WEDGIENET.NET

I have an agent!

Reg — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:21:34 +0000

When I resigned from my design job last October 2011 to get back into freelance illustration, my goal was to get an artist representative. Being from the Philippines, it’s hard to get connections and client projects beyond Asia and my own country. As an illustrator, I would also rather work on the art than negotiate contracts, chase payments, create paperwork for licensing rights, and all that boring, nosebleed-inducing stuff.

That’s where the art rep comes in. Regular visitors to this site (all two of them) might have noticed a red “represented by” image on my blog sidebar I put up several weeks ago. I’m happy to announce I am now represented by Advocate Art, a UK-based artist agency :D They will make international projects and clients more accessible to little third world me, work out contracts, and handle billing (another nosebleed territory for me who flunked one grading period of 6th grade math– true story), among others. I am working with Natasha from Advocate who is guiding me and helping me prepare my illustration portfolio towards a more commercial market coz I’m a sellout like that :P

So, hooray! I can’t rest easy though, as the real work will only be just beginning. But since it’s work I love doing, I don’t have any problem with that :)

You can check out my artist bio on the Advocate Art blog and see my Advocate portfolio here.

Finally, here’s some work-related news I can share with “the Internet public.” I have recently finished illustrating my first children’s book! It’s called Ang Munting Anghel (The Little Angel), a story written by two-time Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) winner Bobim Papasin. I can’t show you the finished product just yet but the whole thing’s just been sent off to the printers. It’s a local (Philippines) publication and I expect it will be out soon! In the meantime, here are a few teaser images. Can’t wait to show you the rest of it! :)

See related posts on this blog

Illustrated travel journal: waiting for the train at LAX Union Station

Reg — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:33:49 +0000

Flying over Manila, Philippines. Photo from my Instagram.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been traveling these days. I’ve been in California since the first week of April for a little working vacation to visit family and friends and go on little trips on the side.

From Manila, I flew two hours to Taiwan where I spent some time during my four-hour layover looking for the Hello Kitty airport lounge (more on that in another entry). Then from Taipei, I took a 12-hour flight to Los Angeles. I was hoping to catch an in-flight movie but the man sitting in front of me on the plane had inconsiderately reclined his seat all the way back and I couldn’t see the screen in front of me properly. Oh, the hassle of flying economy. I slept a lot instead (what else is there to do?) and worked on this page.

I really regret not bringing a book along. I didn’t want to add bulk to my already-overstuffed luggage.

by the Embarcadero. Photo from my Instagram.

I spent a nice-but-too-short weekend in San Francisco a few days ago and it was so short that I didn’t even make a dent in my travel journal, but I found enough idle time for a few pages of drawings while waiting for the Amtrak from LA to San Diego after my SF weekend.

You can click here for a bigger version of this page.

The girl from the tropical country wears too many layers for LA.

I’m chilling for the next few weeks here in San Diego and hopefully I can sneak in more drawings in my journal. I’ve not finished my journal entries from my Japan trip yet!

See related posts on this blog

Pixelbureau interview, 2009

Reg — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:55:49 +0000

For lack of fresh blog content (I’ve been traveling these past few days), I’ll be re-posting an old interview the now-defunct Pixelbureau (a local design portal/online magazine) did with me in 2009. My About page references this interview and the link has been grayed out for the longest time, so now’s a good time to resurrect it.

I may have done this interview three years ago but my answers then still pretty much hold true even today. Some of my earlier work accompany the interview below.

1. Could you introduce yourself and share to us how you ended up in the design world as illustrator/graphic designer?

My name is Reg and I graduated from DLS-College of Saint Benilde with a Multimedia Arts degree in 2005. Before that though, I was already dabbling in Photoshop and webdesign in high school. I’ve always been interested in art ever since I was a kid and growing up in the age of technological advancements, it was only natural to shift to digital media. I got my first job right out of college as a motion graphics artist in a broadcasting company, but after three years I burned out and resigned to pursue freelance illustration and design. I don’t really have a background as an illustrator but I’m slowly building myself one.

2. What is the story behind your site www.wedgienet.net?

My real name is Regina and when I was in grade six, people started calling me Reggie. You know how kids are– some started attaching the word Wedgie to it just because it rhymes, so I became Reggie the Wedgie. Not because I always had wedgies (I didn’t), but just because it just goes together. And the name stuck. Some people still call me Wedgie up to now.

When I registered a domain for my website when I was in college, I decided to take on the Wedgie moniker. I haven’t bothered changing it because it’s easy to remember and it has become my handle online.

