It Starts with A Vision

It's been so long since my last post and I can't recall anymore what happened that kept me from publishing entries in this blog. But today I feel I need to share something very close to my heart, a vision. And as nay a writer I am I would just have to resort to blogging to put this germinating idea out for a test run. 

I have a vision, for the Philippines to be the Coloring Capital of the World. 

Not very palatable? Well, yeah, admittedly so since that's how many countries we are talking about to best. But that's why it's called a vision, it's always out there in the horizon to focus our eyes on, our efforts to, and all our resources and energy. It is better than being pulled down by internal squabbles that not only polarize the coloristas but also deteriorate the general wellbeing of each one of us.

I am an optimist. I see that in the past few months various groups have formed to come up with their own unique events for coloring enthusiasts to try, including the upcoming Art Buffet and a recently concluded doodle/charity event to help school kids in far flung areas. What I see is the newfound and renewed confidence to offer diverse experiences for many coloristas to try and explore, to expose themselves to so that they can realize better their personal goals to become better in coloring. With this cornucopia of experiences being offered now every Pinoy colorista is bound to become a world class talent in no time. Not just some, not just one, but everyone who wants, all together.

Corollary to that the Philippines most likely would also become the Coloring Events Capital of the World! 

Think about it. Something good and beautiful always comes out of rough times, like the rainbow coming out after the rain. 

Let's rise above our differences and see what good prospects lie ahead if we work for a common vision. I am

positive we can do this! 

Let the idea germinate for awhile. 😊

 

Contest Winner is Michelle Monserrat Reyes, Congratulations!

"Bago" - Short and concise. It means NEW being the new president of the republic. Also means CHANGE, his battlecry." - Michelle Monserrat Reyes

Congratulations to Michelle Monserrat Reyes, your name was chosen by a Legal Partner of the APV Law Office to be the official title of my painting of our new president that was unveiled today.

Please send me a PM on how to claim your prize.

And thank you to everyone who joined the contest and watched the live unveiling, the energy we generated together today tipped the Leaderboard by a mile, woot woot! Thanks so much!

Mabuhay ang ating bagong presidente!

Officially Launching Our 1st Coloring Congress RAFFLE

Announcing the official launching of the O1CC Raffle!

This is open to the public. NOT limited only to those attending the Congress in Tagaytay in August.  

First come, first served basis.

Ticket RESERVATIONS will start this Saturday, June 18, 2016. You may approach our Official O1CC Sellers at the Twin OCC™ Events in Cebu and Manila.

Online transaction also available, message an Official O1CC Seller to reserve. 

Some Sellers will be at the July 2 OCC™ in Los Baños, or will be holding classes this month or July, you may opt to buy from them directly provided they still have tickets to sell.

ALL the information an interested ticket buyer needs to know are provided below, 

PLEASE, PLEASE READ UNTIL THE END. 

Thank you, and may the odds be in your favor!

OBJECTIVES OF THE O1CC RAFFLE: 

To give everyone, most especially all koloristas nationwide, a chance to win prizes donated by our sponsors in the Our 1st Coloring Congress (O1CC) 

To raise funds for the expenses of Our 1st Coloring Congress (O1CC)

RAFFLE DRAW DATE: 

During Our 1st Coloring Congress

Saturday, August 6, 2016 

1:00 PM 

RAFFLE DRAW VENUE: 

O1CC, Phinma Conference Center, Tagaytay

ANNOUNCEMENT OF RAFFLE WINNERS: 

Immediately after the Draw, around 1:30 PM

Saturday, August 6, 2016

IN THE FOLLOWING SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES:

OCC™ Facebook

Coloring Book for Adults Philippines Facebook

C is for Colorista Facebook, Blogspot, Instagram

Art of Vermailene Facebook, Instagram

When Cathy Colors Facebook, Instagram

Ravenfox Facebook, Instagram

RAFFLE PRIZES from MAJOR and MINOR Sponsors of O1CC:

CANON Printer LBP 2900 

CANON Printer Pixma P200 

CANON Photobook Printing (two winners)

Faber-Castell 36 set Classic Colored Pencils

Fully Booked "Fairies in Wonderland: An Interactive Coloring Adventure for

All Ages" Coloring Book

Fully Booked "Joyous Blooms to Color" Coloring Book

Fully Booked "The Vintage Coloring Book: Gorgeous Vintage Designs to Make Your Own" Coloring Book

Smells Like Sundays Prize Packages (two winners)

MECHANICS OF THE RAFFLE:

Any person of legal age, may join the raffle, even those who cannot come to Our 1st Coloring Congress on August 6-7.

Each raffle ticket has a QR code for proper tracking and identification. 

