border crossing

i just moved to mexico. san miguel de allende, mexico to be exact. which would partly explain my lack of new posts (another reason: usually late in the year the publishers throw everything at me. i suspect the holidays & year-ender deadlines are the main culprits).

i hope to get back on track soon & update this blog. at the moment, i've got a new found fascination for mexican culture & history. san miguel is perfect for that. it's quite an artist town too & i've already met a few of them.

i'm guessing my current picture book will be heavily influenced by the bright colors & architecture that surround me ( it's called "alfred zector: book collector" - about a boy who loves collecting books & in the course, practically drains a whole town of them. more on that later).

last note. in the last 2 months, i've visited both of the US' neighbors, canada & mexico (the hat & the pants, ha). and even though i i've always been aware of this, it's still fascinates me how little we (as in, US residents) know about our neighbors. there is this never-ending caricature of mexico & canada that now seem so lazy & outdated. i get the humor, in fact i find them funny, but i wish a few more americans could see what they are missing out on.

anyway, i'm now excited to explore my new home. there are pyramids, colonial ruins & an exotic rich history to be discovered. plus, andy & red's beach (ehrm, shawshank redemption) is only an extended bus ride away! (publishing gods please be kind, heh).

working on the train...

montreal to quebec. sketching on rails: so much easier than on a plane.
plus points on the view: canada's pretty fall colors.

tv adds 10 pounds to the ears

here's an interview i did last october for a US based filipino tv show that is televised globally. it was also their halloween special so i agreed to throw in a few monster sketches for them.

i planned to show 2 books, "bedtime at the swamp" & "the twelve days of christmas". unfortunately, like always, i probably talked too much & the show had to cut the segment for the christmas book (and a huge chunk of my answer to the last question).

by the way, it was about 4pm and i hadn't yet had a meal that day. not a great idea for a tv show rookie. i think i may have worried the staff a bit with my low key demeanor/hunger. someone behind the camera yelled out "remember macky, ENERGY!" complete with a fist pump. uh, yeah, that helped perk me up.

on the flip side, my mom called & said i looked great! 

but really, i certainly appreciate the opportunity to be on the show. it was a rare treat for a book illustrator like me. it was a lot of fun too & i wouldn't mind doing it again.

my brother, chris, wrote it best in an email:
"they left out the best parts: the bisaya slip (macky doesn't know what's bisaya and what's tagalog) and the 'yeah, maybe lapu lapu. he's the only filipino hero that didn't lose'."

*by the way, chris told everyone he was my manager & everyone believed it. even demanding more make up for me. so i get serious cake on my face... right before the cameras rolled. sweet.

happy days

couldn't help taking this pic. the "twelve hidden days of christmas" hidden picture book on the barnes & noble's christmas display. 

i'm never going to get tired of seeing my books in stores. 

warm up sketch gone overboard

my original plan for this blog was to focus on editorial art, something i really enjoy. but it's been a busy few years for me & that plan went out the window.

here's a sketch i did last week that i thought would be fairly easy. a warm up sketch to start the work day. it turned out to be a lot of fun & worked on it for a few more days, a few minutes at a time (obviously, i'm not that great at sticking to the initial ideas).

too bad. it would have been fun doing weekly sketches of the current election cycle. it's been nuts on both ends of the spectrum. oh well, maybe next time.

*i'm pretty clear on where i stand on this election. i already voted last week & it was for hope & change.