WHAT'S YOUR COLOR?

          No style, no art. I could almost faintly imagine how I'd be able start an artwork if I didn't have my own style. I'm guessing it'd be horrible, an awful lot of misconception would go on. It would be rotten food for the eyes. Having your own style is important, as much as having skills and passion. As long as we're talking about artworks, we wouldn't wanna miss counting styles in. Everybody likes to add a little spice to everything. From shoes to clothes, hairs to accessories, even in mugs and furniture. We even like to decorate food! Finding out what our signature style is can help us mix beautifully our personalities into our artworks and can help people tell our works apart from the rest.

          I'd like to think of my own style as a mixture of quirky, semi-realistic-semi-surrealistic (as if such a word exists), colorful, mystical and grim. I'm most interested in having people as the subject of my artwork. I know, it's such a weird combination, I mean like, how can colorful and grim be combined? I don't even know myself, I just know that that's what my style's all about. I like creating artworks that give off an enchanting or mystical feeling. The reason behind this is because I'm in love with fantasy and I treasure every dream I get if it's fantasy related (which I rarely get anyways). I also like my artworks giving off a weird feeling as how surrealism does, but I don't linger in it too much hence the mixture between surrealism and realism. I'm kind of more into pop surrealism rather than the classical ones. The last element that I prefer my artworks having is the essence of grim. It would be something along the paper graphics (sorry I don't even know what you call them) in the video game Alice: Madness Returns.

I prefer having people or their faces as my subject because I see beauty in them, I rarely develop the want to use other elements as my subject. 

         Though I'm still an amateur when it comes to art, I have the will and passion to improve and create many artworks that would greatly satisfy me and impress other people. The artworks I've created are countable with one hand (talk about embarrassing). Of course it really isn't my forte, but what lead me to having this passion for the arts is crafting. I started off from crafting (because I like assembling) and realized that I wanted to try and do actual art. For me, the best part of it is getting to color your own work - traditionally of course. I still have a long way to go though. I'm still working on improving my skills and techniques. I'm getting tired and lazy from erasing every second and having to choose for hours just to pick a suitable color for whatever I'm coloring. I must say I'm quite looking forward to what kind of artwork I'll be able to produce someday. I'm happy because I can already feel small changes and improvement as early as now.  

          Here are my favorite artists and some of their artworks. I get my motivation from them.

Ilya Kuvshinov

http://kr0npr1nz.deviantart.com/

psylett

http://audstin.deviantart.com/

                 

ZombieSandwich

http://zombiesandwich.deviantart.com/

Sabelle Rena
http://sabellerena.tumblr.com/

   









Tati Ferrigno
http://www.tatiferrigno.com/

Dawnmemories

http://dawnmemories.tumblr.com/

THE DEAL WITH ILLUSIONAL SMILES AND TURBULENT SWIRLS

          There's something about smiles and swirls that makes them classic. The elegance they ooze out is just oh, so fantastic! No wonder these are the distinctive features of Mona Lisa and The Starry Night by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh, respectively. But what about them? What's the big deal and what about their fame? These brilliant paintings have been both admired and questioned since then. They have been garnering attention for their mysteriousness and real origins. Speculations have arisen as well over the years of their existence. It's no surprise that such things have occurred since the two paintings are among the famous artworks in history, if not, the most. So, what IS the real deal with all the issues surrounding it and what not? Among the fishes in sea, what makes them unique? What sets them apart from the others?

That's one creepy smile don't 'ya think?

First stop, Mona Lisa. Leonardo's ever-so-mysterious lady in a panel is just one of the things that makes the world go crazy. The most famous smile in the whole world, literally, belongs to the painting of Lisa Gherardini created by the one and only Leonardo da Vinci. This smile is the same reason for the painting's fame. This prominent feature wasn't clearly detailed but was made so that an illusion existed. At first glance we perceive what seems to be a smile, but then it gradually disappears the longer you look at it. The eyes were also painted in such a way that the mouth was captured within the vision. For this painting he used the "Sfumato" technique he invented, meaning 'without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke', which also explains the mystery of Mona Lisa's facial expression. There were many other unique characteristics in the Mona Lisa that intrigued the art community and the viewers like the landscape in the background, considering that portraits were commonly drawn with the background being an open sky, monotone-colored or a room. This proves what brilliant skills Leonardo has.

Such a dreamy place, isn't it?

