Exclusive contest for Drawn! readers

We Love Patterns and Funkrush have teamed up for an exclusive contest for Drawn! readers. Three (3) pattern ideas and/or themes will be picked and each winner will receive an "We Love Patterns" squirrel t-shirt.

Submit your entries to gaston.caba(at)welovepatterns(dot)com with the subject “We Love Patterns Too.”

About We Love Patterns
Gastón Caba, Silvana Marino and Lara Caba created the family company We Love Patterns in 2010. The company is passionate in creating a growing collection of "extra-cute, colorful and optimistic pattern artworks" to add charm and whimsy to all kinds of products.

The company offers a different style of patterns from the standard ones often seen in the market. Each one has the ability to tell a story, or view a giant concept from the tiny objects and words.

Artists that have their original designs on We Love Patterns include Bubi Au Yeung, Dana Zimmerling & Mr. TobyHK, and every month, the company selects more artists to add to their catalogue.

Source: Drawn!

5th Annual Sculpture Review

On Saturday, my friend Elise and I, on a whim, passed by the 5th Annual Sculpture Review in Megamall. I saw one familiar name among the list of artists, Agnes Arellano, whom I've heard mention from another artist, Datu Arellano.

"I'm Just A Rambling Man" by Lirio Salvador


"Google Earth" by Michael Cacnio


"Call Center Revolution" by Anna Varona (I like this one. The hands move counter-clockwise)


"Seacock #1" by Tito Estrada (Elise loves the colors)


There's one that I wasn't able to take a picture of, a sculpture of Manila in the future, made out of aluminum. It's mounted on the wall on the right side of the entrance. It's a really clever work.

The exhibit runs until tomorrow.

News: RP team 3rd in art ‘Olympics’

RP team 3rd in art ‘Olympics’

By Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer Northern Luzon

BAGUIO CITY—Not bad for this team of artists whose pleas for funding went largely ignored by politicians and corporations, whose members spent an extra night at a South Korean airport for lack of hotel money, and who had one member briefly detained there for carrying a bloodstained knife.

That’s just “chicken blood” from some previous home-cooked dish, the detainee said, before finally convincing authorities to let him go.

Despite this series of unfortunate events, the Philippine delegation to the 3rd Delphic Games held on the resort island of Jeju, South Korea, gave brilliant performances in what was considered the “Olympics” of the art world.

The 17-member team, mostly composed of Cordillera-based artists, placed third overall out of the 44 countries that competed in the games held on Sept. 9-15.

Ifugao woodcarver Ernesto Dul-ang, 60, bagged the gold medal in sculpture for transforming, under time pressure, a 150-cm block of wood into a human figure pouring water from a pot.

Winning the Lyra Award (a special prize given to collaborative works) was a group of Filipino puppeteers headed by EV Espiritu, who wowed the audience with a shadow play dealing with the environment.

The Delphic Games are all about “peace engendering competition of the arts,” according to German founder J. Christian Kirsch, who drew inspiration from the original Greek competitions of 582 B.C.

The first games were held in December 2000 in Moscow with the participation of 27 countries. The second was held in September 2005 in Kuching, Malaysia, with 21 countries taking part.

The event serves as the artistic counterpart of the Olympic Games, said Divina Bautista, a Filipino co-founder based in Baguio.

Dul-ang was given three days to finish the sculpture and often had difficulty communicating with the Korean organizers whenever he requested equipment to speed up his work.

On the third day, Dul-ang recalled, the statue was still without a face, prompting him to ask the team’s videographer Joel Arthur Tibaldo to be his face model.

Earlier, percussionist Ruel Bimuyag served as Dul-ang’s model for the body, while Baguio-based painter Rishab produced sketches that helped the sculptor come up with the best composition.

Continue reading

Despite their win, I can't help but feel a bit sad with this piece of news. Here we have a group of really talented artists, but very little support can be found. These are artists who really need backing more than the so called "National Artists" that's been such a hot issue these past few weeks.

I've met Rishab before, during our STS project. He and Jordan Mangosan, who was the topic for our study) each did a portraiture of me when we went to visit them in Tam-Awan Village. I was just kidding when I asked them for a portrait but to my surprise, they were game.

