, using four cubes and pairing up with my all-time favorite technique, optical illusions :D

I remember going to playgrounds and have fun under the sun and cloudy days; conquering high monkey bars, fall off a teeter totter, swinging higher and higher, slide endlessly, and more! :D

I wanted to recreate the happiness by adding these elements and at the same time, play with our eyes and mind with the optical illusions I created.

Playground for the Eyes - Part 1 of 3

 

Playground for the Eyes - Part 1 of 3

(Click to Image to Enlarge)

Playground for the Eyes - Part 3 of 3

Hope you had fun with this series. Spread the happiness :)

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Bumbershoot

Bumbershoot was supposed to be a VectorXVexel Philippines Alphabet Collaboration but I skipped a specific rule which is about the background so I'll be making another :) Anyway, participating members have to choose a letter from the English Alphabet, pick a word from it then shape it to the letter chosen.

I've chosen the letter 'B' and found a very rare word from it. It's Bumbershoot - a British slang for umbrella, taken from 'umb' of umbrella and '-chute' as in a parachute. There are three illustrations below to which the third is my submission to the collaboration.

 

Bumbershoot

I lacked interest to common words so finding Bumbershoot had me jumping for joy! Besides, being a logophile myself won't be much of a surprise to you XD

The first image above is an introductory; next is a set of umbrellas forming the letter 'B'; the last image is a person standing at the end of a road that has a reflection of her with the Bumbershoot to form the letter 'B'.

Even though this is a rainy theme, there's nothing sad to these illustrations because whenever I think of Bumbershoots, they're frequently used during rainy days rather than on sunny. It's happy rain :]

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Love for United Kingdom

NOTE: Currently for scoring at Threadless: Please support my design by going here and clicking number '5'. Thank you :)

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"Love for United Kingdom" is my entry for Threadless Atrium challenge - Disney's "It's a Small World", created by the awesome Mary Blair. Our design should reflect the happiness and playful colors from her work.

I have chosen United Kingdom as base country because not only do I love their culture but also my deep liking to their flag for its colors and uniqueness.

Love for United Kingdom

I have mixed my inner geekyness by adding some concept, geometric shapes, and optical illusion because the Mary Blair challenge shouldn't totally be 100% from hers. Speaking of optical illusion, have you seen it? Focus your eyes at the center where the three poles are :)

Oh and by the way, this work is such perfect timing for today is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! YAY!!! :)

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NOTE: Currently for scoring at Threadless: Please support my design by going here and clicking number '5'. Thank you :)

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Iron Man

I've seen many 'The Avengers' themed illustrations and cosplays both serious and funny ones. From the fun side, Iron Man is the most spoofed character because of his name. I remember a cosplayer dressed as a huge iron; an iron that resembles the character's head; and more XD

So I joined in the fun and created my own version of him:

Iron Man

Yep! Iron as the Element. Standing on a portion of the periodic table; Fe is its symbol from Latin that means "Ferrum". 26 as element number and 55.845 as its standard atomic weight.

The body color of Iron Man was supposed to be baby pink because according to three periodic tables I've encountered, Iron as part of the Transitional Metal group uses this shade of color. I thought it was official but further research shows varying colors. Therefore, I referred yellow to the cool periodic table shower curtain I saw at The Big Bang Theory XD

Wow! Creating this illustration sure reminded me of the time I used to have memorized all the elements with their respective symbols... Elements Assemble! :]

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The Golden Gate Bridge's 75th Anniversary!

Today marks San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge's 75th Anniversary! I'm so excited to celebrate something this big in my city which is why I have decided to create an illustration dedicated for the bridge.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge's 75th Anniversary!

The main concept for this work is to feature the bridge and also to include the number '75' - the two beautiful, humongous pillars. I used the International orange (engineering) as main color.

I'm glad to have contributed to this special day. Happy diamond jubilee to the Golden Gate Bridge once again. Oh and I will be present at the events happening later this day :]

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The Amazing Shirt

The 'The Amazing Shirt' is a stylish and fun double game you and your friends can play. The first game is to retrieve the blue gem, the other is by looking into the negative space to search for the words, 'The Amazing Shirt' text. The answer is directly below so you may want to pause XD

The Amazing Shirt

It's Amazing 'cause it's a Maze! :)

The answer:

This is a design that I submitted for approval at Threadless but it got declined. Nevertheless, I enjoyed making this :)

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Yellow Brick Road

Yellow Brick Road is a VectorXVexel Philippines Assignment #4 where we were tasked to illustrate our favorite movie as poster. The 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie starring Judy Garland immediately sparked my interest for its amazing story, screenplay and characters.

My illustration shows the four main characters namely: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and, Cowardly Lion, who are to follow the yellow brick road to reach their destination, Emerald City.

