Food for Babe's Thoughts

A year ago, Joel Locaylocay Photography invited food blogger, Justinne Go, for a portrait shoot. Justinne majors in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of San Carlos and happened to be one of the former students of my good friend, Ising.

The shoot centered on making a head shot of Justinne, surrounded with real cupcakes and marshmallows. I was asked to make a box that would hold these pastries. The real kicker was Justinne's head would be at the center.

I found a box for a large cake at Caro and Marie at Mango Avenue. Using only the bottom, I drew an ellipse that best represents the measurements of Justinne's head, including the forehead, the nose, and jaw areas. Using a cutter, I re-traced the ellipse to make a hole. Scotch tape also kept the edges from fraying.

Where the head will be fitted

A Hand in the Dark

Not all hands that reach out in the dark are out to help. Some will pull you down lower than you have been while some will take advantage of your vulnerability. It is up to the person to wade through the web of misery to discern which hand to take. Mostly, this is also the time when a person realized her reason of existence.

A Wolf for Red

When Jotay asked me to make a wolf for the Red Riding Hood shoot, a lot of possibilities coursed through my mind. While scouring YouTube for inspiration, I decided to make a wolf sculpture made from papier-mache. The only drawback to that plan is the arduous task of hauling the wolf from my place to location. The stands and modifiers alone are already heavy.

We decided to use a 30 x 40 foam board instead and make a two-dimensional figure of the wolf. The strobe lights will add volume to the cutout, as the shoot was scheduled during late in the afternoon towards dusk.

I bought the last black foam board at BOSS Educational Supply at Park Mall and initiated my plans on how to make the wolf. A lot of the initial sketches were discarded as they didn't look wolf-like in the dark. As we planned to do the shoot at dusk, it is important that the shape could not be mistaken for any creatures.

Finally, I got a passable design. Jotay made a few suggestions until I sketched the right one.

Final Design of the Wolf

Frolicking with Pastel ... Again!

My art class,  two summers ago, introduced me to soft pastel. Initially, I mistook it as oil pastel. Our teacher, however, showed me the distinction. If interested, I discussed their differences in a previous post.

During my trip to Manila last summer, I saw a lot of artists who used soft pastel as a medium. They used brushes for application and blending. Simply put, they treated the pastel just like any acrylic or oil paints. Coming home, I decided to get my hands dirty and play with the soft pastel sticks I bought from National Bookstore. To start off, I searched for tutorials on YouTube and tried their exercises.

So far, so good. I was satisfied with my results.

The pastel is not as intimidating as paints. It's like coloring a kid's art book using crayons. And it can also generate other colors from existing hues. For example, the green-shade of the suckers (I hope I get the name right.) beneath the tentacles of the octopus are created from mixing yellow and blue.

It's Morphin' Time!*

With Dr. Ramon H. Brown in tow, chancing upon a butterfly, while mulling over the snobbish busy bee, made my Sunday morning a memorable gift. I always approach this creature with reverent silence for its metamophosis has truly been awesome.

Just like the transformation of a caterpillar, my life has gone through the same change: from a girl afraid of failure and struggling to fit in, to an independent woman who has a good sense of control. I still fear and strive not to be in the outside looking in. But now, I know these do not have to define who I am. Mustering courage, I can always soar, alone or not, among the flowers in the garden called life.

*For those who were born later than I was, this is the callout of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Zeo Rangers before they transform from ordinary kids to superheroes.

A Dark Crown for a Lovely Woman

My good friend, Jotay, had roped me into making props for his themed-shoots. That was almost a year ago. Now that the props are starting to accumulate in my room, I decided to share how they are made. Hopefully, someone will learn from my posts or I get constructive critiques.

I'll start on one of the recent props: the crown of the Dark Queen.

To give you a background, the shoot centered on one of our students, Amor. Jotay and she agreed to show her in a different light, something far from her usual exuberant self, thus, the Dark Queen.

Jotay asked me to make a suitable crown. I decided to make use of the teeming informations online. YouTube has been helpful. A lot of do-it-yourselfers have published their videos and with enough patience, one can get inspiration and useful ideas.

In this particular crown, I used a black headband I found lying in one of my boxes. Using floral wires, I shaped them into spikes and applied glue (via glue gun, so you have to be extra careful when trying this at home..) around them. The good thing about glue is they can be easily shaped and re-shaped, depending on your imagination and tolerance to heat. I suggest you wet your fingers with water to absorb the heat from the hot glue (but this may not be enough). A wet towel is an added precaution.

      

Once I have my spikes, I tied them around the headband, creating my desired design. More glue was added to serve as a base.

When the spikes were in place, I painted the whole crown with black acrylic. As a final touch, little silver flowers with black center were used as embellishment.

You can check the results of the shoot by clicking on this link  http://wp.me/p2IRxo-l2 and while you're there, don't forget to like the page. If interested for a themed shoot, you may contact Joel Locaylocay through the contact details on his page.

More to come....