Up next is Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. This is personally my favorite artwork in all of history for one simple reason: It is surreal and makes me feel like I'm in a utopia whenever I look at it. Vincent was believed to have suffered from some sort of seizures or crises and one particular incident had himself cut his own ear and be sent to a mental health asylum where his room only had a small window to peek at. The view from his window is the said origin of the Starry night. The Starry night is a post-impressionist art, like all of his other works, which consists of vivid colors, thick application of paint, real-life subject matter, emphasis of geometric forms and the use of unusual or arbitrary colors. Van Gogh suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy and was thought to have been treated by Dr. Gachet with a drug called digitalis which can cause one to see in yellow or see yellow spots which explain his consistent use of it. It is also thought that Van Gogh suffered from lead poisoning from all of the lead-based paints that he used and one of the symptoms was swelling of the retinas which can cause one to see light in circles like halos around objects. These factors may have influenced the painter's vision, and proceeded with painting what he actually saw, hence the stars in the painting looking like they were actually shining. The night sky depicted in the painting is brimming with whirling clouds, shining stars, and a bright crescent moon. These features were painted in such a way that the viewer's eye around the painting. Van Gogh's use of color, light, mood, tone, emotion and brush strokes add up to the amazing existence of the brilliant painting. 

The explanation behind the turbulent swirls:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY    

Here are some renditions of the artworks:

*Images and videos respectively taken from Google and Youtube. 

A peek into the small world of Art and History

          Art and history both play very well-known roles to the society. One does not grow up to be ignorant of these two things. While one simply portrays beauty in the world, the other yields important information as to what has happened over the years. Art goes way back with history. They share a deep connection with each
other. This connection lets us understand what made Rome great, how
Islamic mosaics evolved, why the Renaissance occurred and about the

art being produced today around the world. We also understand the history of humanity through art. An example of this is the early cave paintings from around 40,000 years ago, some of which portray how the early people hunted down animals for food. Art reflects its time period. It has evolved in accordance to time, which is also one of the factors connecting art to history. In addition to this, earlier art may reflect the influence of war, famine and the like.

      "Life imitates art more than art imitates life" - Oscar Wilde

          From the famous notation of Oscar Wilde, we could say that culture is also one of the products between the cross of arts and history. From this we can understand art from different times and places. A very specific example of this is that of the Philippines. Filipinos are known to be very hardworking, hospitable, helpful, generous and lively. Here are a few paintings that depict the mentioned common traits of Filipinos 

These paintings all have something in 
common, they're all filled with much 
color just like the lively Filipinos.

Some more examples of art in the Philippines are dancing and architecture. The Philippine folk dances are often accentuated with graceful and gentle moves. Some of these are Carinosa, which portrays courtship; and Tinikling, which is well-known for the use of two Bamboo poles. Philippine architecture on the other hand, is notable because of the Nipa Huts. It is characterized by the use of simple materials such as Bamboo and Coconut. 

          History and art are also linked in terms of form and genre. Technological developments, for instance, can lead to changes or evolution in the art world. Film is a modern example of this. It started out as a form of technological curiosity and soon developed into an art form. Over the course, televisions had changed formats (old to modern). Due to this change, films had to adapt in order to cope up with the audience. From old film strips, film forms became

DVDs and the latest, which are files which can be transferred

to flash drives. You could say that evolution won't be at bay, at least. This goes too for art and history; and how they're connected. Who knows? Maybe the constant changes of the society may soon present us new art forms beyond comprehension.I hope not.

Silent Living

          Wouldn't it be interesting if one day we woke up, thinking that we lost our sense of hearing, but in actuality sound was never born? What would it be like? Would it be beautiful, horrific, despicable, peaceful, chaotic or maybe even normal? Would the world be the same as it is now? I don't want to see it coming. That one day, in the future, all sound will be lost and the world will be one less of a beauty.

          Having the ability to hear is a great gift, it really is. Actually, the 5 human senses are. The ability to hear draws a great part of our lives. There is a beauty in it. We were given this gift to live amazingly, to feel alive. The essence of beauty in being able to hear what the world has to offer is truly amazing. Of course, while some of us see it as a beauty, others don't. Those people are probably the ones who have to deal with noise in their everyday lives. From scoldings, to shouting, car honks and sirens, screaming and whining and all the other sounds we would consider irritable. It would be nice if all of us could just come to appreciate everything that we hear. Take the sound away from the world and what do we get? It varies. The results are endless. It may be peaceful - the world minus the noise would be pretty cool, but I wouldn't opt for it; or it could be dull, which I definitely vote for because I really appreciate the existence of sound. Either way, I would never wish for sound to vanish.

