i wait for you

Today, I saw him at MinD Arts Festival in a glass box, silently keeping it's awesomeness yet. I can only dream of holding him sooner. I have been sleepless, endlessly imagining what I could possibly do to make him unique and definitely "my creation". I thought of crazy wardrobes, sketching here and there, constant research. But then all I can do is wait. I hope when he comes I'd be as ready as ever.

Handmade Mini Portfolio Book

✭ And so the hunting begins... ✭

The Kukibulchik Shop

I've finally put up my very own Etsy shop! I've got one listing yet, and countless in my head. Just making things happen one step at a time.

Information Graphics in Silver

Congratulations to my husband, Dwynn, who got a SILVER MEDAL for this year's "Best of News Design" from The Society for News Design. Whohooo!

Presenting his award-winning information graphics and design:

A very tricky presentatioin of an entire year of economic trajectory which he managed to lay everything out in one spread, creating an interesting design. That is information graphics at its best!

SND is an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators – specifically those who create print/web/mobile publications and products.

You deserve it hon, congratulations!

project: MEGA

I just got a juicy invitation by email last night and even up to now I can't contain my excitement! I can't spill out the details to you guys just yet. I am just here to tell you that something HUGE is going to invade Dubai, Planet Earth April 2010. Project MEGA.

"Megans are time travellers and have an affinity with metamorphosis..."

I can't wait to get hold of my toy!

A, you're adorable.

I've always wanted to do an Alphabet sort of project. I thought about an alphabet bunting, a handmade alphabet book, and alphabet pillows. But then yesterday, I started doodling. Now I thought about making an Alphabet botanical-biomorphic patterns (imaginary and real) kind of doodle project. I'm not sure what to do with them yet - but right now I can imagine putting them into canvas prints and make pillow cases! Or I can have them printed on badges... Or I can print them on tote bags!

Ok friends, now wish me the abundance of creativity and imagination to finish it all the way up to Z before 2010 ends.

hello!

Yay! I finally got my iamgovinda cards. I actually feel like not giving them away!

STYLE GUIDE: build a portfolYOU!

Portfolyou sounds really funny, I know! But it's true, your portfolio is branding YOU online. So it's important that you get the message out there: Who you are and what you do best.
I am in the middle of remodeling my portfolio website again. If I get it all done, it's my 10th design since 2004. I am easily displeased, not because I have done it bad. It's just being the typical me squeezing in a healthy creative exercise, recreating a fresher and straight-to-the-dot navigation, even if I just uploaded a "new" look last month. Or maybe I'm just really *yawn* with my current website.

I made a short guideline in building your portfolyou websites:

✔ Showcase. Only those that are worthy. Do not put anything half-baked. Yes, even if that means showing only three print ads. Show them what you are made of!

✔ Easy driving. No one likes a complicated navigation. It may be fun the first time, but when you feel that it's beginning to annoy you, scrape it all up and start from scratch. Take it easy. Remember: the simpler, the cooler.

✔ Blah blah blah. Keep your "who i am" page short. Short but precise. Precise but friendly. Your online voice should be well coordinated with you offline.

✔ Style smile. Lastly and more importantly, build a portfolio website that takes a smile on style. Have a trademark or a logo or whatever that which makes your home online truly YOU - with your name written all over the place. Oh but don't overdo it. Do not shout and never boast. Just smile with your own style.

iamgovinda merch

I'm planning to sell journals and postcards (from papersandtschai) with illustrations that match with the artworks that I will be displaying at the exhibit, Dpict. But there's still a lot of tending to do - like creating a whole deal of "packaging" with my label and some prices. And I'm running out of time. *Phew!

Ten Tickles : postcard

(old layout from POP III)

Ten Tickles : journal

(new layout, same species)

Imaginary Friends : postcard + journal

(new layout, old concept from GIRLALOO)

Scent Keeping : journal

(new layout, old concept from GIRLALOO)

Scent Keeping : postcard

(new layout, old concept from GIRLALOO)

I also got mini tags for free! I'm thinking of using them as my business cards. But it doesn't include any contact info. Tricky. Or maybe I can give them out as freebies that goes with the journal and call them mini bookmarks. I still have to figure these little babies out.

DPICT Illustration Exhibition

"Illustration brings words to life through visual representation, depicting reality in a recognisable form whilst delivering a clear and strong message. DPICT will explore this concept and will help to create a network among illustrators as they view each other’s work and initiate a dialogue about their common passion."

This is going to be my first ever exhibition outside Cebu. I'm thrilled, scared, and excited all at the same time. I'll be sending my framed artworks tomorrow. Yay!

Opening: 16 December 2009, 7pm

Exhibition runs until 7 January 2010

at the Gallery of Light, Manu Chhabria Arts Centre

DUCTAC, Level 2 MOE, Dubai

For more information call DUCTAC: 04 341 4777

or visit www.ductac.org

Timings:

9.00am - 10.00pm (saturday to thursday)

2.00pm - 10.00pm (fridays & holidays)

ABC Dimensional

CALL FOR ENTRIES.

It's going to be a creative workout for your brain!

Examples: Letter-shaped Silhouettes of Found Objects, Aerial Views, Grid-based Multiples/Matrix, Handmade Three-dimensional Letters (same material used for letters but also combined objects to shape letters), Installations/Sculptural letterforms/Optical illusions/Vantage points, Light and Shadow, Drawing Board (things that could theoretically have been made/built/arranged and then photographed but were only drawn to document the idea/concept), etc

ABC Dimensional will feature the very best examples from around the world on 240 full-colour pages. Let's get playing!

new doodle-love artwork

My works have been reviewed and will be included in the upcoming exhibit of the Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre (DUCTAC) called "Dpict" on 16th December. It's such an honor and I can't wait!

