if erap starred in a zombie flick...

it's alive!

last week, joseph estrada, the philippine's former jeuteng lord -in-chief, formally announced his bid to run in 2010's presidential elections. that means i get to draw him one more time! so many ways to draw him, so little time. the guy is practically god's gift to filipino editorial artists.

estrada, the mustachoid former b-movie action star, has been ousted from his presidency, convicted of plunder for taking bribes from gambling lords and linked to unsolved murders. oh, there's more., but i'll spare you the details.

and yet, estrada is convinced that he still has a shot at winning back the presidency -- even if his eligibility (by way of a presidential pardon by the current president. ugh.) is currently in question.

for his campaign, he has voiced his support for an all-out war in mindanao (good luck with that) and for the legalization of jueteng, an illegal numbers game that is directly linked to his conviction for corruption. nice.

even for a nation that is notorious for reveling in candidates who show off their folksy inarticulateness as a matter of pride -- that lack of an intelligent grasp of the sophisticated intricacies of government & disguising it as a populist everyman stance that discards facts & knowledge as mere facets of the disconnected elites, estrada is pushing his luck. (hm, sounds familiar - apparently, this national trait is not exclusive in these modern times).

ah, yes, he's back. and i drew him. it's halloween. i like zombies. so, he's a zombie. in a zombie flick.

can you see him hunched down & limping his way to malacañang palace, mumbling incoherently with empty bloodshot eyes, hungry to seize what he thinks is his? my god, it's already happening.

*** feel free to use my artwork above. just make sure to credit me if you choose to do so.

** oh, and to the pinoy northerners: "kawatan" means "thief/magnanakaw" in bisaya.

a little visit.

my rep's nephew had a school flat stanley project & my rep thought it would be nice to have the book illustrator help out (yep, that would be me). i agreed that this was a great idea and a nice way to show a flat stanley photo tour of davao.

plus, any opportunity i get to look cool in a classroom, even if it's 20+ years too late, was well worth the effort.

then the typhoon swept in.

so much for the outdoor shots. though davao doesn't get hit typhoons (unlike the northern philippines), the city still get it's share of heavy rains & gusty wind...

...which almost rips stanley's arms off. maybe taking a 10th floor rooftop picture wasn't a good idea after all. sorry, stan.

so we settled on the next best idea. fruit shots!

and more fruits.

and of course, the durian. this is davao after all.

this week in asia...

oh, the perils of moving to a new continent through 4 cities & 3 countries in 2 weeks AND catching 3 book deadlines.

a quick sketch after witnessing my lightbox explode (so much for flying it from the states. curse you, 220v watts!):

but when a sunday picnic entails this -> a 20 minute boat ride to crystal clear waters on an island blanketed by coconut trees, it's easy to forget why i "doodle raged" the other day:

a big fat mexican history book, my flat stanley bookmark & THAT VIEW. really, mac? were the horns even necessary?:

for curious minds, this is what i'm reading. all 832 pages. it looks like i may never get mexico out of my head:

hasta luego, san miguel

gracias por las memorias.

the little things

with a bay area baby shower coming in a little over a week, i thought it would be a good idea to play with some fun designs in my cafepress.com account. here are a few of the designs i've ordered for the mom & our new arrival:

kuya means older brother in filipino (and winter is our westie). my wife chipped in this idea & i like it. the image on the right is the organic baby bodysuit that will go with this design. mom will also have a maternity shirt with just the westie art & the "winter" text on it.

this will also be printed on the organic baby bodysuit.

this one's *ahem* self-explanatory.

(because i'm also chasing work deadlines, i didn't have much time to tinker with the texts & decided to use photoshop default fonts instead. i would have preferred drawing the letters too (because it feels like cheating), but i think these designs worked out well in the end.

for the stainless steel travel mug.

same westie illustration as the one above. i added his favorite teddy bear/girlfriend (those are indentations on the bear's cheeks). this will allow the art to wrap around the mug.

maternity shirt (black).

this one's a last minute idea. i noticed that on the website's maternity dress template, you could place the design on the belly. so late one night, after a quick thumbnail doodle, i came upon the idea of illustrating a sleeping baby in the womb practicing his or her follow through.

the celtics outfit was a no-brainer, but the moon was a late, albeit suitable, addition. i needed something to frame the design and my wife has a thing for moons, so merging the two concepts felt like a personal 3am stroke of genius.

----

i've actually had thoughts of designing my own clothing for years now. i prefer not wearing shirts with logos & enjoy a well done print on them. so, this might be the shove i need to learn to print my own stuff. i already have plans to learn the printing craft on our next destination. we'll see. check back with me in a year.

sneak peek: my next picture book

i mentioned earlier about finding a preview of the book cover for my next picture book. it's still a long wait until the release (spring 2010) and i've written a few times about this book already (here & here), but i can now show you a peek into one of the interior spreads.

the above image is a low res preview of the page spread with type on it. below is a clearer look at the spread. this is a baseball themed alphabet book and this particular spread is an illustration for the letters S ("shortstop") and T (i honestly can't remember).

a dog's day

i'm not exactly sure if west highland white terriers like to swim, but mine sure does. winter went straight to the water at the first sight of the parque landeta lake here in san miguel de allende. he's predictable this way. even during our stay in san diego, he would run to the surf as soon as we unlatch his leash. otters & jestskis be damned.

this always worries my wife, fearing he's never going to swim his way back. i love it.

ok, so maybe i got a wee bit worried watching him figure out his way back to the rocks. can those little paws paddle their way to dry land? sure can. that's my boy.

just as i started looking into the bag for the brand new rubber balls i brought for a game of fetch, back he went into the water. again. and again. and again. good thing it was the shallow part this time. i didn't even notice that he still had his harness on.

finally, with the swim portion done, i get to toss a few balls. around this time, winter transforms into a racing west highland white brown terrier.

i'm not sure who enjoys this more, me or the dog. i once said to my wife that i may have found the place i am happiest. the dog park. when my time's up, i wonder if i can ask st. pete for a spot on dog heaven instead. someone's got to throw those balls.