Just a few days after Ralph Macquarrie, the world lost yet another master.

I owe a lot to Jean “Moebius” Giraud. My style has been heavily influenced by his art. I first learned of him sometime in the late ’80s after I read reviews of Tron and Blade Runner, the costumes of which he designed. His breathtaking artworks left me awestruck and I was amazed by how this man could effortlessly draw from imagination without inhibition. He feels the moment and draws it on paper.

(Just to add,  his take on Silver Surfer is, for me,  still the best.)

Every time I feel down, each moment I’m tempted to go for the mainstream “money shot”, or even as I struggle with a project, I would look at his works and get inspired by how easy he can evoke emotion and energy with just a few strokes. Here’s a simple, straightforward, and encouraging quote from him for all artists:

It is difficult to give advice to aspiring artists. There are so many things one should say. It’s difficult to be brief. Every artist is diferent, and good advice to one artist is bad for another. My best advice would be, “be what you must be and do your best. Anything more precise, more specific cannot apply because everyone is too different.” (The Art of Moebius edited by Byron Preiss)

The tribute illustrations are based on his Arzach stories. He once said that three elements must come together for the artist when he draws — beauty, truth and love. Whether or not I got it right with these drawings, I leave it up to him.

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Just a few days after Ralph Macquarrie, the world lost yet another master.

I owe a lot to Jean “Moebius” Giraud. My style has been heavily influenced by his art. I first learned of him sometime in the late ’80s after I read reviews of Tron and Blade Runner, the costumes of which he designed. His breathtaking artworks left me awestruck and I was amazed by how this man could effortlessly draw from imagination without inhibition. He feels the moment and draws it on paper.

(Just to add,  his take on Silver Surfer is, for me,  still the best.)

Every time I feel down, each moment I’m tempted to go for the mainstream “money shot”, or even as I struggle with a project, I would look at his works and get inspired by how easy he can evoke emotion and energy with just a few strokes. Here’s a simple, straightforward, and encouraging quote from him for all artists:

It is difficult to give advice to aspiring artists. There are so many things one should say. It’s difficult to be brief. Every artist is diferent, and good advice to one artist is bad for another. My best advice would be, “be what you must be and do your best. Anything more precise, more specific cannot apply because everyone is too different.” (The Art of Moebius edited by Byron Preiss)

The tribute illustrations are based on his Arzach stories. He once said that three elements must come together for the artist when he draws — beauty, truth and love. Whether or not I got it right with these drawings, I leave it up to him.

Just a few days after Ralph Macquarrie, the world lost yet another master.

I owe a lot to Jean “Moebius” Giraud. My style has been heavily influenced by his art. I first learned of him sometime in the late ’80s after I read reviews of Tron and Blade Runner, the costumes of which he designed. His breathtaking artworks left me awestruck and I was amazed by how this man could effortlessly draw from imagination without inhibition. He feels the moment and draws it on paper.

(Just to add,  his take on Silver Surfer is, for me,  still the best.)

Every time I feel down, each moment I’m tempted to go for the mainstream “money shot”, or even as I struggle with a project, I would look at his works and get inspired by how easy he can evoke emotion and energy with just a few strokes. Here’s a simple, straightforward, and encouraging quote from him for all artists:

It is difficult to give advice to aspiring artists. There are so many things one should say. It’s difficult to be brief. Every artist is diferent, and good advice to one artist is bad for another. My best advice would be, “be what you must be and do your best. Anything more precise, more specific cannot apply because everyone is too different.” (The Art of Moebius edited by Byron Preiss)

The tribute illustrations are based on his Arzach stories. He once said that three elements must come together for the artist when he draws — beauty, truth and love. Whether or not I got it right with these drawings, I leave it up to him.

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Thanks to everyone who viewed and sent in great feedback for the “Kaninong Anino” video animation. I want to share with you an interesting message from history researcher and translator Ms. Mari Furusawa, a colleague of my father-in-law Dr. Leslie Bauzon’s from back in Japan. Furusawa-san is well-versed in our culture and history and sent in this touching note after viewing the animation:

Dear Bauzon sensei,

Thank you for sending the music video created by Arnold. It was so beautiful and moving. The song was great. The image of the ruined Manila provoked my memories about the violence committed by the Japanese military at the beginning of 1945.

