Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve already populated my online store with some of the new Philippine pop art -themed products. Also tweaked its appearance so it looks a bit more polished now (uh, yes, finally :P).  Since I’m revamping my product line due to recent epiphanies, most of my older prints and stickers are now ON SALE (at very low prices guise!) so do go and visit the store and grab whatever you can since I won’t be reprinting them ever again. (Make sure to check out the online exclusives section too.) 😀  GO NOW, GO >>

Hello! Is anyone still reading this? I’ve been wanting to revive this blog but I didn’t know what to write about… or if what I will write will interest readers, even if there are just two or three of you now. Or none? Eep! *takes deep breath* Aaanyway. I’ve noticed that blogs these days seem to be more focused on making money, unlike in the early days when everyone was doing it to share thoughts with a tight-knit community. I miss those times but I guess there’s Facebook now for that kind of thing.

So maybe I’ll start with what kept me busy when I wasn’t here. Ironically, I was also  blogging –> over there. What started out as a small hobby exploded into something bigger than I expected. At least I was still making art in the form of invitations but I missed having a venue for personal self-expression. So then I started making little illustrations that I turned into patterns which I sold online on various surfaces, from iPhone covers to fabric.

And if you’ve seen my Instagram feed, you’ll notice that I’ve recently been leaning towards analog design. I rescued my Print Gocco from unuse ((lol at my old tutorial! Do you know how many times I used it since then? A whopping one time.)) and went crazy using up almost all of my (ahem, hoarded) screens and bulbs. Sadly though, since the Gocco got discontinued, supplies are now hard to come by — not to mention really expensive if you’re lucky enough to find some on eBay. Which is why I’ve been looking for other ways to get my art printed and then I thought, why not try rubber stamping? We did this in school with erasers before but I haven’t done it in years.

A photo posted by Arnold and Cynthia Arre (@arncyn) on Dec 12, 2014 at 5:53am PST

So last week I got reacquainted with the X-acto knife and, armed with cheap National Book Store rubber erasers, I started carving away. I’d set aside 2 hours an evening just to practice. There was some blood oh yes but I’m determined to get a lot better at it so that I can get my ideas on print. I’ve learned three things so far:

1. I need better sculpting tools. I ordered a Speedball lino cutter from Amazon but I’ll have to wait for a few more weeks for it.
2. The cuts should be shallow. I was making deep cuts at first but then I noticed  that it took a lot of effort to turn the blade around which resulted in jagged lines.
3. Practicing can really make a difference. Comparing the stamps I made last week with this week’s batch, I would say there’s an improvement.

Here’s one I made today. The lines are still crude but I’m glad I managed to carve out all those little stripes without giving up. Stay tuned for more of my adventures in rubber stamp carving.

Meanwhile, I also wanted to tell you that I spiffied up the surroundings in case you hadn’t noticed. 🙂 A portfolio of my newer stuff is now integrated into the site plus I wrote a novel for the about me page lol. So there, I started blogging here again — no turning back now. More soon!

I apologize for being in a bad mood today but a certain “Totally Creative Graphic Design Studio” totally ripped off one of my original artworks and is selling it on notepads, journals and other stationery in their store “Invitation House“. Tsk.

My original design, a low-res image of which has been on Flickr and my Cafepress store since 2008 is on the left. The copycat’s “design” is on the right (watermarked with the statement “property of Invitation House”. Yeah, right!)

Totally Creative Graphic Design Studio copied my design

A friend who was browsing the Invitation House stall in Trinoma gave me the heads up. I’ve already written the proprietor, Jess Marquez — who may or may not know that the design is a rip-off – and I certainly hope something will be done about this soon.

UPDATE (May 31, 2010) ~ my friend, Rock Ed/ReThink Media Group head Gang Badoy Capati blogged about it on Tumblr this afternoon and the owners quickly got in touch with her so she set a meeting for tonight. We met with them just a few hours ago along with lawyer/writer Oli Reyes and I think it’s safe to say that we were able to reach an agreement with them. Apparently a freelancer artist/OJT student submitted the design to them and passed it off as her own (boo!).

The owners of TCGS and Invitation House, Mr. & Mrs. Jess Marquez seem like a pleasant couple and it turns out that they are willing to settle the mishap properly. I’ll give you details once we’ve finalized it but right now I am just thankful for the support of lovely friends who blogged/tweeted about it and gave tons of advice on how to handle the issue. It’s not about me getting compensated, it’s really about standing up for the creation and protection of 100% ORIGINAL work.

UPDATE: June 8, 2010

I received a tip as to the name of the so-called “artist” who ripped off my design in this entry’s comments page. Can anyone else confirm if the info provided is correct? By now I hope she’s learned that tracing over someone else’s hard work is SO not the way to success.