   
     
     The sole idea of sound not existing is horrifying. I don't think I could ever continue with life if that ever happened. Sound is one of the things that make my life much better with it. It makes my day bright, knowing that different things are going on. Let us learn to appreciate it while we can. 

Paint my World

          Pictures? They were meant to exist. Their existence is a gift to humanity, along with all beautiful memories that have happened or are bound to occur. Pictures are an art - they're alive. Every picture has a story, just like every memory has an owner. We may express ourselves in these pictures, being creative and innovative. A picture has a lot of meanings, some simple and some deep. It is such a beauty that it can make us speechless most of the time.

          Past or present, it doesn't matter. Pictures will always be there to tell a story. Pictures paint thousands of words. Why? I have no idea, seriously. Maybe it's because of the colors, the definitions, the intricate elements and the emotions that the creator had when he made the picture (or photographer in case of real-life photos). One word is a piece of a picture. A thousand words makes one complete picture. Pictures are food for the eyes. Every essence and beauty that pictures contain can be delivered to the audience, but it depends on how they would perceive it.

          There are some who contradict this idea. Their perception is something similar along the lines of "a picture shows, but doesn't tell. A picture helps you visualize better than words, but it doesn't tell the full story". But still, we cannot deny that pictures are just as beautiful as words. They are both a lethal weapon. They have the power to move mountains. My only wish is that it's existence would never disappear.

The POW!er of Words

          Words. How more plain could they get? As they say, words are just words - actions speak louder than words. Yeah, I know, but those are for plain romances. Typical quotes said by people under the spell of love. I mean, come on. Words are just as powerful as actions. Need proof? No you don't. Now shut up and keep reading. Oh, I'm sorry for the rude language. Don't mind it though, I didn't mean to be rude to you. That's just how I express myself, my freedom. HA! You see? Now that's an example of the power of words. Might I remind you that this is a post by ME. Your arguments are invalid (See what I did there? The power of words again!) 

          Frankly speaking, words can get just as hard as a stinging slap, maybe even harder. The power words have is lethal. Words ARE a weapon. For an instance, my sister and I always fight. She ends up as the loser(I'd like to think so.) She fights me physically and I fight her verbally. I do have a naturally sharp mouth. I just choose to seal it for obvious reasons, people around me might end up crying. It's because they can't handle the intensity, they end up butthurt when I speak the truth. What? The truth hurts, doesn't it? But it mustn't be always used to hurt other people, regardless of how true it is. It most certainly shouldn't be used to degrade others or inflict pain on them. 

          Words also have the power to inform and convince people. They can let people know about what's going on around us. They can also be used to gain forces, like people in rallies, campaigns, advocacies, organizational matters and the such.

          Words are the basest and most necessary factor needed when speaking. Of course, what is there to speak of if words were never meant for existence in the first place? It's just a part of everything else in the world, that all possible things have to exist. The only problem is that, along with the proper usage, also comes the wrong one. One thing we should all remember is that all things should be always used for the better.

            

What makes multimedia click?

          Multimedia - I'm sure you've all heard of it before. Yes, we know of the word but only a few of us really know what it actually means. Multimedia involves the use of 2 or more of the following elements: sound, text pictures and animation. These are the things that multimedia is composed of. A few examples of them are
             
        visual presentations (power point, charts),


             
                        video games, 

movies and

             
                         websites.

Multimedia has gotten big over the past few years. A lot of people use multimedia everyday. Now, what makes multimedia click and how is the "bomb"?

          What do you think are the primary factors in multimedia? Of course! It's the interactivity and appeal to the 5 senses. That's the main reason why many people are engaged in multimedia. Multimedia is interactive in a way that it lets the viewer to be physically or mentally involved. It appeals to the 5 senses through the selection of sounds/audio, pictures, special effects to make the viewer seemingly feel it, and the like. The selection of these things may appear pleasant or harsh to the viewers. Multimedia has produced virtual games, interactive social medias, videos & movies, and many more.