Arnold explained the image differently at his website, but the image will trigger many people’s memory of the Asia-Pacific War, I think. The biggest difficulty in the history of the Philippines burdened on her people was the invasion and violent war by Japan, wasn’t it?

Putting that aside, the message of the video is very clear and inspiring. It says that there is hope in hands of each and every individual in the country. The video is the perfect work for the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal. Congratulations to Arnold on the completion of the beautiful video! I hope the video will enjoy a lot of audience around the world and the sincere and warm message of the video and the song will inspire and encourage peoples beyond national borders.

Send my warm regards to Cynthia and Arnold.

With best wishes,
Mari

It’s a very interesting point of view — again, something I never really thought about when I was making the video and putting in all that destruction because the song’s message, to me,  is really all about our own mistakes as a people and a call to action for us to rise against the rubble. Still, I am happy that the message about hope came across despite the language and culture barriers.

On that note, allow me to end this entry by sharing that my wife is currently studying Nihongo so the entire time I was editing it, she was singing along to the video using Japanese lyrics: Watashitachi no teki wa kage desu ka? (Ang kalaban lang ba natin ay anino?)

A few months back, Rock Ed Philippines asked me to make the music video for “Kaninong Anino“, a song from the ROCK RIZAL album in celebration of Dr. Jose Rizal’s 150th anniversary. It was easy for me to say yes since the music and the idea behind the project is already wonderful and impressive to begin with.

I originally intended for the video to be in live-action full of intensive special effects and green-screen shots. The original storyboard featured a post-apocalyptic vision of Manila complete with flying jeepneys and hologram images, something I’ve always wanted to do. Here are test videos I made.

Rizal Monument test

Quezon Memorial Circle test with actual footage of people in the foreground

While this project was in progress, I also started experimenting with animation. I was very happy with the feedback on the Andong Agimat video so it was then and there that I decided to go with that medium for the Rock Ed video instead.

The concept remains the same except that with animation, I realized that I can show Rizal as the main character walking amidst ruins. I knew it would be a mistake to try and interpret the lyrics literally so I put a lot of symbolism in the video. We see the structures of Manila all destroyed, however the monuments are still standing. It’s my way of saying that with all the corruption, our country has deteriorated and because of consumerism, we seem to have forgotten our heroes and what they fought for. However their images are still intact and that’s one thing that should encourage us to go on.

The concept came about when I was driving along EDSA and saw all the bilboards and dizzying neon signs representing our modern lifestyles and wondered what Rizal might think if he were here today. In fact, the opening scene of the video shows him looking at the P1.00 coin and I was wondering what he could be thinking, seeing that his image has been relegated to a mere peso coin. Then again if you think about it, one peso isn’t bad at all — it has the symbol “1″ which means No. 1 and because of its minimum value, it’s accessible to every Juan.

I’m very happy with the video, my only hope is that people don’t focus too much on the destruction (although honestly that was the original intention. I believe you can’t powerfully illustrate the positive without contrasting it with the negative.) The end sequence where Rizal hurdles the broken bridge and takes a break from his tour should give people the idea that there is hope for our country and all of us.

I’m very thankful to Gang Badoy Capati (who wrote the moving lyrics) for trusting me with the video and kudos to all the musicians who inspired me in working on this memorable project. Here it is, please enjoy.

Welcome to the latest version of my website! We finally found time to load it with new works (for the first time since 2004 ). Cyn and I agreed that a simpler portfolio site with a blog is best since it’ll be easier to update. ( In case you miss the old site, it can be found here. )

I always get messages asking about where copies of Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden, Andong Agimat, and The Mythology Class can be found. Sadly, you won’t find them anywhere since they’re all out of print. However, I heard from Nautilus Comics publisher (and my Private Iris partner) Jamie Bautista that Martial Law Babies is still available so please check it out too and I’ll see what I can do about getting the others republished.

There hasn’t been a book from me since 2008. That was when I decided to switch gears and focus on a long time dream of mine… film. With the help of family and friends I was able to produce two shorts, Chapter One and Kaye for Komiks. I’ve screened them in schools so you might have seen them already. For those who haven’t, I’m still researching on how to stream the full-length movies from this site and I’ll make sure to give you guys a heads up when they’re finally online.

