Thirty years ago, Zamboanga's iconic Mayor Cesar Cortez Climaco was killed at the streets of Camino Nuevo, leaving the city in sorrow. Mayor Cesar left a legacy of Courage and Honor as he battled during the Marcos regime and fought for the nation's democracy. This week the City Government, headed by Mayor Beng Climaco, the niece of Cesar Climaco, prepare a lineup of events to commemorate his life and legacy.

Carisma. Coraje. Compasión. These are the trademarks of Cesar Climaco which every Zamboangueños should emulate. Let's take part on this wonderful history and help make Zamboanga a better city by following the footsteps of our heroes who risked their lives for our city and country. Here are the lineup of activities for Dia de Cesar.


Here are the three commemorative graphic portraits that I designed which was unveiled during the flag-raising ceremony on November 10 at Plaza Rizal fronting the City Hall.


Carisma. Cesar Climaco is know for his eccentricity. A very energetic and humorous person, he charmed every person in front of him. Children would call him Lolo Cesar with a bag of candies in his arms. He will let the kids sing "Ay si Cesear" in the tune of "Oh my darling, Clementine" before he gives away his candy. Cesar's iconic vintage motorcycle is his favorite mode of transportation. If you notice, i placed some candies in the design.


Coraje. A very brave man Cesar is. He is very hands on in everything he do. He is a real life super hero as he is also a volunteer fireman. He also showed courage when he opposed the Marcos dictatorship and vowed not to cut his hair until democracy is achieved. Unfortunately, his long white hair remained until his last day, when he was assasinated on November 14, 1984. Aside from the crimson palette which symbolize his courage, I also placed some lions which reminded me of his intense presence especially when he express his strong views and opinions in public.


Compasión. Cesar is a person with a pure heart. His love to his constituents know no age, gender or religion.  In this final portrait, we see him in his candid moments, assisting to his grandson and an elderly who is emotional in his presence. I also placed a hand carrying a seedling which symbolize his compassion towards nature and humankind. Truly, Cesar Climaco is a man of Charisma, Courage and Compassion.

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 Thanks to Sir Jojo Yap-Aizon and Mark Saavedra for helping me gather the images for the portraits.

It has been almost a year since i did my last "artwork" which is my poster design entry for Animahenasyon. I also did some doodles for the 30 day drawing challenge which is still unfinished. I posted those works in my doodle blog but whenever i ran out of ideas i tend to get stuck XD.

Recently, ive been watching US shows like SYTYCD, Glee and ANTM. I'm an active tweet peep, too! I followed celebrities and enjoyed reading their tweets about their daily lives. One day, I stumbled upon this photo of Chris Hernandez (@Iam_ChrisH), a "model-testant" of America's Next Top Model Cycle 20, which he posted in twitter. I like the photo because of the lighting and colors which i thought will be a good vexel/vector art. I like the hair style and his expression, too.

Surprisingly, I was inspired to work on it one day. I used Adobe Illustrator to "vectorize" it. I almost gave up when i started doing the hair. It took me more than 5 hours to finish it but i was very happy it came out nice. I rested and decided to continue it the following day. After three days, I finally finished it! The most challenging part is where the magenta and cyan blend. The hair and lips are my favorite part of it :)


Check out the original post in my DeviantArt account for larger view. Dont forget to hit the fave+ :) Here are some details. Watcha think?

I haven't been exercising my vexelling skills for a while so i decided to make this one. This photo has been in my hard drive for a long time since i discovered it. Its a gorgeous portrait of my favorite model, Katarzyna Dolinska of ANTM Cycle 10. I love this pic because it is so surreal and it is very high fashion. I really liked the hair and makeup in this one that's why i kept this in case i have the mood to vexel it. Since I already finished my projects (did i mention that i'll be graduating 2 weeks from now? weee), i. This is my 2nd vexel of her. Click here to view the first one. Here's the artwork:

Click here for full view :D

Click here to see Katarzyna's model profile.

How do we say that an artwork is a vector? What is the difference between a vector and vexel? A couple of minutes ago I browsed my acquaintance's facebook account where he posted his "vector art". He traced the photos of his friends using photoshop and it looked like comic versions of the photos. In the image he traced a thick black lines for the outlines and blurred or smudged out the skin. I kinda looked like this self-portait that I made years ago.

He also used brushes to create smokey eyes and shadows for the lighting. I just want to clarify to all digital art the misuse of the term vector. Even I myself have misconceptions on vectors. Here is another so-called vector art. Most of the elements are created using photoshop brushes.


Quoted from a forum in dA,

Vector is made using mathematical equations instead of pixels so no matter how far you zoom in it recalculates and and looks perfect instead of a pixel based system. That's the technical definition however it has a specific style attached to it. It is usually either super simplistic or hyper realistic. As for vexel it is technically pixel based art that looks like vector but this too is know for hyper realism.

Therefore, what we see above are not vector art. If it is created using brushes and several tools such as blur or smudge, it is not vector. Vectors are created using the pen tool and shape tools alone. It means when we interpolate (increase the resolution of) a vector image, the line will still look smooth. Usually the file format of vectors are .ai and .eps. On the other hand, we have vexels. Vexels are rasterized versions of vectors. They are usually the jpegs or gifs that looks like vectors but the quality will be lost when we interpolate it. This is one of my favorite and the only vexel art that i made using adobe illustrator and then edited it in photoshop.