Even before my BGC Art Mart day, I had a feeling I would get a lot of questions about what the kitty accessories I’m selling are made of and how I make them so I put a tutorial together and had it on display in a frame on my table. (You can see part of it in @firehailtree’s instagram photo.). It turned out to be a good idea because my customers were able to understand how much care was placed into each item.  Some even asked if I sold shrink plastic because they’d like to try it out themselves! 😀

Anyway, I’d also like to share the how-tos with you. 🙂

1. I draw the illustrations individually on sheets of shrink plastic, mindful of the fact that the colors will darken and the drawings will shrink down to about 1/3 of its original size. This particular sheet is glossy so I roughened the surface with sandpaper so that I could draw on it with colored pencils.

2. I cut them to shape with a pair of scissors.

3. I shrink the pieces individually using a heat gun. This is best for complicated shapes that you want to have more control over. Otherwise you can use a toaster oven to bake multiple pieces at a time.

4. Ta-dah! The piece is now smaller, thicker, and harder than it was. After it’s cooled down, I would usually spray it with a fixative to “fix” the colored pencil drawings, after which I would apply a glaze coating.

Here’s one of my cat pins in action:

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Apr 25, 2015 at 4:21am PDT

* You may order these from my store. 😀

UPDATE (Oct.27, 2015)

I’ll be having a Shrink Plastic Crafting Workshop at Hey Kessy (Quezon City) on November 21! Please visit this link to sign up and reserve a slot.

I’m very honored to have been asked by Adobo Magazine to draw in watercolor three of this year’s Women of Influence for their March-April issue. As some of you already know, I was in the advertising industry for almost a decade back in the ’90s so I felt a little nostalgic while working on this project.  😎  The lovely ladies I was assigned are (from left to right) Merlee Jayme (CEO of DM9JaymeSyfu), Lorna Tabuena (Co-owner of Film Pabrika), and Joanna Mojica (Managing Director of Starcom Mediavest Group).

The objective was to portray them in a manner best representative of their accomplishments and status. Of the three women, I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting Merlee — a creative director I’ve always looked up to — long ago when we had lunch to explore the possibility of me working with her in Saatchi. 😉  I wanted to learn more about Ms. Tabuena and Ms. Mojica so it helped a lot when Adobo’s Victor and Charisma sent me their interviews. It struck me that these highly successful women were most proud of their accomplishments as mothers and wives, which is why I thought of making the portraits elegant and feminine, hence the flowers and light colors.

There’s a closer view of the illustrations in the Portfolio section. Many thanks to Angel Guerrero of Adobo for this golden opportunity.

***

On another note, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining my first craft fair on Saturday, April 11 in Bonifacio Global City for the BGC Art Mart. I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to join one this soon but my friend, Marita Alcazaren de Leon of Handmade Lemonade, a veteran of these bazaars, convinced and encouraged me to try it out so I applied. I could’ve signed up for one whole weekend but I don’t trust my energy resources anymore. 😛 Here are some of the items I’ll be selling —

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Apr 6, 2015 at 2:48am PDT

Please keep an eye on Instagram because I’ll be posting a few more items in the next few days. I’ll be there from 12 noon to 9 pm so if you’ll be in the vicinity, please say hello. I would love to meet you. 🙂

Ever since I started to actively post my illustration work on social media, I’ve been getting inquiries about portraiture which is flattering because I eventually want to get into that. The thing is I’d like to #practicepamore. 😉

Who to populate my portfolio with, though? My drawing style seems suited to teen-aged girls so I knew my subjects had to fall within that demographic. Turns out I didn’t have to look too far. I knew four friends (collectively known as the Eraserheads) who have daughters — pretty ones at that. It was only fitting that I get the girls as my portrait models — I owe my career-outside-advertising to their dads, I hung out with the moms when they were still in their bellies, and I pretty much saw them grow up. One of them, Veda, was even our flower girl! The portraits were also going to be my gifts to the families. <3

Thankfully the parents were cool with it so I coordinated with the moms and the older girls on which outfits their favorites were because I wanted their portraits to reflect their personas as closely as possible. Below on the left are my preliminary pencil sketches. After showing them to each family, I fine-tuned the drawings and transferred them on to 270 gsm cold press watercolor paper.

Initially I wanted to use colored pencils but it was Arnold who convinced me to use water color instead. I hesitated since I haven’t painted people realistic-style in years and that would be way out of my comfort zone. He suggested that I practice on smaller drawings first so I made these mini versions below to play with until I got my groove back. (I highly recommend this especially if you’re shifting from one medium to another.)

It felt almost like playing once I got the hang of it… Okay now I think I want to do everything in watercolor. 😛

Painting these lovely young rock and roll ladies today. ???? These girls weren't even born yet when I first met and worked with their parents. ???? #watercolor #eraserkids #artph #wip

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Feb 26, 2015 at 11:32pm PST

And finally here are the finished portraits. (For a closer look at the individual illustrations, please head on over to the portfolio entry.) 🙂