When I work on my stories I always play them in my head as movies with sound, music and motion which is why I’ve always felt hindered by the limitations of  the static comic book page. Music is especially tricky to interpret although I did my best with the “Night and Day” sequence in After Eden, and this concert scene from Martial Law Babies (the page on the right), but I guess it’s not the same.

Due to this frustration, just half a month ago I decided to try my hand at animation. Apart from making flip books as a kid, I’ve never done it before but I took that as a challenge and went ahead and made one.

Two weeks and several sheets of paper later, I’m happy to present my first animated work. It’s a 4 minute long short film titled Andong Agimat: Kanya ang Kalye. Animation is tedious work but I really enjoyed making this and I hope you’ll like it. You can watch it below.

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Welcome to the latest version of my website! We finally found time to load it with new works (for the first time since 2004 ). Cyn and I agreed that a simpler portfolio site with a blog is best since it’ll be easier to update. ( In case you miss the old site, it can be found here. )

I always get messages asking about where copies of Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden, Andong Agimat, and The Mythology Class can be found. Sadly, you won’t find them anywhere since they’re all out of print. However, I heard from Nautilus Comics publisher (and my Private Iris partner) Jamie Bautista that Martial Law Babies is still available so please check it out too and I’ll see what I can do about getting the others republished.

There hasn’t been a book from me since 2008. That was when I decided to switch gears and focus on a long time dream of mine… film. With the help of family and friends I was able to produce two shorts, Chapter One and Kaye for Komiks. I’ve screened them in schools so you might have seen them already. For those who haven’t, I’m still researching on how to stream the full-length movies from this site and I’ll make sure to give you guys a heads up when they’re finally online.

When I work on my stories I always play them in my head as movies with sound, music and motion which is why I’ve always felt hindered by the limitations of  the static comic book page. Music is especially tricky to interpret although I did my best with the “Night and Day” sequence in After Eden, and this concert scene from Martial Law Babies (the page on the right), but I guess it’s not the same.

Due to this frustration, just half a month ago I decided to try my hand at animation. Apart from making flip books as a kid, I’ve never done it before but I took that as a challenge and went ahead and made one.

Two weeks and several sheets of paper later, I’m happy to present my first animated work. It’s a 4 minute long short film titled Andong Agimat: Kanya ang Kalye. Animation is tedious work but I really enjoyed making this and I hope you’ll like it. You can watch it below.

Welcome to the latest version of my website! We finally found time to load it with new works (for the first time since 2004 ). Cyn and I agreed that a simpler portfolio site with a blog is best since it’ll be easier to update. ( In case you miss the old site, it can be found here. )

I always get messages asking about where copies of Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden, Andong Agimat, and The Mythology Class can be found. Sadly, you won’t find them anywhere since they’re all out of print. However, I heard from Nautilus Comics publisher (and my Private Iris partner) Jamie Bautista that Martial Law Babies is still available so please check it out too and I’ll see what I can do about getting the others republished.

There hasn’t been a book from me since 2008. That was when I decided to switch gears and focus on a long time dream of mine… film. With the help of family and friends I was able to produce two shorts, Chapter One and Kaye for Komiks. I’ve screened them in schools so you might have seen them already. For those who haven’t, I’m still researching on how to stream the full-length movies from this site and I’ll make sure to give you guys a heads up when they’re finally online.

When I work on my stories I always play them in my head as movies with sound, music and motion which is why I’ve always felt hindered by the limitations of  the static comic book page. Music is especially tricky to interpret although I did my best with the “Night and Day” sequence in After Eden, and this concert scene from Martial Law Babies (the page on the right), but I guess it’s not the same.

Due to this frustration, just half a month ago I decided to try my hand at animation. Apart from making flip books as a kid, I’ve never done it before but I took that as a challenge and went ahead and made one.

Two weeks and several sheets of paper later, I’m happy to present my first animated work. It’s a 4 minute long short film titled Andong Agimat: Kanya ang Kalye. Animation is tedious work but I really enjoyed making this and I hope you’ll like it. You can watch it below.

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