3. What is the inspiration behind your creativity?

No single thing, really. A line from a movie or a funny joke can spark an idea for a design. Sometimes I also draw things that have happened to me or to another person. Also, in my daily Internet travels, if I see a drawing or a photo I like, I save it on folders on my hard drive labelled “Inspiration-design” or “Inspiration-illustration.” When I’m feeling stuck on a brief, I browse through these saved pictures hoping for inspiration to strike. I single out bits and pieces I like (i.e. I like the font on this one, the color combination on the other one, etc.) and try to make my own version. But I try not to look at these pictures too long as I don’t want to start copying them subconsciously.

4. What sites do you frequently visit for design inspiration and challenges?

I read a lot of illustrators’ blogs and I have a lot of amazing Flickr illustration contacts whose work I keep myself updated on. One of my favorite design/illustration showcase sites is Illustrativo, a really simple photoblog with hardly any words, just pictures. There’s a nice variety of designs and illustrations there, ranging from cutesy to modern to morbid to fantasy. I also used to take on the weekly challenges on Illustration Friday but I haven’t had time to sit down and do that lately.

5. Who would you say greatly influenced you in your design style?

The thing is, I feel like I haven’t found my style just yet. It changes depending on my mood and medium (i.e. pencil, tablet, what software I’m using). I think that’s kinda nice because I’m the type of person who gets bored easily, so having the freedom to switch it up is good for my short attention span. Having said that, the people whose styles I look up to are greatly varied. I like Lucy Knisley‘s cartoony approach, Mall‘s very detailed fantasy-like paintings, Jannie Ho‘s clean lines and anthropomorphic animals, Gustavo Aimar‘s use of collage and mixed media, the retro visuals of Scott Hansen. The list goes on and on. I don’t really have a favorite style in particular.

6. What is your thought on the Philippine graphic design scene?

To be honest, I don’t really know much about the local design scene. I don’t attend design conferences and most of whom I follow are non-Filipinos. But for a casual observer like me, one thing that really stands out in the local design scene is the nationalistic pride emerging in design. We see it in Team Manila‘s t-shirt designs and they’ve helped boost hundreds of other Filipino designers proudly displaying Pinoy pride on their canvasses.

7. If you weren’t a designer, what do you see yourself to be?

Most of the work I do is fun and whimsical– jungle animals, cupcakes, funny kids running around, smiling people. So if I weren’t an illustrator/designer, I’d like to have an equally fun job. And I’ve thought of this before you even asked me this question: I’d love to work in a toy store because it’ll be like I’m getting paid to play with the toys.

But before I picked out Multimedia Arts (MMA) as my course in college, I was also interested in Interior Design and Architecture so I might’ve gone for that if MMA wasn’t an option. Or if I were any good at math.

8. What keeps you busy besides your passion for design?

I don’t really have any interests outside of design. It’s kind of sad. Haha. When I don’t have freelance work, I tend to my online shop on Etsy where I (used to -Reg, 2012 edit) sell my handmade illustrated paper goods. I make illustrations for notebooks, tumblers, stickers, and button pins and post them on Etsy, a marketplace for handmade goods. I’ve made 90 sales in less than a year and I’ve shipped my stuff all over the US, Europe, and Asia. It’s a fun thing to do on the side– deadlines don’t exist and I can design whatever I want for myself, not for a client.

9. What would you advise a young aspiring designer (like you) who decides to take this career path?

I always advise my designer friends when they ask me how I get freelance work to put up their own website or at least get their work out there on the Internet. It’s a must! You can’t rely on just word of mouth alone to get design gigs. I have had the chance to work on projects from around the world from clients who see my work on my website. I also get work coming from visitors on my Flickr stream as well, so it doesn’t really matter if you have your own domain or not. What matters is getting your work out there and having a way for visitors to contact you. And generally, design gigs abroad pay better than local projects.

10. Anything you want to add?

Thank you very much for the interview! :-)

See related posts on this blog

All work and no play makes Reg a dull girl.

Reg — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:01:11 +0000

When I take a break from drawing (work), I end up doing more drawing (non-work). It’s like playing. They say it’s important to also spend time on personal work as these are the things that will get you paid projects in the future. Here are a couple of stuff not directly related to what I’m working on. I wish I can tell you what it is I’m working on, but I’m not big on announcing stuff until they’re completed (here’s a 6-minute TED talk that supports that idea) :P

A page from my sketchbook

I’m not a dog person so I wasn’t aware until recently that chocolate can be poisonous for dogs. Whodathunk?!