Cordillera artists have a special place in my heart. :)

Old fashioned snail mail

When I was younger, I wrote a lot of letters. I wrote to my friends when I'm in Baguio for school. I wrote to my classmates when I'm in Manila or Zambales during vacation. I wrote to my grandparents when they went to the U.S. I wrote to my cousins. I wrote little notes and long letters to my college boyfriend. I wrote to my classmates and left it in the library or bulletin boards. I even had a penpal or two abroad whom I wrote to on a regular basis.

And it wasn't just regular writing, mind you. Oh sure it was often filled with little, inconsequential things about everything and nothing, but it wasn't just words. I drew on the margins, I painted on the envelopes and sometimes wrote with nothing but pictures.

It always gave me a thrill to walk to the post office and drop the letters off. The best thing though would be when I receive a letter in return. The guys I wrote to didn't really write much, but the girls were enthusiastic in writing and were as creative as I was with their letters, maybe more.

Sadly, it seems that the number of letter writers has dwindled over the years, in favor for the faster and more convenient email, online messengers and even social networking sites.

There is nothing wrong with that, but I miss the old fashioned writing method. Hence last year, I asked my friends to send me postcards or letters and I'll send some back to them. I've yet to keep up my end of the bargain *blush* but so far, I have received four letters/postcards. Now that doesn't seem much, considering I used to get four letters in a month, whereas this was over the course of six months.

However, it's still an achievement, and every time I receive one, I feel giddy. The first one was from my college classmate Kat, then a postcard from my best friend's sister when she was in Vienna. I got a birthday card from another classmate Thet (that was a surprise!) and just today, I got a postcard from my cousins who visited New York. The stamps were all from the UN, and one that had my cousins' picture in it.

It may no longer be the chosen way to keep in touch, but I'm sure people would appreciate it if you could send a letter or two every now and then. I know I would.

I'm off now to make some postcards.

LRT Art 2009

Commuters of the MRT and LRT line may have noticed some posters a few months ago calling for entries for the LRT Art contest. Filipino citizens age 18 and above were enjoined to participate in the contest with the theme “LRT at ang Buhay Pinoy”.

I don't know how many entries were there, as I wasn't able to find any press release or news item about the results. However, selected entries may be seen at the LRT Cubao station. I'm not sure if this is the formal exhibit, as there are ropes cordoning off the commuters from the paintings (although you can still see most of them).

Here a few of the entries. I even found one artist on DeviantArt, but I don't know what his work looks like.

I love this one. It's Pinoy superheroes heading home after a busy day.




This one feels like Grand Central Station


This one's really nice too. It looks like a photograph.


There were a lot of beautiful works there, some were very creative and thought provoking; some very avant-garde and imaginative (see the superheroes one), while some were very much traditional and realistic. There were two paintings there though, that looked so similar that it was obvious that both artists used the same reference picture (one that was used as an LRT publicity picture, methinks).

Head on over to the LRT Cubao station to take a look at these works. However, you have to get past the turnstiles for that. If in any case the exhibit would formally open, I suggest you wait for that.

Drawing in time lapse 2: Feet related

I played around with my camera's time lapse recording feature (I have a Canon Ixus 80 IS). Mounted it on a tripod and tried to find a good position so that it can clearly see my drawing process. A bit difficult, but I managed.

My choices of subject were unintentional. The shoe was the first thing I grabbed, and my feet were the only ones nearby (or a blank wall, literally). I had fun with this experiment: both drawing and figuring out what was good for the camera. I did about four videos, but I decided to post these two.

In the beginning... we create

Just recently, I decided to get back to doing "traditional" art: sketching, painting, drawing without using any digital tools. It dawned upon me that I had a lot of subscriptions from sites that deal with graphic design, web graphics or anything pertaining to digital art, but not so much from the "offline" medium.

A random Plurk message from a friend sparked the idea of putting up an art blog. Now, I'm not a very experienced artist, and it has been a long time since I truly did anything I'd consider art related, but I figured that I could use this blog to share things that I find meaningful and useful for this love of mine. Maybe as time passes I could add my own tutorials and tips about art. Goodness knows I have alot of stock knowledge but little practical experience (which I hope to remedy).


I can't understand why I stopped drawing, really. Growing up I was always encouraged by my family to pursue art. My mom enrolled me in classes when I was seven, and never reprimanded when I'd rather draw than study. I have more than my share of influences from various family members who could draw and paint, not to mention sing or play various musical instruments.


This blog aims not only to share with you things I found inspiring, but also I hope would serve as a motivation for me to get up and start creating. Cheers!


P.S. Blogspot domain for now :)