Yellow Brick Road

I've decided to turn this into a maze-like structure instead of a single road leading to the city because based from the movie, when Dorothy was about to meet the Scarecrow, she has encountered an intersection. So even though the Good Witch of the North did tell her to follow just the yellow brick road, it is still up to her to choose the right path.

Moving on, the illustration doesn't show the movie title on one look. Just gaze into the negative space and you will :)

Zoomed: 

Oh and help the gang find the right path :)

[EDIT]

Answer to where the movie title is :)

Hope you had fun with this :)

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The Arch

The Arch is a birthday gift for a fellow Digital Artist, Dan Amorsolo. I used the first letter of his name as the main subject, turned it into an arch and placed under the night sky. Aside from the big 'D', I've made the arch into an optical illusion. From left to right, it looks like the top of the column will meet another column but turns out, it lands on the ground.

   

Dan Amorsolo is an admin of VectorXVexel Philippines. He invited me to the group three months ago after I posted a message on their Facebook page's wall asking any of the admins to criticize my works. I got positive responses from them (YAY!).

I have never met Dan but I accidentally saw him up-close a year ago at the Ayala Art Museum speaking in-front of an audience, discussing topics related to Manga Art. At that time, I didn't knew him entirely but his name rings a bell. Besides, I wasn't really part of the audience, the purpose of my presence was to see the Manga Realities exhibit XD

Anyway, Happy Birthday Sir Dan even if it's a tad late XD

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Earth Hour 2012

Turn off your lights and light a candle for one whole hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on March 31, 2012 for Earth Hour 2012.

I believe this is my third time to participate to this worldwide campaign for the awareness of global warming. Hope you join us :) Oh and to celebrate this event, I created this illustration to extend my support :)

Earth Hour 2012

This illustration shows a candle placed in a garden under a night sky. The candle's tip is a plant with its branches extending to tell 8:30pm. The flame is shaped as a leaf.

Zoomed:

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Guardian of Space

I miss creating abstract/geometric shapes illustration so continuing with my 'Guardian Series', I now present "Guardian of Space". Wherein 'space' means distance not galaxy even if the final output has this sci-fi ambiance XD

   

Guardian of Space

The Guardian of Space can foretell events from start to finish. He guides people with their decisions but doesn't tell which is the best option. Moreover, he doesn't persuade nor convince people to do their tasks, he just watches them.

Zoomed:

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Garden Maze

I love Mazes! Be it garden, mirror, steel, wood or of any kind, just be it life-size. Finding my way out, choosing the right path, following instincts, and narrowing my choices is fun!

Last year, I had a blast going into a life-size Mirror Maze. Hopefully, my next one would be a humongous Garden Maze :) 

Garden Maze

Mazes are cool! :D 

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St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm excited to celebrate this special day because not only do I love the color green, but also because I love UK's culture, television programs, and accents. What I'm trying to say is, I'm turning into an anglophile :)

Later this day, I'll be watching the parade which I have had been looking forward to, long enough as I remember our old television. And yes, I'm Irish for a Day, YAY! :p

 

St. Patrick's Day

I wanted to create "something found inside of an inside" by using familiar objects from the festival and the Irish culture. The pot of gold has a leprechaun hat that has a handful of shamrock with my character who has a beer mug on his head, which has beer in it.

Zoomed:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)

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Land of Sphere

VectorXVexel Philippines has released another assignment for all the members, that is, using the given squiggle, we were to create something out from it.

It took some time to find something interesting. I even manipulated the image for a broader range of lines. I then found five awesome characters but wasn't satisfied so I looked once more in full screen and booya! I immediately saw a beautiful aerial shot where a castle is surrounded by trees. Thus, it's a bird's eye view. I always wanted to do something like this, so I gave it a go :)

Land of Sphere is a kingdom ruled solely by the Spheres who wants nothing more than his family, castle, and the wonder of nature around him.

Land of Sphere

Zoomed:

Fun, fun, fun! :p

[EDIT - 11:12 AM]

VXVPH needed to see what I did to the squiggle. So here it is:

What I did:
1. Duplicated the image 7 times, total of 8.
2. Afterwards, rotated and reversed either horizontally or vertically.
3. Randomly placed each image side-by-side. Four at top, and four at bottom.

There you have it :)

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Leap

Happy Leap Year! Yeah, I finished this late but still, here I am appreciating the day with an illustration entitled "Leap".

It is a great chance to celebrate this rare occasion because the next one will be on 2016, pure quadrennial  XD When this day is to be felt once again, it will be nice to look back at this illustration :)

Anyway, Leap is about a high-spirited athlete (year) who flawlessly leaps the hurdle (day).

Leap

 Zoomed:

And yes, I had fun with the shoes XD

If you have noticed the circles on the soles, that's because these athletes use hurdle-type shoes that the front-end of their soles has spikes sticking out from it.

See you next leap year XD

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