My plan is to convert my digital works "ten tickles" (almost done. will post soon.) and "scent keeping" (see photo below) into paper, and add one new artwork to my line up. Sadly though, I can't push through with acrylic painting on wood for "imaginary friends" as I run out of time :(

It's not a digital exhibit so I was really excited to get my hands dirty again after 5years. For the two artworks, I played with watercolour, pen and ink. For my third entry, it's purely pen. My hands found a new doodle-love technique (see photo detail below). I think it produced quite an outstanding effect.

Next step is to get all three artworks framed and delivered on the 1st. Giddyhappy me :)

GIRLALOO POWER!

We've been featured! My (favourite) Art Appreciation college professor has written an article about our works and how GIRLALOO rocks like Wonder Girls. (Awww, shucks.) I am tremendously honoured and inspired to create more "bimorphic forms" of art.

ARTICLE:

Art's girl power
by Radel Paredes, Cebu Daily News - Life! (November 17, 2009)

THEY are the local art world's equivalent to the Wonder Girls, making digital illustrations that (clap, clap) nobody, nobody can top. Not even the boys in the trade. Girlaloo, the all-girl group of illustrators, hopes to dissolve the digital divide and the gender gap in their first, self-titled exhibit.

Consisting of more than 30 computer-generated or digitally enhanced drawings, the show opened Nov.9 at the lobby of the University of San Carlos College of Architecture and Fine Arts building.

Most members were USC fine arts alumnae, so choosing to launch the exhibit tour in their alma mater is a gesture of homecoming. From USC, the works will be shown in the University of the Philippines Cebu Campus and the Benedicto College.

Targeting the the art school set is deliberate as the group aims not only to promote digital illustration as an "exciting outlet of expression and voice" but also to encourage other girls to consider it as a serious career option.

The artists thus flirt tipping the balance, making even the most macho digital art geek succumb to girl power.

And how diverse are the ways in which this power projects. There's the flotsam of bimorphic forms and cartoon monsters in the doodles of Govinda Trazo and Tambolbee Villarino.

There's also the strange digital and pop version of Art Nouveau in the portraits of women by Richelle Chua and Narki Hormiguera. Kristy Anne Ligones, on the other hand, is not as keen at the irony of simulating organic forms with a computer. Her own depiction of a woman combines the cute and the grotesque.

A mix of Mary Poppins and Yellow Submarine is hinted in the work of Kristine Oplando, while blinking stars and planets add cosmic aura to February Anne Ybanez's drawings of children. Childhood fantasy is revisited by Johanna Velasco-Deutsch, Luisa Gonzaga, and Madeth Villarosa. But rather than imagine a world of happy endings, the girls opted to portray a gloomy fairy tale.

Indeed the artists of Girlaloo have come of age. And despite the common fascination with the kikay, the kinky and the kitschy, they have proven that their works can still solicit serious reflection. Or, that high tech doodle, can be high art, too.

x x x x x x x x x x

iamgovinda!

I finally polished my website. Now it's easier to navigate. Please drop a line, let me know what you think :) Thanks!

www.iamgovinda.com

STYLE GUIDE: find your own illustration style.

I think it's important to maintain a certain style to your illustration no matter what the trends are out there. It took me more than 10 years to finally find (and accept) my signature style and I am still facing the challenge of truly putting it to the fullest. Here are my thoughts on finding your own style in your illustrations.

✔ Know your strengths and take them higher than your expectations. Super realistic figure drawings? An eye for details? Textured experiments? Focus and get to work.

✔ Speak up! Having a big idea behind your illustration makes better storyteller in you. And when you have a story to tell or a thought to share, you get to imagine how you would share it. Your tone makes it uniquely your own.

✔ Surprise! If you surprise yourself with your process, that's a good start. If you're satisfied with the end result, make room for more surprises next time.

✔ Don't get too inspired. Inspiration becomes deadly when it grows with you that you start to imitate (maybe unconciously) exactly that which got you inspired.

✔ Review review review. Review your work over and over and see if it doesn't "look like somebody's".

✔ Stick to YOUR style. But let them grow in maturity - not in numbers or popularity.

www.girlaloo.org

empowering the women in design.

an all women digital illustration exhibit tour.

www.girlaloo.org

Tambolbee Villarino

Darlene Sanguenza

Lucille Umali

Luisa Gonzaga

Govinda Trazo

Kristy Anne Ligones

Madeth Villarosa

Kristine Oplado

Johanna Velasco - Deutsch

Richelle Chua

February Anne Ybanez

Narki Hormiguera

Girlaloo updates / older posts

SCENT KEEPING at last.

I couldn't stop until I get it right. Not that the previous artworks are wrong, it's not just satisfying yet. Originally this piece was dark with brighter illuminated neons. And then I decided to re-tone it in less saturation. Now finally, I got rid of some elements and stuck with the basics. This is SCENT KEEPING at last.

GIRLALOO

TOUR DATES:

nov 9-13: university of san carlos

nov 16-20: university of the philippines

nov 23-27: benedicto college

re-toning SCENT KEEPING

But then decides to be less saturated. I couldn't be happier.

(click here to view original creation)

scent keeping

I wanted to try a new colour pallete - a wave that speaks boldness, chaos, totally opposite of my olive greens and creams. I'm trying to get out of my calmness and pale mixture. I wanted this piece to be exactly as my mind showed me. This is keeping scents of beauty, scents of emotion, and scents of words.

SCENT KEEPING

This will take tour on November 2009 to four different schools in Cebu. Will post GIRLALOOdetails soon.