Dragonfire sketches

Attended an event called DRAGONFIRE: SKETCHMOB, a live drawing session organized by Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Manila and Sketchwalk PH (you can look them up in facebook). The theme was for the Chinese New Year.

5-minute sketches:

These are warm-up sketches, so they say. I think they pretty much define what I can do within 5 minutes and apparently not enough. Maybe the way I curved the lines just took longer.

10-minute sketches:

Having been annoyed from the last 2 sketches, I wanted to do find a quicker way to capture the pose quickly so there's more time to fix details. Then I remembered a saying that straight lines can give a stronger look. I think it did help on the clothes. The girl on the right suddenly looked African. Sorry about that. 

And I'm not really satisfied with where I was positioned drawing Ms. Africa. It might be nice to start drawing on a whim, but there really are times when I have to think about where to sit. I just ended up asking myself midway, "What the hell am I drawing?..." Planning everything beforehand is always an advantage and I haven't seen any way for it to be a disadvantage so far.

20-minute sketches:

A lot more time to refine them. I also got the hang of using straight lines. Girl on the left wasn't really posing with her shoulder near her cheek. I thought it would be more appealing that way. Girl on the right, my friend was doubting if she would draw the pose. maybe too seductive for her? Anyway, I just drew on and she actually turned out cute in the end.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Spontaneous Productivity & Traditional Redemption

Here are some personal works I did a few months ago entirely out of boredom:

2-3 years ago, my friends and I went to this Warehouse Sale of a certain mall. Basically, the stores were putting a lot of things for sale that would most likely be phased out already. What interested me most was one of those Japanese stores that sell random handy (or not) stuff.

Here are some of the things I bought:

Left: flat wooden pieces used to make faces. (pieces already taken out)
Right: wooden paddles for badminton??

So the time came when I had a free day and had nothing better to do.
I found these again just lying around somewhere collecting dust.

"Dammit man!" "This ain't trash! Ingredients of Productivity!"

I had to make use of them. But how?

"Well, I haven't been drawing anything lately." And an idea comes to mind...

It's been a while since I touched my watercolor set from school.
You can even say it turned back to a virgin after years of ignoring it.
And viola:

Gave these paddles some faces.

How I amused I was from making them and just looking at them when I finished. They look silly! I can even imagine what they would sound like if they had voices.

There were 2 round pieces left so I had to make use of them too. And since the way I painted these were quite simple, I thought I'd challenge myself by putting more detail on these final two pieces.

And here they are:

Tried making the Sun and Moon with some references from the net. 

I have to say I was quite pleased with what I did.

And honestly, I couldn't believe how much ignorance I had towards traditional painting since you know, there are so many digital works out there that have a much faster workflow with the help of the Undo Button. I really believed going digital all the way was best.

Yes, very superficial of me to think digital is better. But in fact, all methods do have their pros and cons, I realized. I'm really stubborn that way to realize stuff like these late.

Well, I did have fun with this spontaneous project. It actually helped me reacquire faith in my capabilities in traditional art. 

So, I decided that I'd put my Digital methods on hold until I improve my foundations on traditional art. That's right, I hid that Wacom Tablet of mine until I believe that my traditional skills have reached an exceptional level. "He who is deemed worthy, shall posses the power of  Thor  Wacom." Haha.

And that my friends, is one of the reasons you've been seeing nothing but scans from my sketchbooks in the earlier posts. I'll keep this progress up. As one said, "You'll always find yourself learning more."

P.S. If you stare at the Sun and Moon for a few seconds with one eye closed, you might see this spherical effect that they make. See it? I did.

2011 Overview

Here are some notable drawings I did last year.
Sadly, these works are not original. I drew these copying others works in deviant-Art.

Since I do admire these works and their respective creators,
I dub all of thee, as Fan Art:

I think I can copy quite well if I put enough effort and interest.

But then I decided to put a stop on copying from other artists.

This year, is the time to move on and find my own style.

And it has long since been overdue.

Observational drawing. Dec12-Jan5

Last month, I started this habit of drawing in my little sketchbook while out in the open.
It's good practice in a lot of ways, like being more confident in drawing in public,
managing the short time there is to capture the shapes, actions, lighting, and what not.

So here it is:

I'm especially amused at the time I drew the guy with a beard and glasses on the top right.
He caught me staring at him. So I tried to be more discreet but my cousin suddenly
asked me, "ARE YOU DRAWING SOMEONE?!" Take note he was the only
stranger around at that time.

First Post Greeting

Welcome. I put this blog up to publicly and personally keep track
of my progress as an artist. As to where this blog will lead to,
that is uncertain for now. 


So here's a quick drawing to commemorate the start of this blog!:

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best you can get within 3 minutes.
But hey, that's why we're here, for practice.


Thank you for viewing this first post
and i hope you enjoy the entries I will be posting.


OH, I forgot to introduce myself,


Hi, I'm Nicolo Ilagan
Enjoy your stay. Yep.