Rubber Beast Warrior!

Rubber Beast Warrior!

A rubber beast warrior, displayed at Baguio city's Burnharm  Park. This pic was taken on February of 2011

Halloween Art: Part 1

Halloween Poster #1: Beheaded

Halloween is fast approaching., I thought it would be fitting to post some Halloween inspired art work. Here's my first.

I created this using Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

Roxas City Sunset Wallpapers.

Roxas City is not very well known for sunset views.  With bay facing north, the view of the setting sun is often times blocked by either hills, man made structures and most often... clouds.

There are few places in Roxas City however that I was able to capture beautiful sunset views. 

New Road Sunset. (New Road, Banica, Roxas City)

The road has been there for years. Along with hundreds of residents, I pass by this road almost everyday. One afternoon though, I was attracted by what I saw. 

Hidden Sunset (Cadimahan, Baybay, Roxas City)

Hidden from most of the residents, I was awed by the beauty of the setting sun from where I sit.

Pueblo de Panay Sunset (Pueblo de Panay, Lawa-an Roxas City)

Pueble de Panay is one of the latest and one of  the biggest , if not the biggest, subdivision here in Roxas City. Currently, it is still in it's development phase. I was walking down its 6 lane road one afternoon and took a shot of this view.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners

I. The Adobe Photoshop CS 3 Environment

In order for us to use Adobe Photoshop use effectively, we must learn the environment first. For this tutorial, we will be using Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Fig1. The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Window

Figure 1 shows the whole Adobe Photoshop CS3 window. In any development environment, it is important to familiarize yourself with its par.

• Menu Bar- Contains all the commands necessary to use the program
• Toolbox- displays the common tools (or commands) that you need in creating /editing your images.
• Toolbar- this one changes when you select a tool from the toolbox. It provides additional options for each tool, if any.
• Canvass- This is where you create/edit your image
• Layers - Using layers makes photoshop a very powerful tool in editing images. Soon in this tutorial we will discover the power of layers.

There are still so many parts that you will soon seen in photoshop. Some of the windows here will disappear and reapper and more windows may appear, depending on what tool you are using. I introduced only these parts so that you will not be overwhelmed by the vast number of tools available in Photoshop.

The Toolbox 

Fig. 2: The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Toolbox

As you can see there are 25 buttons in the toolbox, not to mention the sub options of those buttons that has a triangle on the lower right corner. To simplify this tutorial and not overwhelm you with all these tools. We will focus on a tool when needed. The most commonly tools that you may need to use are the Marquee, Move, Pencil/Brush, Eraser, Gradient/Fill Tool (not in any particular order). Of course the Text tool may be needed if your project needs it.

To avoid repeting the discussion of each tool , we will discuss each when we need it. First Let's create our first Photoshop Project

Casualties of War

Captured chess pieces being readied to be carried to ... the morgue?

In Roxas City Plaza, chess enthusiasts enjoy playing the game on the huge chess board. These pawns alone stand about three feet tall.

Strawberry Fields Are Forever

Caution: the actual photo is more than 10Kpix wide.

Panoramic photo of the strawberry fields in  La Trinidad, Philippines. This is actually composed of five (5) photos that I stitched together using photoshop. I actually took more shots than 5, but I used a Polaroid Digital Camera without a tripod, so it was quite difficult to make a very wide angle panorama. I'll be posting soon how I did this.

Immortalized in Stone

"A maiden immortalized in stone by the ancient gods. Perhaps because of her lustful ways."

One of the fascinating stone crafts that you will seen in Tam-Awan Village of Baguio City. This one depicts a maiden with her face towards the skies. Perhaps basking at the sun? Or she could be praying to her gods (for forgiveness?)...  perhaps, only if her arms are there...

Strawberry Wallpapers

For those who love strawberries. Here are a couple of strawberry wallpapers for you to download for free. I took these photos last February when I went to Baguio City.

Fresh Strawberries - a bunch of freshly picked strawberries. Size : 1024 x 768 px

The Sword and the Flute

Water Color Pencil on Paper: The Sword and the Flute

While listening to Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) tunes, images came rushing into my mind. The rising sun on a valley, (or is it the setting sun?), the trees, the river, the swordsman with his katanas on his left while his right hand ready to draw one if needed; and the Sakuhachi (flute) player--playing his tune as he walk on a road by the river.

So I grabbed my sketch pad and water color pencils and brush, then I started drawing the scene that was then fixed in my imagination like a photograph. For each of the following days, I spend sometime, adding details on the image.

My Photo Earned $5.05 Bonus in Redgage

The edited version of my Summer Sunset photo have just earned $5.05 bonus from Redgage.

Starting last week, I have been editing some of my photos and uploaded them here  so they will be available as desktop wallpapers that are downloadable for free. Then I came across a photo in Redgage (The Revere Beach Benches Version 2) that has been edited with HDR effects. I Googled for HDR tutorials and did some experiment on some of my photos and uploaded them here. One of which is the Summer Sunset photo. Then I uploaded it also to my Redgage with the same title Summer Sunset (I think I should have indicated version 2).