To qualify for the raffle one must purchase at least one (1), but may not be limited to just one (1), raffle ticket worth Fifty Pesos (PhP 50.00) only. 

The more raffle tickets one buys the bigger the chances of winning.

The raffle is not limited to koloristas alone, any individual with purchasing ability, is qualified to buy a ticket. 

Organizers are not prohibited from buying raffle tickets. 

The raffle draw will be done in public on August 6, 2016, Saturday, at 1:00 pm, with the participants of Our 1st Coloring Congress as witnesses.

WHO CAN QUALIFY FOR THE RAFFLE?

Anyone of legal age is qualified to join the raffle as long as you purchase in person or online atleast one (1) Official O1CC with QR code through an Official and authorized O1CC Seller.

WHO ARE THE OFFICIAL O1CC Sellers?

Only the following people are authorized to sell the O1CC Raffle Tickets:

Nos. 001-060   Celeste Lecaroz

Nos. 061-120    Vermailene Joyce Barrios

Nos. 121-180     Ian De Jesus

Nos. 181-240    Cathy Lasam-Ballo

Nos. 241-300    Anwy Fua Gaño

Nos. 301-360    Ayn Descalsote

Nos. 361-420     Fe Pagdanganan Manahan

Nos. 421 - 480    Beverly Ann Laiz

Nos. 481 - 540    Lei Barrozo

Nos. 541 - 600    Fe Brusola

PROCEDURE FOR BUYING TICKETS:

1. Meet up with the Seller to pay and secure the ticket/s physically.

2. Contact a Seller through social media and pay through the OCC™ Bank Account named under the OCC™ Head. Secure the purchased tickets digitally unless Buyer requests to have them shipped to him/her in which case the Buyer will shoulder the shipping fee. Digital proof (photo of ticket/s) will be honored by the Raffle Organizers when the digital ticket holder wins in the O1CC Raffle. Proof of purchase will also be counter-verified by Sellers records.

FOR ONLINE TRANSACTION PLEASE FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE: 

1. Buyer must send a Facebook Private Message (PM), email, or text message communicating to Seller his/her intent to buy a ticket or a certain number of tickets. *Indicate to Seller if Buyer also wants to have torn half of the ticket/s shipped to her also, so Seller can include Shipping Fee in computation. However option not to ship torn half of ticket/s is also available and valid since the  Raffle Organizers will still honor photo of ticket as proof of purchase by the winning number's Buyer/holder.

2. Seller will compute amount and relay the total amount to be paid by the Buyer. The figure of the total amount will be relayed to Buyer through text, email, or PM.

3. Exact payment will be made by the Buyer through bank deposit after the Seller gives the Official BPI account named under the Head of the OCC™. 

4. Buyer will send a photo of the Bank Deposit Slip to Seller as temporary proof of transaction. 

5. Buyer must secure the original deposit slip for record keeping.

6. Once payment has been secured by the Seller (please allow 24-hours for internal cross referencing of the Raffle Finance Committee) the Seller will then assign a ticket number or numbers to the Buyer.

7. Aside from the written communication the Seller also will provide a clear photo of the actual ticket/s that has been purchased with the Buyer’s Name and Contact number handwritten on the blanks provided.  

8. Buyer must either physically or digitally secure his/her raffle ticket purchase/s to present as proof when claiming prize by keeping the ACTUAL tickets, or keeping the PHOTO of her tickets.

9. All Sellers are tasked to track the names of their ticket’s purchasers for verification.

10. All ticket stubs to be raffled will be placed by numerical value in a container with the public as witness at 10:00 AM -12:00 NOON during the Our 1st Coloring Congress on August 6, 2016, Saturday, at the Phinma Conference Center in Tagaytay, a few hours before the raffle.

11. Raffle Draw will be on August 6, 2016, Saturday, at 1:00 pm. Winning stub numbers and names of winners will be announced online immediately after the Draw. 

12. The Sellers of the winners will also contact them through the contact info they have provided.

13. Except for the prizes donated by Canon, the winners who are present in the Congress may claim their prizes on-the-spot. Winners must present proof of ownership of the winninh raffle ticket number. 

14. Prizes that will be shipped may take 1-2 weeks to arrive. Except for Canon prizes some shipping fee may be shouldered by the winner.

15. Shipping of printers will be shouldered by Canon. Shipping cost of other items may or may not be shouldered by the winners.

Your Lifestyle, Your Art, Your Expression

You've probably seen the pencil artwork I've done of my cookies in the glass stand. I used to bake, you see. A lot. I'm a self-taught homebaker. And I did it not for commercial purposes but as an expression. Half of the fun is searching for the best nuts, best flour, and the best chocolates. Cost was high to, say, bake a batch of cookies kaya tipid na lang in other things like I refrained from buying new clothes and anik aniks. Obviously it was a struggle to keep my weight down so I disciplined myself not to eat too much of what I baked para hindi na ako bibili ng bigger pants haha! 

