East of Here and West of There

Some snaps from the year that was.

Be like bamboo. Bend when the storm comes. Mourn. Console each other. Survive. Spring back when the storm leaves. Rebuild. Restore. Give thanks. Prevail.   Digital illustration; 2013

Digital illustration; October, 2013 Ka Freddie Aguilar is a folk musician from the Philippines. He is best known for his rendition of "Bayan Ko", which became the anthem for the opposition to the Marcos regime during the 1986 People Power Revolution,and for his song "Anak", the best-selling Philippine music record of all time. He is heavily associated with Pinoy rock. On October 17, 2013, Aguilar openly admitted, in spite of the controversy that followed, that he is in a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, with plans to marry and even have children, as his partner insisted that she is willing to have a baby. from Wikipedia

Marikina, 2013

Marikina, 2013

Marikina, 2013

Dressing up revved up a notch.

Digital illustration; 2009 Made for a broadcast promo about a cult in the Philippines. The cult leader was charismatic and challenged the authorities by holding women hostage as sex slaves. He was mortally wounded in a fire fight with the authorities, his skull cracked open by gunfire. Hundreds of his were aghast when he succumbed to the gunshots-- something he claimed he could avoid by naming himself immortal and adorning his body with amulets of protection.

I have a gallery at Elfwood, albeit an inactive one. Mosey down there and take at peek at some old stuff I did. Leave enough encouragement and I might post new stuff there too :) Jay Javier at Elfwood

I'm a big fan of ink and marker illustrations, from fast storyboards, concept thumbnails, product renders, car illustrations, etc. Over the years, I've managed to amass quite a big amount of markers of different brands. Here are some of my favorite markers and some sketches.

Graphite on paper; 2003 Just a pencil sketch of a dwarven army I made inbetween painting my new wargaming dwarf army. The army is based for TSR's defunct Battlesystem (which I still staunchly play)and is composed of figures from games workshop, harlequin and some old ral parthas and grenadiers. The sketch underwent a massive transformation when I got the LOTR Fellowship of the Ring filmbook as a gift. The lead dwarf was redrawn wearing armor similar to the movie Gimli.Pencils on board, with additional shading in photoshop.

Graphite on paper; 2000 Pencil sketch of how I imagine Tolkien's dwarves look like. Depicted is Thorin Oakenshield. I didn't want funny looking, stunted dwarves with big noses. Tolkien wrote that they were merely shorter and of sturdier girth and build. I know he's supposed to be carrying an elven sword but I drew him with an axe, maybe it was a scene before the hobbit, when the dwarves fought the last battle of the Dwarf and Orc Wars.

"The temptation to use the work of amateur photographers, particularly in breaking news events, will be hard for media organizations to resist." http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/01/who-really-owns-your-photos-in-social-media-updated-2013-edition025/

Now that some of the country's top politicians have been charged with graft, plunder and malversion raps, traditional media as well as new media is starting to feel the presence of spin doctors ready to "wag the dog." Will these dogs of spin be successful? Let's see. To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue. The expression comes from the saying that 'a dog is smarter than its tail', but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would 'wag the dog'. Digital illustration; 2013

Digital illustration; 2013 3 Philippine senators charged with plunder. Those charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman Monday afternoon were Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada together with alleged P10 billion pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, 5 former congressmen and 30 others. More here . Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Digital illustration; 2013 “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?” As the drama of the pork scandal unfolds and the veneer of honor and respect is stripped slowly from our "leaders," we are reminded of the fact that each of us has the capacity to do evil. Are they testaments to the belief that achievement, ambition, the striving to reach the highest possible position in life -- the will to power as Friedrich Nietzsche describes it -- will ultimately triumph over innate good and moral conscience? I hope not. 

Digital illustration; 2013 For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men, Julies Caesar by William Shakespeare

At least three senators instructed government agencies to release millions of pesos from their pork barrel funds to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) belonging to the Janet Lim-Napoles group. More here. Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Digital collage; 2013 Janet Napoles, the alleged architect of the controversial P10-billion "pork barrel" scam involving Philippine Senators, surrendered to President Benigno Aquino III at 9:37 pm on August 28, 2013. Earlier in the day, Malacanan issued a PHP 10 million peso bounty on Napoles. Timeline here. http://www.rappler.com/nation/37632-timeline-janet-lim-napoles-from-scandal-to-surrender Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Dugo is an animated promo plug for the GMA Kapuso Foundation's SAGIP DUGTONG BUHAY Bloodletting Project.Written by Ruth Guhit and art directed/designed by myself. check out the video below:

Buhay aka Dwight Mendoza's first solo exhibit. Opening is on August 13 at Gallery 9, SM Megamall. Dwight, as he was called then,  and I used to work together at Molina-Javier Visual Communications doing graphic design, film special effects, etc. What a blast those days were! After that, he went full-time as a painter and this is his first solo. Congratulations, bro!

"Boxed" in Filipino; Taken with my Samsung camphone

Found a large box of these in our bodega. Awesome art on these :) posted from Bloggeroid

Done Donki; marker illustration; 2013 Donki's name was derived from abanDOned KItten, which pretty much describes how she came to us :)