And That's a Wrap!

Revealing the wrap around cover design for my second illustrated chapter book. This is a secons in a series with a lot of grayscale art inside as well as chapter headers. Here are some screen-grabs:

NCBD Blog tour 2015 (part1 of 3)

We’re celebrating National Children’s Book Day here in Manila on July 21  (annually, the 3rd Tuesday of July) to commemorate the publication of Jose Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle” on Trubner’s Oriental Record in London. 

Part of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY)'s digital celebration is a blog tour of people in the industry, and I was invited ti be part of it this year. So here goes:

This week’s theme is:

Hulyo 7 – 13: Paboritong Aklat

Ano ang paborito mong aklat pambata at pangkabataan? (Kailangang isinulat o iginuhit ito ng isang Pilipino. Maaari namang maglista nang higit sa isa pa.)

My favorite books are Naku Naku Nakuu! Written (written by Nanoy Rafael and illustrated by Sergio Bumatay iii) and Porcupirate (by Robert Magnuson).

For Naku, Nakuu, Nakuuu! , I liked the painterly quality of its illustrations and the use of a lot of symbolism and abstraction. I liked how the dark illustrations remind me of the handcrafted quality of how fine art can be woven into illustration. 

For Porcupirate, I liked how the pages are cut up into panels that describe smaller scenes in the story. I also like the comic quality to it, the use of expressive animal characters and the overall production quality on matte bookpaper that made it feel like a classic. 

It is not a surprise with the author-illustrator genius behind it, that made sure the the physical specs were set to proper standards for its genre. I have loved his works since Junior inquirer days where he could mesh up tight comic scenes into short comic strips.

The best thing i loved about it is that it does not involve anything melodramatic, it does not depict our country in the usual 3rd world stereotypes that international news brands us, and it is also not overly rub-into-your-face Filipino, or overly preachy for some nationalistic or religious thing that all Filipino kids "should" love. It just exemplifies, in a touching story, how a child's love for a father can be a magical thing. I think this is what struck me most because as a kid, I never liked anything that made me feel i was being told something or if a reading material was overly preachy on some lesson that the writers behind it were so adamant about. I went to school to learn. I went to church for faith. I had parents for everything in between. So I read books for the pure fun of it. 

And if this book came out in the late 80's, I would have loved to have it.   

My First Highlights Publication!

So happy to see this in my physical mailbox today. Surprised they actually send compli copies to their contributors. That's really awesome. I've always wanted to work with them. :)

New book cover sketches to final

The one and only onyok (in my efforts to give the best translation) is the story of an exceptional spider boxer named onyok.

Part of Philippine culture is to have spider fights on sticks. I had my share of this exciting hobby in my gradeschool days. I raided gardens in school or at home to catch my best fighters, which actually consisted half the fun. We kept them in matchboxes as their barracks.

Considering that I love the theme, coming up with the cover was extra difficult. I didnt want the spider to look mean as he is the hero of this story. Also avoided the spidey underbelly which looks freaky. After 2 color renditions, I came up with the final piece- simpler with less colors and clutter. I also wanted the font to look like it was like woven thread.

The book is written by eugene evasco, who i have worked with in several titles before. It will be published by lampara books this year, 2015. Hope to see this jump out of shelves soon!

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Header!

Did sime fiddling with the brush shapes and behaviors and got to do this transitional piece. Still in the process of finding the best style that suits my paperless 2015. Meantime ill get some painting commissions done to keep my eyes of the screen. :)

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