Just a quick note to let you know that 8″ x 10″ and 4″ x 6″ art and postcard prints featuring some of my recent cat-approved watercolor illustrations are now listed at the shop, in case you’re interested. 😉 There are three new art prints and twelve postcards. (You can use the “sort by newness” filter in the drop down to see all of them.) I’m also selling these — among others — at a small art fair along with some pretty awesome artists & crafters next month. I’ll announce once more details are available. 🙂

(I actually constructed this post as I was waiting for my turn at the dentist’s office the other day where I underwent Root Canal part 1. Hope that’s not TMI.)

If it’s not obvious enough from Instagram, I’ve fallen in love with painting all over again. I can trace this love from back when I was 4 or 5 when I received my first Guitar watercolor set. You know the one — hard, loose cakes with hardly no pigment in a flat tin case. Fortunately my parents lovingly supported my whims and bought me art books & materials without flinching whenever I needed them. For instance, this slanted drawing board which I’ve had since I was 8…

It’s filled with old memories of spilled paints, failed sunset wash attempts, and crudely cut friskets (which you can still see traces of). I can’t bear to throw it out even if there are better, less clunky, CLEANER tabletop easels out there. Happy that it’s getting a lot of use again.

I also went on a mission to unearth old sketch books from my room at my parents’ because I wanted to see them again and show them to Arnold. Out emerged a stack of moldy Corona pads filled with yellowing pages of (mostly laughable) illustrations from when I was in grade school up ’til college. Just for fun I’m sharing some of the more presentable ones:

1) These are from 6th grade when I was obsessed with painting trees and Sanrio characters. Kiki and Lala were my faves, as you can see.

2) More drawings from 6th Grade, also because we had “Practical Arts” as a subject. So here are early attempts at figure drawing and lettering. And yes, yet another tree.

3) Big jump from 6th grade to 4th year high school. I remember being fascinated with paisley patterns and water reflections. Incidentally I made a lot of oil paintings in high school. I think I’ll show them another time.

4) These sketches were for Figure Drawing 101 class in college in U.P. where I was fortunate to have had Robert Alejandro as a teacher. All the stiff-looking figures above are mine but the fluid figure guide in between the dancer and man carrying a baby is his. I remember him telling me to loosen up my lines because I was so self-conscious when drawing. I think I still am at times… Anyway. He was also my teacher in Advertising 101 so I have more plates with his signature and advice / comments on them.

5: More sketchbook drawings from college. Being in Fine Arts allowed me to express myself through illustration. This will carbon-date me but the guy on the left is supposed to be Robert Downey Jr. in “Less Than Zero.” The boy on the top right was copied from U2’s album “Boy” and the drawings on the bottom right are supposed to be Terry Hall on the cover of The Colourfield’s “Confession” album. (New Wave fan right here *raises hand*)

6) Even more drawings from the college years. I don’t recall my state of mind when I was drawing the girl and the snake but I must’ve been in an emo phase (though the term “emo” hasn’t been coined up yet. Back then it was simply called “being a teenager.”)

And finally, one of my old favorites because I think I was able to capture his likeness without using a grid…

Unearthed my old sketchbook and found this – a #watercolorportrait I did of the late River Phoenix for art class in 1990 (don’t do the math now ????) #UPCFAhits #oldschool #watercolorph

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Apr 17, 2015 at 9:34am PDT

Side note: I was a big fan of River Phoenix since his “Explorers” days — way before “Stand By Me.” I used to watch “Sneakers” and “Running on Empty” over and over (on a Betamax, lol). This painting was done 3 years before his untimely demise in 1993. I’m not even sure if it was for class, I think I just painted him for watercolor portrait practice.

Hope you enjoyed this little journey down memory lane.

Way back in 2004, Arnold and I were part of a Yahoo Group called “Hey! Comics” led by our good friend Ramon de Veyra. It consisted of a bunch of (mainly) non-mainstream-comic readers which made the mailing list a convenient outlet for friendly discussion about recent reads.

Since there were writers & artists in the group, Ramon thought of putting out an anthology of *our own* works. I had never drawn & written a comic before save for a cheesy application letter to an ad agency after graduation. ((That company DID NOT hire me, by the way lol)).  I wanted to leave that expertise to Arnold but Ramon insisted that I try too. Arn encouraged me as well and advised me that perhaps I should draw from personal experience. So I came up with “Split Screen.” I don’t want to reveal too much but it’s basically a story about finding closure and moving on from a painful past. (In other words, #hugot) 🙂

It’s only 3 pages long and it has no dialogue so you can click on the image if you’d like to view it in full. I do hope you can let me know what you think of it. 🙂

* By the way, I found Ramon’s blog entry about the comic’s launch from July 2004. Reading it felt like traveling back in time…

** This was previously uploaded in Multiply but since that site is now gone, I thought I’d place it in my portfolio in time for Free Comic Book Day on May 2. )