          Multimedia has taken its toll on us. The satisfaction it gives us is proof of its success. It is a source of both information and entertainment. Multimedia would be very hard to replace, and I hope it stays that way. The plans on virtual reality isn't good news, it's horrifying. Let us stop ourselves from being consumed by the joyous results it gives us. Multimedia is a gift, but we should be careful of our own mindset - traces of human activity may be eliminated soon.  

How will we communicate in 10 years?

          What is the future of communication? Have you ever asked yourselves how it would be like in the next few years? Given a span of 10 years, no doubt it would evolve into something far beyond our reasoning. The "future" has already started spreading (not fully) from its roots, such as the ubiquity of e-books. From instant messaging to video calls, communication has taken the longer road to innovation. Great threats have risen from the different ways of communicating. What the future has in store for us is quite unclear.

          Over the years, communication has evolved drastically, from cave paintings to present-day social networking. Personally I don't want communication to evolve any further and I certainly don't want interpersonal communication fading. I don't think the present forms of communicating would be obsolete, just that it would transform into something bigger but not better - for me. I think the future has a darker sky waiting for us and that no matter what, people will always choose to go with what's new. We might be able to simply use gestures and motions to create messages and perform tasks on computers and in entertainment sources as well; office workers would be able to use collaboration tools such as video and wireless voice connections, updated documents will float seamlessly among employees, customers and clients; students will be able to earn their degrees from online universities and; we may even be able to have conversations with our pets through technology. These probable changes tend to eliminate the basest form of communication. It is up to us whether we'd go with the flow or oppose it.

          We may have a lot of demands when it comes to communicating, but at the same time we have a million complaints. We design our future how we want it to be. Needless to say, our actions reflect our opinions. Communication plays a huge role in our lives. Imagine a world without a definite way of expressing what we want to say. There is more to be discovered in this world, waiting to be born at the right time. We have a very long path ahead of us.  

Is the Philippines technologically updated?

          The capacity of the people to adapt has led development in many nations. Our ability to keep up with the major changes in technology has helped our ways of living. The Philippines is one of the many nations involved in this technological advancement. Technological advancement in the Philippines does not necessarily threaten people's jobs or employment, except for those who are not educated enough to catch up with the advancement as technology requires some kind of specialization. We have encountered telephones, mobiles, radios, televisions, the internet, broadcasting stations, SMS services, etc. The presence of these has urbanized a lot of provinces and towns in the Philippines, though some are exempt. So what is the real deal with the Philippines and its technological advancement?

          The present-day technologies play a major role in the development of our country. Some of these advancements are the automation/computerization of government processes and advances in telecommunication. The automation includes fingerprint scanning for elections, applications for NSO certificates online and applications for passports/visas which were made faster and more convenient. Advances in computers and telecoms have allowed foreign companies to outsource transcription jobs & call centers and have allowed electronic money transfer. The advances are also allowing scientific researches in the Philippines access to their colleagues from other countries and at the same time, makes up-to-date information available to the public. Though, there are some places that technology has not improved much yet such as agriculture, certain government bureaucracies and infrastructures. Filipino farmers are not competitive because of lack of technology and a large number of procedures in the government are not automated such as records, making retrieval difficult.

          The continuous process of technological evolution has improved the flow of daily work. Like all obvious things, it has pros and cons. The pros being the development and easier approach to work, and the cons being the extinction of human to human interaction and interpersonal communication. An uprise in the global civilization has brought a commotion. The path towards our future has gone up a sharp curve. Our future is a certain thing, but what it is, we do not know. For me it's definitely a yes - the Philippines is technologically updated.

Internet usage in Asia

          With an astounding rate of 42%, Asia takes the lead in internet usage. Almost half of the world's population is compromised of Asians conquering the cyber world. The internet has, since its creation, been a great help to humanity. Be it for entertainment or making our work easier, its true purpose is clear. Nowadays people have indulged themselves with the internet. We have gone all the way to the depths of this creation and have discovered its cons along with its pros. Would we ever have the chance to gain independence from it?

          Recently, the internet has become extravagantly used in Asia because of growing social networking sites and other entertainment forms. Asia is said to be the queen of mobile networking. I personally think that this is very alarming. The growing rate of internet users in Asia is a tad scary. Internet users range from people (mostly) as young as 7 to 54 years of age. Kids as young as the greatest digit on our clocks shouldn't be too immersed in using the internet for it takes away the real essence of living. We should learn how to seek entertainment via other mediums. 

