My 8-year-old sister comes home one day after school and walks up to me and says “Jo-jo came to school with his eyes all bloodshot”.
Surprised, thinking the most horrible things, I replied “Oh no, what happened to him?”
“Well yesterday, he was alone in his room and thought that he could turn Super Saiyan. So he tried really, really hard to a point where he popped blood vessels in his eyes”. She replied with a smile.
Prior to this moment, I was unaware that one could possibly DIE from laughing so hard. But the gods have smiled upon me so I can live to tell the tale. This illustration is for that special kid (my hero for the week) who thought he could turn Super Saiyan. “A+” for effort!!!
Technical stuff:
I’ve always loved making shapes. I create them on my spare time and with the intention to provoke a mood. This shape, the giant mass of floating something is my depiction of tension and anxiety. It’s not anything directly representative… although I am sure if one looks hard enough, shapes become recognizable.
The illustration is about a fight or a match. It is about a little boy with superhero-like imagination, tossing away the gloves to confront the unexpected and overpowering unknown (I call it growing up, or Jee-pee for short). It’s a fight to the finish. Winner takes all, with a touch of “you’re gonna have to drag me to an office desk, kicking, biting and screaming” attitude. Call it my Peter Pan syndrome.
Oh yeah, and the fish. The fish is the sidekick. Because really…who wants to be a super hero without a sidekick? // note: I decided to take out the fish. Although I loved him so, he just wasn't working with the composition. Owell, I'm sure hell come up again somewhere. //
When I was small child living in Manila Philippines, my grandparents whom lived a very meager life worked the good part of the day. During this time, I was left alone to fend for myself, exploring freely my house and town. My grandmother to this day tells stories about how she would come home and find me sleeping in the most awkward, small and cramped spaces. My favorite place she said, were cabinet drawers.
I do recall slivers of those memories. I didn’t have any siblings, toys or many friends, so for fun...I locked myself in small, dark confined areas and imagined magical and fantastic things. I would play out stories in my head, wording out with conviction every moment. I did this...until I fell asleep. This is what I considered “play”.
// This is my main Illustration Friday entry. I'll ellaborate more on it later. I'm sleepy...ZzzZzzzz //
Ok, I'm awake now....well, kinda. This illo is an amalgamation (big word..tee-hee) of thoughts and ideas that eventually grew more interesting partly due to my busted copy of Photoshop. When in doubt, improvise :)
Anyways, I was literally two seconds away from throwing my computer out the window and shooting it with flaming napalm arrows on its way down, when I decided it would be best to take a long walk outside and let things simmer for a bit. Two hours later, Yvonne found me. Or I found her…I haven’t quite figured that one out yet, and she like the very cool person that she is, sat me down and guided me through the painful process of “not giving up”. She stayed up late with me, woke up early and even made me breakfast. She gave the best suggestions and even did some of the crap clean-up work while I was taking a nap!!! I think… I owe her dinner or something…
So anyways, this is the outcome of my weekend.
Oh, Yvonne, if you are reading this, thank you again so MUCH :)
This is a late entry for last weeks I.F. word "Clean". I literally found it Thursday mid-day, so I didn't have much time. But I decided to post it up anyways for fun.
My 8-year-old sister comes home one day after school and walks up to me and says “Jo-jo came to school with his eyes all bloodshot”. 
