Ladol Again

Early morning at Ladol Beach

I ONCE featured Ladol Beach here before. One of  the two pictures I posted even appeared (without my permission) on a local newspaper.

Ladol is not really a tourist spot material, being too close to the town’s residential and industrial areas, but for the ordinary people of Alabel it is a valuable resource.

Ladol teems with life

Despite the silt carried by frequent floods to the shores of Ladol, local fishermen and fish cage operators can still manage a good catch from its waters. With its shabby cottages and a shoreline that is occasionally covered with driftwood and trash, it has witnessed numerous family gatherings.

Last summer, I had an intimate affair with Ladol beach, visiting her each day–just before the sun set below the horizon. And here are some pictures I took using my phone’s camera:

A docked fishing boat

Two friends on the shore

A driftwood

Tarpaulin Design for TOSP NCR Awarding Ceremonies

I WAS asked by Aethen to create a tarpaulin design for the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines-National Capital Region Awarding Ceremonies. I owed him for allowing me to stay at his apartment during my stay in Manila. I hope this one is a good payment. Lol.

The content is copied from the tarp they used last year. They wanted it to be minimalistic so I limited the colors to those that are present in the TOSP-AC logo. I lightened the colors a bit so that they wouldn’t appear too sharp. They wanted either a picture of Jose Rizal or of his statue at Luneta Park. Since they used the latter for last year’s tarp, I used Rizal’s face pic instead. It took me about roughly a quarter of an hour to finish it.

I don’t know if they actually used it. I know he edited this for Bicol Region.

A Broken Chair, A Broken Window, and a Dead Tree

HERE ARE pictures I took while administering the National Achievement Test at Kawas National High School, Alabel, Sarangani Province.

Even if this chair is broken, it is equipped with a built-in board game called Dama.

If you are student in this school and you’re pissed with your teacher, you can just jump out through the window.

After jumping out the window, say to yourself, welcome to the world!

Turn Your Photos into Postcards!

IF YOU know Photoshop, Corel Photopaint, GIMP, and other similar applications, turning your photos into postcards is no brainer.

But for those who are not into graphic designing or those who do not have time to edit their pictures, but like to give their photos a different look, or use it as greetting gards, PS Print Printing is just a few clicks away.

What PS Print does is print your photos during your vacations, events you attended, or even those you take everyday as beautiful cards you can give your friends. They have cool design templates that can can be modified and personalized for you.

PS Print offers quality print outs at afforable rates. Transacting with them is easy.  You’ll just have to choose a product, review your order, upload your files and approve it.

If you want to make sure that it’s worth your time and money, you can order free samples! I just did and I’ll just wait for it to arrive at my doorstep.

Aside from postcard printing, they also print business cards, stickers, custom postcards, custom greeting cards, posters and more.

Streets of Zamboanga

I LOVE old cities. I love the street. Zamboanga City has that good combination.

I was in Zamboanga last week and here are the pictures I took while in the backseat of a pickup truck using a borrowed digicam:

The Thinker — Another Attempt at Vector Art

HERE’S MY second attempt at vector art.

This time, I completed it in less time compared to the first time I tried it.

To serve as my guide, I used a desaturated and posterized layer of the original picture at a depth of 6. That made the process a lot easier. However, I had to smoothen some areas a bit to achieve the look I have for it in mind.

Used the pen tool in rubber band mde for the background. I also created a version with different backgrounds but I realized that they looked much like clutter than art.

I also added that badge in the bottom right portion. 1987 signifies the year I was born in. I’ll be 22 soon.

Emo: My First Vector Art

AFTER SPENDING a night on this, I’m finally posting my first vector art. It feel triumphant, noting how rigorous the process is, at least, for me.

I started with this pic:

I know, this is not the best size for creating a vector art. It is best that you start with large photos.

Using only Adobe Photoshop because I don’t have Adobe Illustrator here, I came up with this:

It’s the first time that I used the pen tool. I swear. I didn’t know how to use it if I didn’t decide to learn how to create vector.

When I first saw vector rendering of some photos before, I thought it could be created in one click. I thought you’re just gonna use an Adobe Photoshop Plugin. But no, it could take you hours if you’re into detail.

For this one, I spent about five hours including trying to figure out what tools to use.

So, that’s the story of my first ever vector art. There’s plenty of tutorials online, you should try this activity if you haven’t done it yet.