Comics, Manga & Graphic Novels Seminar

This event will be held in the Philippines. But the organizers, Glass House Graphics, is a company that has branches internationally. Check them out online.

For posters or flyers of announcement for your school , clubs or office, please contact MARYEL ROMAN – +63 917 8947575

Mangaholix Manga Mania Convention

The GroundBreakers are shaking things up again! This time at the World Trade Center for their annual Mangaholix Manga Mania Convention.

With some surprises in their sponsorship lineup… including the Japan Foundation and… of all organizations… the Philippine’s National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)! All in the happy bond of the UNESCO!

Banzai!

Suspended Animation Media Seeks Digital Artists

Calling ALL Digital Artists.

Description:

Suspended Animation Media is in urgent need of Digital Artists/Painters who want to have a successful career and would like to grow with our company.
We are a fast developing Game Art Studio, in San Pedro Laguna that offers a competitive pay and a superb working environment. We have several expanding accounts and we are in need of Artists who possess the following:

• Responsible
• Able to meet deadlines
• Able to work under pressure and cope with it.
• Takes initiative
• Has a good social ethic
• Kind and caring (this may sound funny but if we’re going to be working together for a long period of time, we’d only like to work with people who are such)
• Honest
• Has a good work ethic
• Able to take instructions correctly
• And, up to the challenge of fulfilling their ambitions.

Preferably living in Muntinlupa or San Pedro Laguna.

To those interested, please contact:
Lalita Saulo
0929.6136959
And send resume/portfolio to: Suspendedanimation_media[at]yahoo[dot]com
(URL to your online Folios are acceptable)

Komikon 2009 – Now At Megamall

Komikon was usually held at the Bahay ng Alumni in the University of the Philippines. Now the “original” comic convention of the Philippines will be in a much much BIGGER venue – the Megatrade Hall!!

With the new venue, you’ll have to bring more cash to the event! Why?

1. Entrance is now 80Php, and you can’t escape it.

Job Opportunity at McCann

If any of you have any friends or know of anyone looking for
a job in advertising or communication agency, interested parties can email Mitchell Dauz at mitchelldauz[at] gmail[dot]com . Since this is a good agency they use people with experience because everything is based on a deadline and turn around time is crucial. If you don’t have a portfolio it does not matter because you will be given a test to see if you are suitable for them to join.

It is an advantage if you are graduate of an advertising or fine arts course and literate in Photoshop, Freehand and
Illustrator. Main requirement is that you need to learn fast and you work well
under pressure. Please contact Mitch directly if you are interested to join McCann

Manila Comic Con

It’s this weekend! August 08 and 09! At the Megatrade Halls 1 & 2. http://manilacomiccon.com/

Facebook Comic Con Celebrates Summer Gala With Pinoy Komiks Art Showcase

Facebook Comic (FBCC) has announced that its 2009 Summer Gala will take place online from the morning of Thursday, August 13th through the night of Sunday, August 16th. As part of the festivities, the virtual comic book convention will celebrate the past, present, and future of Filipino super/heroes and villains with an online Pinoy Komiks Art Showcase to be held during that time at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101024056149.
All artists from the Philippines are invited and encouraged to take part in the showcase. Art submissions will be accepted directly at the special events page from now until August 12th at 12:00 o’ clock midnight.

Guest commentators including Comics Creators, J. Torres and Elbert Or will also be on hand to advise and critique submitted pieces throughout the celebration, as well.

For submission guidelines, technical assistance, or any further information about the FBCC Pinoy Komiks Art Showcase, please contact:

Event Coordinator, Stacey Aragon at rockitqeengnr[at]aol[dot]com (United States), or
Assistant Event Coordinator, John Becaro at johnbecaro[at]yahoo[dot]com (Philippines).

Graphika Manila 2009 – The Book

Graphika Manila is Manila’s premiere International Multimedia event, and now YOU get the chance to be a part of their book!!

Hop on over to Graphika Manila to read the guidelines.

Wacom Intuos 4 – Digital Painting/Coloring/Inking Review

IT’S COOL!

I was able to play around with Wacom Philippines’ Intuos 4 units during its launch at the ATI Building, Shaw Boulevard today.

I got to try it out on Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter X.

The features that stood out the most for me were the :

• Nibs - the traction with which the nibs gave while on the tablet was pleasantly surprising. With 4 different kinds of nibs: regular (I think 5 extra pieces), springy (one only), felt tip (one only), graphite-ish (three pieces) nicely kept INSIDE the pen holder – it’ll take a while before you get bored with how it feels.
• 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity - I wanted to specifically test the Intuos 4’s ability to do fine tapered lines, and I must say it delivers very gradual increments in size. Based off my testing of a 4 pixel brush on a 72dpi canvas on Painter X. However don’t expect to have the same range of size variation and control as a Chinese calligraphy brush. You may attempt to do so with the springy nib nonetheless. And also you may still have some difficulty resuming an ink line that you have ended. (Unlike on Cintiqs.)
• Precision Mode – This is an express key you press on the tablet to allow the entire tablet surface to be remapped to only paint within a small central portion of your screen. Thereby allowing you ultra fine detailing. Best used for painting. I tried inking with it, but that yielded mixed results.