If these personal works will be landing me paid gigs in the future, I hope that these future projects involve animals, chocolate, and coffee. And bacon. Mmmmm. Bacooonnnn…

See related posts on this blog

Illustrated travel journal: Sagada, Mt. Province, Philippines

Reg — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:55:13 +0000

(Tip: you can click on the journal pages to view a bigger version)

The inside front cover of my travel journal

While having breakfast with my cousin one day while on vacation in Japan, I brought up the topic of travel blogs. My cousin Miki, three years younger than me, is an avid traveler and has been all over Asia, the US, and Europe, as well as our own country, the Philippines. Miki’s a talented writer and has a flair for photography as well, so I thought she’d be great at putting up a blog of her travels. “I always say I’ll write about my trips,” she said. “But I never do.”

I told her I plan to blog about my trips as well, but with a different spin: I’ll document it in photos and in a sketchbook. Kind of like The Sketching Backpacker, except I don’t backpack. LOL. Miki gave me a side glance. “Yeah, riiiight,” she said with a knowing laugh. I knew what she meant. It means that when the trip is over, we all go back to our usual, daily routine (work/school/whatever) and all plans for writing about the trip, organizing photos, etc. are thrown out the window. The least you can do is upload 473 photos of the trip on Facebook (after selecting from the 1034 you took), oftentimes not bothering to write out captions because who has time for captions?!

That conversation with Miki happened in November 2011, but I actually started keeping a travel sketchbook two months earlier. I bought a red, pocket-sized Moleskine sketchbook in time for my trip to Sagada, a rustic mountain town in Mountain Province, Philippines. I got the idea to keep an illustrated travel diary from cartoonist Lucy Knisley, who kept one (and published it as a book!) during a trip to Paris. I have no plans to go that far with my travel journal though; I just think it would be nice to keep a visual account of the things and experiences one encounters while traveling.

A bumpy, washed out segment of the road to Sagada, taken while riding atop a jeepney, a mode of traveling called “toploading.”

The Banaue Rice Terraces in Banaue, Ifugao, a stopover en route to Sagada

The thing is, I didn’t know how difficult it was to actually sketch and travel at the same time. Trip fatigue and the fact that you will spend your free time on the trip trying to access free wifi means you will end up doing very little work on your travel sketchbook. The Sagada trip was also a very physically-exhausting and challenging trip; my friends and I were all in bed sound asleep by 9 PM every night. Really, no time to draw or write. I ended up filling in my sketchbook two months after the trip– a feat harder than sketching while traveling, actually. But I managed.

I was also quite at a loss on how to approach travel journaling/sketching. Do I keep the events in chronological order, as I did on this first spread? Do I write about everything? Which experiences get written about and which ones get drawn? The bit about the conductor lying in the middle of the bus aisle was typed out into my cellphone as it happened, as it made an impression on me and I knew I wanted it to end up on the journal, but the rest were thoughts/experiences from memory long after the trip was over.

Rock climbing with just a rope!

I ended up including just the things that stood out the most on the trip, like “surprise rock climbing” as illustrated above. If I had been told we’d be clambering up rocks and walls prior to the trip, I might not have joined in the first place. Haha. But I’m glad to have experienced it all. I did not escape unscathed, though.

A very bruised knee a day after I hoisted myself up on a rock and hit my knee hard on the ground. Too bad I didn’t bother taking a photo of this knee several days later, when it was green and yellow.

Our group of 15 crossing a hanging bridge at the start of our 7-hour trek to the waterfalls.

Crossing raging rivers. Photo from @ayladeeyosah, our trip coordinator from adventure travel/tour company, Travel Factor <3

My muddy feet and trekking sandals

I think this spread is too text-heavy.

Sagada is known for its caves, and a trip to the place is incomplete if one does not go spelunking. I always read up on a place prior to making the trip and I was looking forward to seeing the fantastic, bizarre, and ethereal cave formations in Sagada’s caves, but unfortunately, I was too busy trying to watch where I was going to marvel at the rock formations. Seriously. I’m not the most coordinated person and being acutely aware of that, all I saw were fleeting glimpses of stalactites and stalagmites as I was more concerned about not slipping and plunging to my death.

Me going down a waterfall in the cave… slowly, and carefully

At the time of the Sagada trip, I was living a sedentary lifestyle and was a half-zombie as I was working night shift for a US-based job (while in the Philippines). I found out that being in that situation had an effect on my physical fitness and overall health, as shown in the illustrations above. I confirmed this several months later, when I went on several other physically-exhausting trips after I had resigned from the night job and went back to sleeping at night like most people do. Unlike in Sagada, I wasn’t tired and panting anymore after every physical activity.

