No Easy Task

Had fun inflicting an activity Kat's kind needs to learn how to do.

Me and My Tools

I am going to tell you a secret.  I never thought that I'll be maintaining a comic strip blog EVER.  I am not the best artist.  I am not the best story teller.  I don't even have a comic book collection except for my beloved Archies. 

But what I do know is I kinda like doodling from time to time.  I know I like stories.  It seems like I could write short, short, short stories.  And it seems like I could post regularly.  Hence the blog.  I do it for fun and relaxation.

This only meant that though I like flexing my "creativity muscle", I never really thought much about my tools.  I am budget conscious and I don't need anything fancy to create artwork.  I make homemade comic strips, not fancy artworks.  So I use whatever black pen is lying around.  I use ordinary colored pencils.  I just buy whatever paper I could find.  My rulers are jagged.  And that's ok.  The greatest pleasures in life could be very, very simple. 

But as I create more art, I also encountered more artists and artworks.  I rarely read other cartoons anymore but suddenly I am looking at calligraphy works.  I am looking at illustrations.  I even started looking at the works of the greatest artists of all time (yes, I am a nerd).  Then I read other blogs some more and stumbled on posts on what other people's tools are (e.g. Stars for Dreams and SnapperDoodle's tools).  And I have to say, I was very, very inspired. 

So I experimented with their main medium: water colors.  I even bought a couple of calligraphy pens and some sharpies to experiment.  And what I realized was that other people's tools are not necessarily the right fit me.  Or maybe just not the right fit for me at the moment.

But then one searching suddenly brought me to another and before I knew it, I was dreaming to buy a highly rated set of colored pencils and one of the biggest splurge in my entire life.

The Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

And what could I say?  So much ouch in the pocket but when I tried it I literally fell in love with it.  The colors are so vibrant and the texture is just so creamy, if that's even a description for colored pencils.

Sample Colors.  Prismacolor on the left, my regular colored pencils on the right.

I have a long way to go when it comes to creating art but it never hurts to try out new stuff.  Now, if I could only force myself to get a better pens/markers...

Colored Pencils and my ratty journal

P.S.  I am residing in the Philippines so it was quite hard to search for this set!  But to those Filipinos curious, I bought it from our neighborhood-friendly National Bookstore Eastwood Branch.

In Your Dreams

Doll Talk

When I was a kid, my Barbies are always damsels in distress who have to be saved by a price (I did not have a Ken so it is always some other male doll).  Nowadays I find it kind of silly!  Girls should be able to take care of themselves and not have to rely on a prince... not all the time anyway. :)

Arnis Master

Arnis is the Philippines' national sport/martial arts.  I've been living here my entire life and yet I do not know the rules or how to play it...