          The monstrous and ascending rate of internet users is notorious. Its evident existence is a major threat to life itself. If the people are much enjoying this privilege, our world might become no more than a planet with a generation of seemingly brainless humans. We'll lose control over the fate of humanity and end it with the continuous patronage of the "holy" internet. We should make our move before it is too late. We should hurry up and save ourselves from a disastrous ending. All we need to do is put down our gadgets right now and go outside, into the brightness of tomorrow.

Coping with power outage and calamities through communication and technology

     Typhoon Glenda, known internationally as Rammasun, had her little visit in the Philippines the other week. You could say that it was completely the opposite of pleasant. In fact, it took us all by surprise when the typhoon started to ravage our towns and cities. We all thought that it would be just like another typhoon, but man we were wrong. I got bewildered when the roaring winds came barging on the windows in the middle of the night. It was such a great shock to the people, especially those living in Southern Luzon. Guess what else? It left over 5 million people in the dark after it knocked down (the) power supply in several parts of Metro Manila and other provinces. 

     With the electricity gone, a form of communication was lost. Even phone signals were hard to find. There was no other way of communicating with people in other ares, unless you'd willingly travel the road with the typhoon raging on. The power outage bored the crap out of me. I needed something entertaining to keep myself busy. Playing board games was an option, but no one wanted to play with me. So, I resorted to talking with my family, including our dog, and reading lots of books - a stack of 'em, even if I had to seemingly cook my face in front of a candle just to be able to read in the dark. Those were the only forms of communication that could take place in my sole situation. We all blabbered the time away. I most certainly also did enjoy reading where all the contents of the books became alive with a hint of my imagination as if it was communicating with me.

     Well, that was that and no more could have been done with my lazy ass attitude. The typhoon had its nightmare to unleash but it also had its perks. People got to communicate with each other physically to relieve boredom and share their stories. It's times like these when we remember the greatest way of communicating.

       

Communication Evolution

          Hi there. Can you understand what you're reading at this very moment? If you can, then let me be the first to congratulate you. WE, YOU are a major part of the evolution of communication. The reason you're able to decipher these words is a pure product of a life-long innovation brought about by ourselves. People have continuously been developing our way of communicating without the slightest idea. I bet it took more than a century to get to the language we're working with right now. More and more unexpected things are drastically coming our way. Boy, I wouldn't be surprised if we could communicate with aliens by tomorrow.

          ENGLISH - the universal language. Finding out about its dawn sure was a fun thing. I'm guessing you've all heard about the Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and the Homo Sapiens, whom we possibly may have been from [theories]. As early as these years can go back, surely there was some kind of communication going on between these early people. I'd like to point out that they, in my opinion [mainly based on cartoons & movies], had been communicating with each other by means of big, loud, gruff groans accompanied by somewhat body gestures. Imagine yourself as an early wo/man, back then if you were hungry you'd probably be saying "Oo-ee-au-oo-coonga-unga" while doing really weird gestures which include your hands on your stomach and frantically doing tiny jumps around like a monkey happily eating a stolen banana, like how I do. One more thing that I really love pointing out involves the use of English and its proper grammar usage. I'm not mocking people here but, in general, Filipinos really do have a sense of humor when it comes to (using) English and it really pisses me off whenever I hear people speak grammatically incorrect. People nowadays (warning: ghetto language over here -> the words "be like") be like "I'm feel so anger right now at this very moment" or "She make me threw the trash on outside" trying too hard be classy, NOT. I'm telling you right now to stop or I'm gonna bitchslap you so hard, you'd be mistaken for that demon in Insidious, you know, this guy...

          Communication really has evolved a lot since the beginning of time. Thanks to this evolution we have come to the languages we have now. Though it does separate countries, I think it's best to have diverse languages for it would act as a challenge in uniting people around the world. With that said, I have always known the universal language alongside my mother tongue, thus the elongated flowery words and the desire to write more in this entry. Accents have developed together with these changes. I'm sure Filipinos with the rough "R" are also scattered in abundant. Have them read the words "What can I do for you?" and I'm sure you'd get a "Uwat ken I do porr yu?". I'm not hating though, it's actually kind of amusing how people actually are the main cause behind the communication evolution. Tomorrow, we might have ridiculously nose-bleeding Filipino fluent English speakers and by next week, all other languages may have been eliminated, except for one.