I left out a lot of things in my Sagada travel sketchbook, belying the amazing (but exhausting) three days I spent there. That’s what happens when you try to re-capture moments in a trip long after the trip is over; you just can’t quite grasp those fleeting memories as well as you would when you’re experiencing them in that moment itself.

Good thing I had photos to base the drawings and memories on. It’s not the same though, and for future trips (I’ve gone on about 4 other trips since Sagada, and I’m leaving for another trip in a couple of weeks), I hope to actively set aside time solely for sketching while on the trip.

In any case, I’m glad that I at least have this hand drawn and handwritten account of my Sagada trip– I think this really pulls out and highlights all the standout memories and experiences that would otherwise get buried in a slew of batch-uploaded Facebook photos. I’m looking forward to documenting my next trips this way… and actually, I already have. I just haven’t scanned the pages yet ;)

See related posts on this blog

Wordless Wednesdays #008, #009, #010, #011, #012, #013

Reg — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:20:26 +0000

See related posts on this blog

St. Patrick’s Day free desktop wallpaper and sewing pattern

Reg — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:34:57 +0000

Quick post. For those looking for my St. Patrick’s Day wallpaper and PDF pattern (I’ve been getting search hits on my blog leading to a 404 error– I deleted all my past entries a few months ago), you can download them here:

Wallpaper: 1024 x 768 | 1280 x 960 | 1440 x 900

An outline drawing of the above graphic is also available in PDF format for use as a coloring page or an embroidery/sewing pattern. You can download it here.

We don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here in the Philippines but this little freebie has been bringing in hits to my site during March of every year, pushing my hits 3x more than the usual. Anyway, Happy St. Patty’s Day to all those who celebrate it!

In other news, I’ve been quiet on the blog front as I’m busy working on simultaneous projects (good problem to have) but I’m pretty active on Instagram, so add me there: @wedgienet. I’ll also try updating my Facebook page every now and then. I’m leaving for a long “working vacation” in April so I’m doing as much work as I can squeeze in this month so come April, so there’s less work and more vacation :P

So hang around for a while. I’ve got lots of new illustrations, drawings, and crafty DIY side projects to show you guys in the coming weeks :)

See related posts on this blog

Illustration Friday: Fluid (and visual puns)

Reg — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:46:31 +0000

For this week’s Illustration Friday (which I need to make a habit!), I thought this illustration I happened to be working on was a fit for the week’s topic, which is fluid.

It’s part of an ongoing set of visual pun illustrations, inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest (are you on Pinterest? Find me there ;) )

Watchuteenk? Any other suggestions? :)

See related posts on this blog

Weekend projects

Reg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:16:47 +0000

No weekend plans? No problem! Plenty of ways to pass the time with weekend projects! Some sneak peeks:

Saturday stay-in!

Cool cats. Planning to do tons of these for a promo piece.

Sad panda with a mustache. Um, what?

Catching up on my travel journal backlog (again… more on that in a future blog post… when I finish the journal).

Photos are from my Instagram account (@wedgienet).

Hope you had a good weekend! My Facebook page, by the way, recently hit 200+ likes (thank you!). Get in on that for occasional, non-spammy, and non-annoying updates: http://facebook.com/wedgienet.net :)

See related posts on this blog

My Sketchbook Project

Reg — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:00:45 +0000

Some time last year, I ordered a blank sketchbook from The Sketchbook Project. The premise is that anyone can order a sketchbook, fill it out, and send it back by a certain date so that it can be part of a big, traveling sketchbook exhibition all over the world. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, I never got to sending out mine. I never even got past filling out anything beyond the second page of my book. I’m not surprised– I have so many personal projects left unattended and this was just another one of them.

However, I did bust out the sketchbook recently to test out some new acrylic paints I bought. Some of my old paints have dried up, leaving me with this:

Tumor-like globs of acrylic paint that jiggle when you poke them.

I really was just looking to test out my new paints so I quickly sketched on the sketchbook cover and came up with this:

I love working with cardboard– it’s so “unfinished” and not as intimidating as
a blank piece of white paper. It screams out, “I’m brown and blank! Do something with me!”

It’s basically just a doodle with color, but I like how imperfect and loose the overall look is. Might have to consider working in this loose style for future paint work– it’s fast, spontaneous, and raw in this digital age where everything is clean and perfect and polished.

So maybe the sketchbook project isn’t a bust after all. At least I have a cute, personalized cat sketchbook to use when my current one is all filled up?