Anyway, I no longer bake as much, but the need for self-expression is still there. Notice that I draw and color my cookies now haha! But seriously I realized that my passion for art, coloring in particular, has taken over that task. I thrill over good pencil finds, as in! But no, I don't want you to associate coloring to acquiring, after all we can express our love for coloring even with three pieces of colored pencils. 

Anyway for many months now I've been poring over coloring books and coloring away to my heart's delight. 

Today as I trace my journey in the creative arts (which now includes coffee painting and portraiture) I also discovered another expression in the past that I didn't realize wanted to come out until some people expressed delight in what I've done - and I'm talking about redesigning my home. I was on a budget but I didn't want it to restrict my ideas for the look I wanted. My taste in choosing colors and materials came out, another means of self expression. I also had walls and storage areas fabricated for practicality in the use of space. 

 

I believe we do have a need to express ourselves in our little and big choices, after all we only have one life and, I think,  we need to discover and make use of what we have, not so much complain about what we don't. 

Today the private classes I'm conducting have extra inputs in them as well. My first ColorTour class will include a museum visit. Also packaged in the fee is a home-cooked lunch which is my husband's self-expression. The experience is not a mere learning of techniques in drawing and coloring but a way of connecting through our common interest in caring for our well-being. I'm happy that I can offer the kind of class I really want to conduct. 

Artistic expression is not all about pencil, paper and buying all sorts of materials, it is a philosophy of living harmoniously and productively with our surroundings and other people, and most especially of putting our God-given talent to good use.

Watch out for another type of self-expression class that I'm putting together and will be offering soon with another partner. 

*My right side of the brain has REALLY taken over, I really need to improve my language and writing skills haha!

 

Join My OCC™ Art Class and Tour A Museum As Well

"Come and Have A Uniquely Colorista Experience of Quezon City"

Hi everyone, I am on the verge of opening a 2-hour OCC™ Class on Portraiture and Skin Coloring for Colorists this May 14, Saturday. 

It will be a focused class. Food is not included (you may bring your own baon, or go picnic style with your barkada). 

The Participation Fee for the class is P500 only (bring you own coloring materials, rulers, pencils). Topic will include skin coloring (pencil and PasPastel), basic portraiture for colorists, and colorsketching.

Tentative venue is a fully airconditioned,  newly opened QCX Museum Function Hall, at the QC Memorial Circle, Elliptical Road, Quezon City. (Directions and map to be provided) 

Link: https://www.facebook.com/QuezonCityeXperience/

Tentative Time 

Registration: 9:30 am

Class Sched: 10:00 - 12:00 pm

Museum Tour is included in the fee.

Tour Schedule: 1:00 pm

You may also opt not to join the tour, the Museum Entrance Fee will then be deducted from your Partipation Fee.

This is a colorista class with mini-tiangge on the side, hence the enrollment fee. But it's still gonna be learning in a fun, OCC™-like atmosphere 😊

First come, first served. Pre registration is a must. 

Those who have coloring books, coloring materials, food items and food packs to sell please send me a private message. 

 

Of Golf and Pencil Strokes

I used to play golf. A lot. I'd wake up at 3:30 am if I want to tee off before 6:00 am, in a golf course in Silang Cavite. That meant I must leave by 4:00 am and drive at 90-100 kph in SLEX, grab a McDo breakfast muffin in Petron before taking the Southwoods, Carmona route. I'm a morning person and adventures like that are just my cup of tea. The smell of freshly cut grass in the dew-filled greens gave me a different kind of high, and  revved/relaxed me to drive my first shot to more than a hundred and fifty yards on a good day (or not, which I then would attribute to lack of stretching hehe!)

Fast forward to today where at 5:30 am I'd already tinkering with my pencils and be busy looking through coloring books and choosing what image to color for the day. I miss the rush of seeing my ball land a few inches from the hole, but good finishing strokes with my pencils also give me that kind of satisfaction come to think of it. 

Strokes are important. In golf as well as in coloring. Awareness of them leads you to define and master each one. As I taught myself to study my entire body (particularly my muscles and how some relaxed and some tightened when I would do my backswings) while playing golf I learned that I, too, could do the same with coloring. 

Awareness of my clubhead's angle and speed is next. I knew I could control my pencil's tip as much as I can my woods' so that I can attain the flight that I want. In terms of coloring I realized too that various angles can yield varied vividnessof colors and design.

