Mistress of Art: DIANNE DELA TORRE

In this long overdue post for another Mistress of Art feature, let me treat you to a different kind of artistry, mostly in the field of motion graphics.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the profile of Dianne Dela Torre on Twitter while I was treasure hunting for artists to feature on our now-hiatus blog Extra Kanin. Dianne, currently based in London, UK is a multidisciplinary artist having done works in the field of multimedia, graphics animation, graphic design and illustration. I may have had a chance to talk to her (I think, I forgot already haha) over on Twitter before, and I kind of got interested to feature her works. What captured me with what she has already done are those character designs which, obviously, are moving. I see it as a combination of surreal and child-like environment, pressed with colors that are not tiring to see. You can see her artistry at play on her personal works, such as Dreams: Dorothie and Me and Numerophobia.


It's been a while since I saw her last works, but I'm guessing what she'll show us next on her portfolio are, it not amazing, really awesome! Check out her portfolio reel from 2011. More videos after the cut.

Pen and ink

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating: It is either good or bad." 

- Salvador Dali

Let me leave this 2008 sketch right here to remind me that I can draw before. LOL. These days, all I sketch are cars and products and anything design-related. No room for art. No room for expression.

I guess the first person to criticize an artwork is the artist himself. Never mind how others see your work (unless you're a "professional artist", if there exists such a profession), because the the message you convey is limited to how far your imagination can go. And the main goal is to show how you feel or what you think, not what society is telling you to do.

Mistress of Art: DAKIE SEGURA

Ever get that feeling of seeing artworks over the Internet so polished and neatly done, you think the artists behind them are already gods? Then and now, I still get excited seeing these fantastic artworks, even if I know a lot of my friends are on that kind of artistic level already. One of them I know is Darlene Segura, our featured artist for this edition of Mistress of Art, and even by staying simple, she can rock your world through her creative prowess.

I’ve known Darlene, or commonly known as Dakie to her friends, since around 5 years ago. We met online through the deviantArt community chat, she being a moderator for an all-Filipino chatroom and I was a beginner in the dA world. I then began visiting her exhibits and became friends, sharing interest not just on art but with music and other things. I’ve always considered her works as cute and colourful.  Or moreover, having a lot of that fantasy flavour. The characters on each of her creations are eye-candies for both kids and adults.

Dakie is not just an artist with a talent; rather, she has this large passion for almost anything creative: from simple doodles and graphic designs to photography to art with advocacies. She already has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Advertising, and has worked, exhibited and did a lot of art gigs after college, but still, she pursues on discovering and going beyond her limit. Dakie is currently on her last year being a student again and completing her thesis in Multimedia Arts. If she can excite you with her vector works, wait till you get to see her traditional ones, being a skilled user of the watercolour medium. All I can see for her is a bright future ahead, full of more wonderful stuff akin to her wonderful works.

Presented here are some of her works I’ve personally picked from her dA account. Be sure to check out her other portfolios for more creative pieces!

Mistress of Art: MAI EVANGELISTA

For avid Internet users, everyday would be like an unexpected treasure hunt. In my case, I have this habit of clicking anything worth viewing, mainly on the art section. I check on various images on a lot of websites to start the morning and to inspire me to be creative throughout the day (mostly haha). Good thing Tumblr was invented, because it was the best site to keep track on a lot of creative people on the web, much less to discover pure Filipino artists as well. And there I discovered the first to be featured on this Mistress of Art topic. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the pop-fazed wonderful artworks of Mai Evangelista.

To be honest, I have zero knowledge about the artist. When I landed upon her Tumblr blog, I just let the images do the talking. I was mesmerized, so to speak. I’ve seen quite a few artists from my country with this caliber of talent and creativity, and her works are just as inspiring as it can be. It’s vector art but not just plain vector art. Viewers and visitors can really see the details and effort on each piece. I myself find stories on most of her works. Mai Evangelista sometimes includes vignettes about how she made or what was the inspiration behind a piece. I guess that’s how she captures a lot of audience and inspire them. Simple yet elegant artworks.

So as I said earlier, let the images do the talking. Here are more of her works.

Let Darna fly once again!

Darna Lives! via darnalives.blogspot.com

Darna Lives!
darnalives.blogspot.com

It was only last week that I came across this blog about a one-shot resurrection comic for the iconic Darna, the Philippines' famous classic super heroine. At first, I was hesitant to look into the fan fiction since media had already given me a bad impression of Darna through the recent years (will talk about this in a while). But knowing that it's a project by two of these generations' comic foundations, Gerry Alanguilan and Arnold Arre, one must not ignore the treasure they are digging and bringing back to us.

A quick rundown on its history: Darna is a fictional character popular in Filipino comics, created by komiks legend Mars Ravelo. It is a story of a girl named Narda who, after swallowing a magical stone from outer space, becomes  the amazon-like super heroine Darna. Along with her sidekick Ding, she fought numerous evil embodiments including the serpent-headed Valentina, some aliens and some bad guys. She first appeared in print in 1950. Since then, it was adapted into new forms of media, from comics to television series and movies. Notable actresses that played the super heroine were Vilma Santos, Lorna Tolentino, Sharon Cuneta and Anjanette Abayari.

5 Portfolio Websites from the Philippines

Hora! Last time, I featured some wonderful websites and blogs dealing on industrial design from the international scene. I’m still researching on Philippine-based ID firms with wonderful works, so for the meantime, I’m sharing to you these 5 portfolio websites on creative media which you probably didn’t know or haven’t seen yet. Be proud, these Filipino creative media artists really rock!

Happy Garaje
http://happygaraje.com/about-hg/

Happy Garaje is a design and illustration studio from Cebu, Philippines. As how they said about their work, they “like to create things and tell stories.” Indeed, you can see that their works are loosely based on imagination and are out of this world. Click on the Accolades page on their site and you’ll be amazed by how many art awards and recognitions they have received.

Electrolychee
http://electrolychee.com/

The first time I came across the dynamic art duo of Electrolychee was on my 3^rd year in college (some three years ago) when they were invited to talk about their works by our art organization. They seem to be having a lot fun doing what they love from how they share their achievements over the years. Their works consist of different styles ranging from cute colors to minimalism to doodles and many more.