Flamenco Dancers

So far, I’ve already drawn a belly dancer and an Apsara dancer for this ongoing project. And now for Day 17, I came up with a drawing of three flamenco dancers as requested by Max Guillien. This isn’t my first work with these enchanting Spanish performers as subject matter. The first one I did was in late 2010 for an exhibit at Bacci. It’s a painting of a fan-wielding lady dancer with the ruffles of her extravagant bata de cola forming huge roses.

Spanish Rose (2010). 38.1 cm x 25.4 cm. Watercolor and acrylic on paper.

For this piece, I wanted to draw the 3 ladies dancing at first, but the size of my sketchbook wouldn’t do justice to the image I pictured in my head. I guess I’ll save that one for a large painting instead.

Flamenco Dancers. These three ladies are getting ready for their dance.

No bata de colas forming large blossoms this time, just three Spanish señoritas about to start dancing under the shade of cascading bougainvilleas. It’s sort of a study on their dresses and hair ornaments. One thing I love about this 365 Women Project, is that it gives me a lot of concepts that I could someday develop into series of paintings for future exhibitions. Perhaps dancers as subjects will be one of that.

Lace and Leather

As mentioned in my previous post, I wasn’t able to draw anything for the 19th so I made up for it by coming up with 2 drawings yesterday, both of which are requests.

Day 15. MindlessSpirit wanted an angel with phoenix wings done Art Nouveau style. So I took inspiration from a couple of works of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, and tried to keep the few splashes of colours I used close to the warm palette he used for most of his paintings. Then, I gave a little twist to this angel. Instead of making her a celestial being, I turned her into a Victoria’s Secret Angel complete with lace lingerie.

Art Nouveau Angel. Her wings were inspired by how phoenixes are usually depicted in tattoos.

Day 16. Vida was very specific with this second request of hers. She wanted a girl with long, wavy hair in a leather jacket and boots. So I gave her exactly what she wanted, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a cigarette included.

Friday Night. She just might be Batwoman Kate Kane with an undercut.

It’s kind of a wishful thought of what I should be doing on a Friday night instead of working. Haha! I’d like to think she’s a biker chick or maybe even Kate Kane.

Cats and Coffee

I’ll be honest. I haven’t done a drawing for yesterday, so I made up for the day I missed and I’ll be posting 2 later. This mask is to be blamed for that. Haha!

Anyway, for day 14 of my 365 Women Project, I granted Mariel‘s second request and drew her a girl with many cats.

Cats and Coffee. Sipping coffee al fresco with 6 cats doesn't seem like a bad idea at all.

I toyed with a couple of ideas while working on the sketch for this. Either I turn it to a girl having coffee while taking a break from painting while her cats nap around her (which would be a self-portrait) or a girl in a cafe who took her cats along with her. I went with the latter. The cat on top of the girl’s head was inspired by a photo of my friend Myka.

Apsara Dancer

A request I got from Jaqueline Junginger for my 365 Women Project was that of a girl with many hands. The first image that came to mind was the dancing representation of Hindu deity Shiva, more specifically known as Nataraja. I scrapped that idea because I did not want to draw Shiva as a female, and came up instead with the next best dancing figure I could think of – an Apsara with three pairs of hands.

One of the Apsaras at the entrance of Bayon temple.

Taken at the Angkor Wat.

One regret I have when I went to Cambodia in 2010 was not being able to go to an Apsara show. I remember reading about these female figures intricately carved on Khmer temples. When we finally had our fill of exploring the Angkor Wat complex, I was really looking forward to seeing an Apsara Dance. I was, however, discouraged by one of my companions.

Yes, it would have been a very touristy thing to do, but it would mean a lot especially for a Cambodia first timer. Besides, it is said that no visit to Cambodia is complete without attending at least one traditional Khmer dance performance. So the next time I return to Siem Reap, it will be second in my to-do list; taking more portraits of people being the first since I concentrated too much on architecture the first time around.

Apsara Dancer. Three different photos were used as reference for her 3 pairs of arms.