HDR Roxas City Cathedral

I applied HDR effects on on a high resolution digital image of the Roxas City Cathedral. 

1024 x 768 px.

Free Desktop Wallpaper for Download: Summer Sunset

I love the sunset, whether in pictures or for real. It always gives me a sense of awe and calm whenever I witness the setting sun. Here's one my sunset photos in which I edited to add some effects on it. Hope you like it

Free Digital Photo Wallpapers.

Digital Photo Wallpapers

I always love to travel. Ever since I acquired my digital camera, I always take photos of the scenery that could be a common sight to the locals but could be a rare one for the travelers.

As I take a look at some of the photos I have taken, which were usually in high resolution, I tried setting one as a my desktop wallpaper. Then,  it came into my mind, I might as well upload it here to share it with you. Here are first two of those digital photo wallpapers.

Sun and Lamp - taken in New Washington, Aklan, Philippines. I thought the clouds, the position of the sun in relation to the lamp post would make a great photo. I had to position the camera a little bit lower too to get this angle.

The Sun and Lamp: 1366 x 766 Wallpaper

Free Wallpaper:Drawing Hands

My first stint on desktop wallpapers. Drawing Hands- my hand making a sketch of my hand which appears to draw my hand also. Click the image for bigger picture. 

Free Wallpaper: Drawing Hands.
Right click on the image and click "Set as Wallpaper"

My Early Works on Photoshop

 I can't remember when I started using Photoshop but I had been drawing for as long as I can remember. It was about in the late 1990's I believe that I have made my first digital image. Most of the time, I've been drawing samurai's . I would first sketch my drawing on a piece of paper then scan it and do the rest of the works in Photoshop.

The Samuari I- one of my earliest works. A long haired modern day Samurai wielding two swords. One long sword and the other a shorter one. The floor actually is done with Corel Draw.

The Wizard of MU.When the game MU started to gain some popularity as a MMORPG,  I downloaded one of their wallpapers and well, placed my head on the wizard's body.










Tales of the Swordsman. I started to create a story about an IT expert who worked in Japan. There he joined an Iaido school and studied this form of Japanese swordsmanship. This frame shows two of the senior students, a husband and wife tandem. The guy is also the main character's direct supervisor and the wife happens to be the daughter of the grand master of the dojo. The background is actually a mixture of digitally created images and real photos.

This guy is supposed to be the main character of that story as he is practicing Iaido.












*Iaido is a Japanese form of swordsmanship that focuses on drawing the sword and cutting the opponent in one motion.

A Birthday Wish for Patrick on St. Patrick's Day!

Dear Patrick,


You may not know me, but me and your Dad, had been good friends way back in our college days. I know you are going through some difficult times right now, but hang on tight. Be tough... be tougher than your dad. Be tough for your Dad and Mom and your siblings.

Digital Photography Tip For Beginners: Crop Your Photos

Digital Photography Tip For the beginners:

Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image for different reasons (improve framing, resizing the picture, etc...)


In photography, there are times that when taking photos we unintentionally got some unwanted parts with it or simply got too much background. In the photo below, the girl happens to walk by just as the button was clicked.

By simply cropping it using Microsoft's Picture Manager, I cropped the extra parts of the photo and made the person off center to show some of the background.

Love Quote Desktop Wallpaper. Perfect for the Valentine

Love Quote Desktop Wallpaper. Perfect for the Valentine's Day

A1024x 768 px colorful Valentine inspired desktop wallpaper. Ready for download and it's for free. I hope you like this.

Photos, Photography and Redgage.

Way back when I was just kid, I have been observing my older brother do some photography works. He was using a RICOH SLR then, I don't know the specific models. I have admired his works, and perhaps watching him and seeing his works have planted a seed in me.

In college, I have have always admired the photos in the National Geographic Magazine. Though they are quite expensive, I would buy one from time to time, not only to read the interesting articles but to marvel on the amazing quality of photos in that magazine. (I also love to collect the maps of the different countries-- from different times that comes with the some issues).

The Last Full Moon of 2010 (Photo Blog)

One of the new hobbies I have started this year is photography. Since I still can't afford to buy an entry level DSLR camera, I settled for a digital camera that has at least 3x optical zoom with a high resolution (up to 12 Mega pixels).

While doing different experiments with my digi-cam, my interest in taking night photos without using the flash grew. Of course this means that my subjects would be something that is lighted or the source of light even.

One December night, I stepped out of our front door then I saw the bright full moon glowing. What caught my attention was, though it's been very cloudy for the past few days, there's just enough hole through the clouds to show the moon. The effects of the moon's light on the clouds instantly suggested that this is a moment worth capturing in the camera, so I grabbed my digital camera, not realizing back then that I was about to take pictures of the Last full moon of 2010.