DRAWING MY LIFE:COLOR SKETCH FOR A MURAL

My architect sister asked me to do a mural design based on a photo she sent. It's a scene in Amsterdam. After she saw the sketch she now wants me to do the mural! haha

DRAWING MY LIFE:TOILET PAPER HUMOR

I joined the Everyday Matters FB group recently and one of the artist-members,Fabio de Consoli, my kind of fun graphics designer, posted a drawing about Toilet Paper. Got me thinking about drawing something funny...and this came out of the "bowels of my creative mind."

DRAWING MY LIFE:LOST IN DOG TRANSLATION

Our maid was telling our Labrador,Angel, to fetch her slippers but was doing it in the vernacular (Tagalog.) The dog just stared at her and didn't move an inch despite her pleadings. It made me wonder if foreign-bred dogs go through a process of translating before they go into action. So if you have a Shih Tsu, better talk to it in Chinese...or speak French to a French Poodle?

DRAWING MY LIFE: A TWIST ON A SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF

The idea for this toon came when I was jogging around our village the other day and saw a black cat. it got me wondering about the saying that it's bad luck if a black cat crosses your path. There doesn't seem to be any logical explanation about the belief...unless i thought if the cat was a huge,man-eating one...then you'd better not cross its path.

DRAWING MY LIFE: MY NEPHEW'S DOG

This is a quick sketch of my nephew's puppy Beagle, RAWR. The name may have really given him a huge ego because he thinks he's the toughest dog on the block!

DRAWING MY LIFE: ANOTHER PRIVATE JOKE

Filipinos have a way of mangling the Pilipino dialect by combining it with English and adding "gay" ways of expression. This toon is about that. It's based on a true story,with some slight re-writing of the script to fit a 9 page cartoon. It's something only Pinoys will appreciate I guess.

DRAWING MY LIFE:PRIVATE JOKE

This toon can only be appreciated by Pinoys.

DRAWING MY LIFE: WHERE HAVE ALL THE INSECTS GONE?

DRAWING MY LIFE: COOL AND CLEAN WATER OF MY CHILDHOOD

When I was a kid, we could play and take a bath in the rain without having to worry about "acid rain." We would have so much fun we didn't know when to stop...we had to be called out of the rain by our parents.

Water then was also free of pollutants that you could drink from the tap or from any faucet or water fountain without any fear of getting any gastro-intestinal disease.

So thanks to progress, our kids nowadays can't have the same fun and convenience.

DRAWING MY LIFE: A CUP OF CALM

Taking a cue from Michael Nobbs, I decided to reward myself with a cup of chamomile tea yesterday after having completed two drawings. The layout of the cup and the colorful tea package looked interesting so I drew it.

DRAWING MY LIFE: BARBER'S TALES

A friend, Jack Narciso, suggested I draw something about Barber's Tales so I gave him first shot at being barber.

DRAWING MY LIFE: FUNNY OUT OF NOTHING

This was originally intended to be simply just a color sketch of TJ reading a book beside a stroller. I entitled it the Negligent Babysitter to make it appear like he was in fact babysitting. However, to make it more fun, I added a baby reaching for his bottle and a caption....Perfect!

DRAWING MY LIFE: THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Believers of the Chaos theory explain that small events occurrences can start a ripple effect that will have huge effects or consequences. As an example, they say that the fluttering of the wings of butterflies in Africa can cause tornadoes in the USA.

I said to myself: "These must really be HUGE butterflies!" Hence, the drawing.

DRAWING MY LIFE: DRAWING A LA MAD

This is a piece made unto the image and likeness of MAD Artist's Sergio Aragones' "The Shadow Knows"

Funny how the mind is able to see things behind the ordinary. Being able to turn it into something visual that I can enjoy is a blast.

DRAWING MY LIFE: INNOCENT INTO INSIDIOUS

I was working on a sketch of my daughter Tasha, drinking a Frappucino in Starbucks,Greenhills when something inside my head (...the "Crazy" in me...) said: "Why not make it exciting. How can you turn this sweet, innocent-looking picture into something interesting...EVIL even?" And this is what came out.

DRAWING MY LIFE: PUTO 'NAPOY MEMORIES

Some of my early childhood recollections are about buying rice cakes (puto) and sweet breads from vendors who sold their goods inside the military camp (Ft. William McKinley,now Ft. Bonifacio) where we used to live.

These forerunners of the food delivery guys we see nowadays really worked hard to make an honest living. Then, the cost of these snacktime treats were about 5 to 10 centavos each. But that was during the time when the dollar -peso exchange rate was P 1 = $2! So you could buy a lot already with 5 centavos!

Anyways, these vendors were the highlight of my day! I looked forward to hearing the bread vendor with his goose horn or the puto vendor with his familiar " Pu-tooo, kutsinta!" cry, as they announced their presence.

Since I didn't know anything about money yet, I think Mom just gave me coins to hand over to the vendors and they would ask me to choose what I liked and gave me what my money could buy! I guess because I was only 4 years old they were probably willing to give me a bargain for my money.

I don't see any bread vendors around anymore, but I was told that there are still puto vendors around.

DRAWING MY LIFE: A BORING DAY

My young nephew Joel Cinco was bitching about having a lazy afternoon. It gave me an idea to draw what being bored would really look like. This is literally a boring toon.

DRAWING MY LIFE: WHERE'S THE CAT?

Angel, our Labrador, was being taken out for a walk by our maid Jek, when they saw a cat enter one of the houses being constructed in our village. As Jek peered inside to look for the cat, Angel stood on her hind legs and did the same. She stands almost shoulder height of her handler!

DRAWING MY LIFE: PRACTICAL JOKES BY THE DEAD

Recently,there was an exchange of emails among my siblings and cousins about when exactly did our parents die. The 4 Antiques as we call my Dad and his 3 siblings, are all reunited in heaven now, but they must have played a practical joke on us because we can't seem to get a fix on the exact dates of their deaths!

Well maybe this is what really happened. Har! Har!

DRAWING MY LIFE: ONE JUMP SHOT TOO MANY

I was browsing through photographs taken by my nephew Kris Mendoza when I saw shots of his family jumping in front of famous landmarks around the globe (e.g. Abu Simple, the Sphinx,Macchu Picchu etc.) Then the idea for a cartoon hit me...so I had to sketch it. This is what came out.

Moral lesson: "Look before you leap...for a 'jump' shot...it may be your last!" :)

DRAWING MY LIFE: STILL LIFE WITH A GARDENIA LOAF OF BREAD

I was making a quick sketch of my wife Jaja preparing a sandwich when my attention turned to the loaf of bread and its packaging. I made a more detailed drawing of that and came out with an interesting drawing.

DRAWING MY LIFE:A DOG AT BREAKFAST

Our yellow Lab, Angel, is occasionally let inside the house by my wife. Usually she lingers around the table until someone mercifully gives her a tidbit.

When I sketched this scene one morning, she was beside Jaja longingly waiting for a handout.

We don't really know what's going on in the mind of our pets...but maybe, just maybe...Angel might really want something else than the usual piece of bread,no? After all she's a dog with breeding and probably has a taste for a good cup of java!

DRAWING MY LIFE: THE PINOY TRANSFORMER

A toon I made based on the concept of Transformers.

We did have a robot back in the '60's. It was known as the Admiral. It stood about 3- 4 storeys high at the front lawn of the then Ysmael factory at E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City.

It didn't do anything much except stand there.

However, during the Christmas season, it was transformed into a Santa Claus robot. And that was the only time of the year that it had some entertaining value!