A bit of information: Apsaras are beautiful, elegant supernatural females who are proficient in the art of dance. As wives of Ghandarvas who make music to which they dance to, each of them represents a distinct aspect of the performing arts in Indra’s court. This makes them somehow equivalent to the muses of ancient Greece. On the other hand, the Apsara Dance is a traditional Khmer ballet-like performance known for its distinct ornate costuming, arched back and feet, fingers flexed backwards, and slow flowing movements. More than a dance, it presents a story inspired primarily by the Reamker (the Cambodian version of the Ramayana) and the Age of Angkor.

Korean Girl and Russian Spies

Day 11. While I have a queue of drawing requests to fulfill, I just felt like drawing something off the list for that evening. I began sketching a girl mindlessly, her hair entangled on branches of plum blossoms. I drew her a gown with a balloon skirt at first, then decided later on to change the skirt into a chima with floral prints. Her top being converted into a jeogori (a short jacket in Korean traditional clothing) followed suit.

Entangled. A visual concept I plan to develop for a painting.

This sudden change of clothes was partially due to the fact that there were lots of Koreans at the coffee shop we hung out at after the exhibit opening last Saturday. Yes, my drawings do get influenced by my surroundings during the time I’m working on them.

Day 12. If my grandfather was still alive, this is exactly what he would request me to draw — Bond girls. I grew up watching James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Batman films because of him. And that is why this request was such a pleasure to draw.

Bond Girls: Tatiana and Anya.

Ponj didn’t want just one girl; he wanted two. He particularly requested for Agent 007′s sizzling hot leading ladies from “From Russia With Love” and “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Of course I had to look up for a couple of photo references, threw in an Art Nouveau backdrop, and voila! Here’s Tatiana Romanova and Anya Amasova! A quick backgrounder: Tatiana (played by Daniela Bianchi) is a corporal in Soviet Army Intelligence, while Anya (played by Barbara Bach) is a Soviet KGB agent. James Bond loves Russian girls alright!

Drawings and Instant Doodles

Last Saturday, I dropped by the Even More Instant Doodles exhibit opening at My Little Art Place (Greenhills, San Juan). It was a spur of the moment thing. I wanted to go out for coffee and look for inspiration outside the four walls of my studio. Meanwhile, Jooley had planned to go and was looking for someone to attend with her, so I thought I might as well keep her company. Coffee and sketching can wait until after the event. And I’m sure glad I went.

Lady Arachnids Dione and Isobel, Jooley, and Nicholas.

All That Jazz

These drawing requests make my 365 Women project much, much more fun and interesting. One day, I’m drawing an androgynous girl in her undies and socks. The next, a belly dancing gypsy, then an extraterrestrial with monstrous Venus Flytraps for pets, then a skull-toting mermaid. Not only do they test my versatility, they also keep my creative juices flowing, so to speak. For today, I drew flappers.

All That Jazz. I used an Art Deco wallpaper reference for the background.

Meryl Bernardo requested for just one, but I drew her two. I put them in a jazz club – one is smoking a cigarette through a long holder, while the other one is drinking wine. I had to look up for a couple of photo references for their headdresses and clothes. Of course, these jazz-loving ladies of the 1920′s won’t be complete without an Art Deco backdrop.

Her Human Lover

A quick ad before proceeding to Day 9 of the 365 Women Project. I’m one of the speakers on DLSU Manila’s upcoming 5th Young Multimedia and Graphic Designers Summit (YMGDS). Organized by Moomedia, YMGDS is a series of multimedia seminars that will be held within the DLSU Manila campus. It’s not only open for the whole university, but also to other students from different universities, colleges, and schools. I’ll be giving a talk on illustration and graphic design. I might include a bit on painting and photography, but we’ll see. Details will be posted soon.

Moving on, today’s drawing was supposed to be for next week but I decided to execute it today because it’s Friday the 13th. Nothing could be more apt for this unluckiest day of the year than a mermaid (Sirena in Filipino).

