Jose Rizal

Posting regularly? YES WE CAN..or I can...you know what I mean! So here is a personal illustration that I did right after I got back from the Philippines. The portrait is of Jose Rizal a hero of the Philippines during the Spanish Colonization. Rizal fought for Rights and Reforms for Filipinos, and was considered an enemy of the state for the Spanish. He was eventually captured and was executed. What was really cool to learn during the trip was that Rizal was a profound artist, poet among many things. I thought I would create a nice tribute portrait in honor of him. As a Filipino born in Manila but raised in Toronto it was really awesome to learn a lot about my culture and history.

I intend to make this a series and have a couple ideas lined up for more figures in Filipino history. Below is the sketch and fine line drawing. Also pictures from my trip to Intramuros (The Walled City) which was old Manila.

Initial sketch, scanned in made larger and edited in Photoshop before doing linework.

Final Sketch

Jose Rizals steps on the way to his execution (not traced from his actual steps though)

The cell where he was held before his execution. Below is a video of the cell.

Mom: Hey Take a picture beside the guard Me:ughhhh no mom Mom: Just do it Me:......*sigh..fine

I could go on an on about the history of the place I was in but if your interested in Filipino culture definitely Google "Intramuros" and Jose Rizal. OH and Happy St.Patty's day!

Witness The Fitness

Hey Yaaa! (you guys remember that song? that was a pretty cool song). Achem, ANYWAYS, Here is some new work for Financial Post and RBC 360 Dexia. The image above and below was an illo I did last week for the cover of Financial Post weekend. I did a cover New Years day and was really excited to do another one! The illustration is about the Market Rallys 2nd anniversay. The question is how long will it hold. I liked the idea of the cakes being a sort of heavy weight that the market was burdened with. As if there was more pressure the more years the market rallied.

Here's the front!

This illustration was done for RBC 360 Dexia. The article is about how the sovereign debt crisis has caused a loss of safety for many investors. I was fortunate again to have shared this issue again with fellow illustrator Pete Ryan. Check it out on the link above!

Here are the rough versions of the finals! The deadline for the Financial Post piece was tighter so the rough was very loose.

This image was inspired by THIS scene from Robin Hood Men In Tights.

Thats it for now, More to come soon!!!