Other notable features were the reversible right-or-left-handed design of the Intuos 4, the customizable application specific pop-up menus you can bring up, the organic light emitting diodes OLEDs that allow you to see what the express keys on the tablet are for, and the wheel whose 4 default (and also customizable) actions allow you to:

1. Size your brush.
2. Zoom in and out.
3. Select layers up and down.
4. Rotate your canvas.

Unfortunately with Corel Painter X, I could not find any way to rotate its canvas using the Intuos 4 wheel, and still had to use the keyboard.

Another issue is that the Intuos 4 is no longer proportional to a CRT monitor. You’d have to tweak its mapping to get it to be so.

The medium-sized Intuos 4 is expected to be within 19k PHP once it hits the markets. It comes in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes.

I asked if Intuos 4 technology will be making its way onto Cintiqs. And as I suspected, it will, just not yet. But with those babies costing close to 70k PHP, I may just work out my digital inking requirements on an Intuos 4.

Free Spirits A(r)t Play Exhibit

An exhibit featuring the Philippines’ top illustrators Frances Alcaraz. Beth Parrocha-Doctolero. Paul Eric Roca.Ferdinand Doctolero. Robert Alejandro. Bernadette Solina-Wolf.

Six of the Philippines’ top illustrators showcase their surreal and colourful works for the first time in Singapore at the prestigious Art Space of the Royal Plaza on Scotts from June 5-July 7, 2009.
The exhibition, a fusion of six different art styles showcases the artwork illustrations of Frances Alcaraz, Beth Parrocha-Doctolero, Paul Eric Roca, Ferdinand Doctolero. Robert Alejandro, Bernadette Solina-Wolf.
Illustrators have usually been known as the “grey-zone” artists and even play second-fiddle in the world of literature, moreso Children’s literature. It has usually been argued if they are of the fine arts or commercial arts; as between writers and illustrators of “what got the reader’s attention first—picture or text?”
The answers may vary as to complex relationships between artist and his/her definitions of what matters. Yet their “story” actually leads to a deeper level of understanding of who they are—basically to enjoy one’s creativity and share this feeling of “play.” Such is the case of the following artists set to display their artworks for the first time in Singapore.
They have made quite a mark in Philippine children’s literature as illustrators that writers usually (if not always) request their services not as second-fiddle but as “playful” collaborators.
Visual narrative as these works show, has been coined as a modern-day term for illustration. Their pictures justify the means—light, spontaneous, intuitive and engaging.

Frances Alcaraz had illustrated more than 15 books both for children and adults. Some of them having been published in Japan and translated in several languages. Among her many awards have been the 1996 Noma Concours (Japan) and 2001 PBBY-Alcala Illustrator’s Prize (Manila). Her most recent illustrated books “Lola Basyang” were staged as ballets by Ballet Manila in 2008.
Beth Parrocha-Doctolero, one of Manila’s sought-after illustrator, has 40-plus books to her name as well as a slew of book awards for both illustration and design. Despite a full calendar of deadlines for all sorts of commissioned works, Beth still finds time to create whimsical and delicate paintings in watercolor, a difficult medium to handle. Nevertheless, she makes it all look so effortless and easy.
Paul Eric Roca has illustrated memorable books including “Federico”, Klasmeyt” and “Si Ching na takot sa Dilim” for Manila’s top children’s book publishing house, Adarna Books, Inc.” before he joined SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) as an artist for its “Project Eyeball” in 2001. He presently works as an editorial cartoonist for a Singapore newspaper, The Strait Times.
Ferdinand Doctolero, a prolific visual artist and art educator, has had his art showcased in Manila’s finest galleries and included in the permanent collections of banks, museums and private art collectors. He also illustrates for children’s books and once garnered Second Place (Noma Concours of Japan) for the book “Sundalong Patpat”. Together with wife Beth Parrocha-Doctolero and son Uriel, Ferdinand runs home-based Yellow Bell Studio.
Robert Alejandro is more a household name in terms of design and illustration. He is a multi-awarded graphic designer and illustrator. His portfolio runs the gamut of cutting-edge shopping malls, books, advertising campaigns and television programs. At present, he is a Probe Team reporter and just had launched his most recent book as a traveling backpacker doumenting his experiences around Asiathrough drawings—“The Sketching Backpacker.”
Bernadette Solina-Wolf now lives in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, where (together with husband Michael) maintains a cozy retreat house up a mountain as well as a new-found art of painting on coconut shells. When as a Manila-based illustrator, puppeteer and art educator, she initiated the Ilustrador ng Kabataan, a dynamic organization of children’s book illustrators, as well as the ANINO ShadowPlay Collective, an ongoing multi-media creative group of performing artists.

Where: Art Space. Royal Plaza on Scotts. 25 Scotts Road (adjacent to Duty Free Singapore)

Gallery Hours: Mon-Sun 11am-7pm.

Price: Entrance is FREEE

Inquiries: +65 9734-4839

How to get there: Orchard MRT Station

Samples from all artists