Finally, and this is what I tell my students in coloring, there is the right rhythm when executing your strokes. Too abrupt will earn the "pilit" comment from my caddy. "Huwag mong hatakin, hayaan mo lang." To a great degree determining this rhythm depends on whether you make a calculated pause or not when applying your pigments with your pencil strokes. I may be over thinking this analogy at this point but, oh well, it works for me. All my best game swings are those where I pause at the farthest point of my backswing in order to give the ball a good 'ping' after trusting that my body would unwind and perform well enough as the golf gods designed it. 

Eye on the ball is critical. I cannot overemphasize this enough. In making your swing as well as when coloring. Should your mind go adrift atleast your eyes must be fixed on those lines you don't wish to color beyond, believe me, your hands will follow. Trust your hand -eye coordination.

I miss playing golf, it's been years. If only my health condition didn't keep me from playing even for leisure. But am grateful I found out about coloring. It's not all that different, it's still a lot about perfecting my strokes and finishing a game till the end even if I didn't think I played that well. After all every game leads one to improving mistakes in the next round. So there's no losing proposition there. 

Mythos: Poseidon, God of the Sea

Poseidon is my latest finished page from the book "Mythos: Of Greek Gods and Godesses" by Patrick Earl E. Alvarez, and it definitely won't be the last. I had also done Cronus, Titan God of Time  previous to this. 

A couple of months back, February 13 to be exact, I came face to face with this 32-page inked creation, which then wasn't even a published book yet. The hand sketches were showed by Patrick to the colorista crowd gathered for an Over Coffee Coloring™ event, and everyone oohed and aaahed on each turn of the book's 11 x 14 inch sized pages. My mind went berzerk with each quick turn. The illustrations were unlike anything I've seen in other coloring books. It was the kind of illustration I'm always drawn to color, the manually-inked kind. 

I have always sensed the difference. 

For instance, when I colored the portuguese man of war (jellyfishes) in the book Atlantis by White Star Publications (Australian) I sensed that I was quite forlorn. Unlike previous works I did of Johanna Basford or Millie Marotta the artist in Atlantis was unknown and I wasn't feeling any connection while coloring. Even more when I would notice unfinished details in the picture that screamed 'digital layout'. 

When I got my copy of Mythos I browsed each page and immediately confirmed to myself that the raw quality of its illustrations is the premium kind I, as a colorist, long for in illustrations. After all I color not just with my hands but with all of my being, and essentially do so to make a connection. I savor each experience of tracing my pencil tip to follow shapes and strokes in drawings which, to the artist, are essential to complete the overall illustration. Coloring for me is like the Ignatian spiritual exercises, they are time well spent, praying using pigments. If I can't make this journey through coloring I could very well just render the images using Photoshop© in my PC. 

Funny thing though, unlike the Jesuits who meditate in serene places, my zone of peace looks like this haha!

  

Oh well, to each his own. 

By the way here is Cronus, my other Mythos work. 

I should mention that someone else felt an adrenaline rush when I brought my Mythos copy home. It was my daughter. She just turned thirteen and, like her brothers, she's a net gaming junkie. She kept saying "Oh my gosh! These images are awesome", before she showed me images from an internet game she knows of, Smite. She suggested that I use as color inspiration the images of the Greek and Titan gods there. It's awesome when I can connect with my kids this way through coloring. 

She loved this Poseidon work of mine by the way. 

A Museum Exhibit of Coloristas

So with my friend Effie and my husband Marv in the car with me we snaked our way through España to beat the traffic and get to the UST Museum on time for the 3:00 opening. We made it early *whew!* in fact we even had time to view the beautiful collections of paintings, relics and artifacts of the Dominicans. 

During the program REV. FR. ISIDRO C. ABAÑO, O.P., the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences Director and an exhibitor himself, spoke about how coloring has become a refuge for his soul after a hard day's work. He described how he seemed to be hypnotized everytime he rendered colors with his pencils within the confines of his room and even when he travelled. It was as if I was listening to him talk about me, describing my own almost-meditative coloring experiences when I, too, become lost in the world of colors and shades. It struck me that while each person's encounter with coloring is unique we colorists all essentially similar in how we find an almost 'therapeutic' calmness in doing it. 

The 'therapeutic' term was used by Dr. Claudette A. Agnes, a Psychology professor of the university when I struck a conversation with her while viewing the works. She will be giving a talk entitled "A Psychology of Colors". She explained thay while our personalities have somewhat predetermined our color preferences it is still essentially our psychological make-up that comes into play when we make our color choices. I'm really excited to hear her share her study tomorrow, who knows what new insights I would get from it. She got a bit excited and even volunteered to give a talk when I mentioned to her about a company that approached us and expressed the desire to hire our colorista team for their employees' development program. How can one say no to a dream collab! 

It's just amazing how this adult coloring phenomenon has caught even the interest of the academe, enough for them to hold this month long event and invite us coloristas to be at the forefront of it all.