Her Human Lover. He was a pirate. Too bad he couldn't live for so long.

Beautiful mythical creatures that they are, they are regarded in traditional Filipino lore as bringers of bad luck. This applies especially in coastal towns where they are believed to hypnotize fishermen with their enchanting voices, then abduct them. Some believe they carry their victims to the depths of the sea to offer them to water deities. But then almost all Philippine mythical creatures are malevolent in nature.

Mermaids were my favorite subjects to draw ever since I was a child. I had a beautifully illustrated “The Little Mermaid” book and one of the images that struck me was an illustration that depicted the little mermaid’s garden in detail.

Each little princess had her own small garden plot, where she could dig and plant whatever she liked. One of them made her little flower bed in the shape of a whale, another thought it neater to shape hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest of them made hers as round as the sun, and there she grew only flowers which were as red as the sun itself. She was an unusual child, quiet and wistful, and when her sisters decorated their gardens with all kinds of odd things they had found in sunken ships, she would allow nothing in hers except flowers as red as the sun, and a pretty marble statue. This figure of a handsome boy, carved in pure white marble, had sunk down to the bottom of the sea from some ship that was wrecked. Beside the statue she planted a rose-colored weeping willow tree, which thrived so well that its graceful branches shaded the statue and hung down to the blue sand, where their shadows took on a violet tint, and swayed as the branches swayed. It looked as if the roots and the tips of the branches were kissing each other in play.

So I tried to incorporate that rose-colored tree in my quick drawing above, only I turned it to a coral because of lack of space. I’d love to paint that scene on canvas someday. I’ve been meaning to draw a mermaid since the day I first started on this project so I’m really happy I was finally able to do it today. And this is a requested drawing by Cons Canapi.

Alien Garden

Yet another late post. But don’t worry, I’ll be posting my work for today in a bit. Anyway, this is one of the very interesting requests I’ve received. Ponj Roco wanted me to draw a female alien with purple skin. But that’s not all! She has to have yellow eyes and nipples, and has to sort of resemble Moondragon from Marvel Universe. And here’s my take on that literally out-of-this-world drawing request:

Alien Garden. She loves her plants alright.

I just had to give her a cape, splotches of leopard prints on some parts of her skin, and some alien plants at the background. All in all, I really had fun working on this. Purple and yellow really look good together, wouldn’t you agree? Haha!

Meanwhile, Mariel I.C. wrote a lovely feature on her blog about my works and my ongoing 365 Project, which I’d rather call from now on as “365 Women.” Read about that here. I’m glad to know she liked how the gypsy woman she requested came out.

Give me something new to draw! You can either email me your request or post it on my Facebook page’s wall.

Tribal Belly Dancer

One of my goals for this year is to – okay, don’t laugh – learn how to belly dance. Tribal fusion belly dancing to be exact, though there’s no instructor for that in Manila. I want to do it simultaneously with JKD, boxing, and maybe even Muay Thai. Rachel Brice has been a really huge inspiration and I really wanted to come up with either a painting or illustration inspired by her. I just love that woman – her dancing, her costuming aesthetic! So when Mariel I. C. requested that I draw a Romani woman for my 365 Project, I gladly obliged.

Gypsy Belly Dancer. There’s no denying this one’s inspired by Rachel Brice.

Dark eye make-up, layers upon layers of fabric, and elaborate jewellery and hair ornaments. There you have it – a gypsy belly dancer.  I think it’s really the sleeves that completed the traditional Romani look. Otherwise, she’d look like a modern-day tribal belly dancer.

On exhibitions, starting next week, I’ll be posting teasers, painting details for my upcoming two-man show with Raul “Ponj” Roco Jr. entitled Tattoo My Colors. It’s going to be on March 10, Saturday evening, at F*Art Gallery in Kamuning, QC. Save the date! I’m looking forward to March, but at the same time, I can already feel the stress building up. It’s just 2 days away from Women on Women, an exhibit in celebration of Women’s Month at Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea (Greenbelt 5). I’ll post details regarding those two shows soon.