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.) 🙂

I’m Cynthia and I’m a graphic designer and illustrator. I graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1992 and worked immediately in the advertising industry where I worked my way up from Visualizer to Art Director and eventually, Associate Creative Director over the course of 9 years. I earned a few awards during my stint in the biz. 😉 On my 7th year in the industry though, I took a break and hied off to New York City where I enrolled for a term at Parsons The New School for Design.

In 1995, I reconnected with college friends — members of popular Filipino rock band Eraserheads and became one of their go-to artists. My work for them includes illustrations for their 4th album / children’s book “Fruitcake,” graphic design and layout for two issues of their fanzine “Pillbox,” and album sleeve designs for their subsequent releases “Aloha Milkyway,” “Natin99,” and “Carbon Stereoxide”  as well as “Wanted: Bedspacer” (Ely Buendia’s solo album), and “Inkjet” (Raymund Marasigan’s side project Squid9’s 1st album). My ties with them led to numerous collaborations with other rock bands like Sandwich, the Itchyworms, Imago, and more. You can see most of my music packaging work in my old site.

In 2000 I met my husband Arnold Arre who happens to be a talented artist, graphic novelist, and animator. 🙂  Of course I wanted to spend more time with him so I left my advertising job and went freelance (best decision ever!). We got married in 2003 and I wrote a little bit about our wedding here.

In 2004, fellow U.P. grad & ad industry survivor Marbee Shing-Go called on me to start a magazine called “Wedding Essentials” from the ground up, with her as Editor-in-Chief and me as Design Director. We were a very tiny team and I’m proud to say that it eventually became one of the country’s premiere publications. 🙂  I stayed on for five fun years and in 2009, I stepped down to fulfill my dream of working from home full time.

In 2010, I conquered my fear of public speaking and gave a talk along with Arnold at Graphika Manila. Here’s our opening video in case you want to see it.

My husband & I have a home studio in Quezon City where we are kept company by a sweet marmalade tabby cat who is a constant source of joy and inspiration.

I’ve kept this blog since 2001 so if you backtrack and browse the archives, including the posts in my ancient Greymatter-powered site, I think you’ll get a good enough glimpse of my life, likes, and loves. 🙂

Thank you for reading this far down. If you’d like to discuss a possible project, or maybe just say hi, please do so on this page.

All the best,
Cynthia

Even more about me:
* My design heroes — part 1 / part 2
* Interviews and other pressy stuff

In an alternate reality, the Eraserheads actually released an 8th final full-length album titled Waltz This Knee containing 8 new tracks by the Philippines’ fab four. This is the album’s wraparound sleeve that I designed:

In this reality however, the revolutionary team of Uno Magazine invited me to illustrate a piece written by rock music journalist Aldus Santos about an imagined final Eraserheads album for their special April 2010 (Fiction) issue. Here’s an excerpt:

“In February of this year, I got an unmarked brown envelope that bore the label “Hubad sa Kalsada [Mix-Down 001/2007].” Inside was a CDR. Playing it back, it revealed a bare, guitar-and-voice recording bearing that unmistakable falsetto (with the voice double-tracked, and with a bit of slap-back echo, a la Spector’s Lennon recordings, as in “Instant Karma”). It sounded sort of gothic folk, but sang in falsetto. This was most unusual. Insanely enough, I sometimes get unsolicited demos over e-mail from indie bands who ask for professional advice — to which I invariably say, “I’ll be as much help to you as a sack of hammers; see if there is a listing under ‘Rico Blanco’ in the white pages” — but this can’t be one of those demos. More to the fact, it is unmarked. I personally brought this up with suspect number one, Ely Buendia, but he unnaturally shifted gears, “You know what we don’t hear a lot? Good whistlers.” Such a strange, eyeliner-wearing man.”

Read the rest of the story in Uno Mag’s April 2010 issue. It’s on a limited run and is only available until May 5, 2010 so hurry and get your copy now! Learn more about this special issue on the Uno Magazine website.

***
There are plenty of projects afoot but since I’m not allowed to say anything about them yet, I will just leave you with some new illustrations I made over the past few weeks for no particular reason. If I make more and have them printed as postcards, will anyone buy them? Let me know what you think. 🙂

1. Dreamtangle 1, 2. Dreamtangle 2, 3. Pigtails, 4. Sleeping Kitty