Friday, September 10, 2010

Deadcat8843 SCRY 17-Mar-2010

 THE CALLING

Art is a part of me, and I'm a part of it. 
One cannot be whole without the other.
How I live my life and choose to shape who I am 
I can create something out of nothing.
It doesn't matter the medium that we choose
It's that untapped energy I feel  inside struggling to come out.

To take its shape and form
In a song, a dance, an ode, a symphony, an aria
What matters is capturing that moment
That image in your head
With as much clarity and honesty as you can.

Trying to transpose that idea, a feeling, a message,
Into something tangible
The pleasure of sharing that particular moment
With an audience.

At times, we share it with others,
Sometimes, we choose to lock them away
And simply flag them as hobbies
But balancing is everything -
A personal decision on the part of the artist
How he wishes to apply his skill or ability.

At times, I ask myself that question, what does it mean to me
and why does my life revolve around it?
The answer simply is, it is my calling.
When I'm not around it, creating it
Denying myself any sort of artistic expression
Feels like dying.

Life support is being taken away.
The world is dreary, and drab,
So dark and gloomy.
It's like taking the sun away
Our universe in complete darkness...

 



The Storyteller's Message:

Life has its ebbs and tides, and during the time that I was away from it, I study and observe the world with its daily grind. Try and learn as much from the lessons that life throws your way. Broaden your  horizons and open the mind, it  unlocks the key to  knowledge and wisdom, it will provide you the sign posts where the impossible becomes possible. The only thing you need to have is the courage to give yourself a chance.
 
17-Mar-2010
dgcabanas

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Conversations with Deadcat

The Storyteller was away for a while but came by for a visit bearing gifts to hang up on my gallery.

She finally decided to share her book called Encyclopaedia Donnabella, I've been bothering her to show me for years and years. It took a lot of convincing but at last, after so many years of waiting and waiting, she finally relented.


- Boy,  she's really starting to step it up a notch. I've never seen her this "focused". Talk about not allowing anyone to get in the way of her projects, dreams and goals.








PORTRAIT OF A LADY

Canada (Portrait of a Lady) by: Donna Cabanas





KEEPING STOCK -  Doodles and old artworks need not be thrown out. Take for example the above, a little touch-up  and "voila!" - a simple pencil sketch that looks great on jpeg. on a straightforward  B&W background.
Highly recommend Photoshop to all - it's a wonderful program and worth every penny having these handy especially for doing post edit work.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Bloated Ankheg


Blending different types - regular crayons, coloured pencils, ballpoint black pen and markers. 
No fine lines here! Just studying the color blending and natural forms....and yes, you are right, this is another D&D creature. I found the book very interesting, to this day, I still have not finished reading the entire hardbound book. 
  
---- I've observed other students/artist inside the Royal Ontario Museum (otherwise known as The ROM to most Torontonians), sketching away and doing the same thing. 

Piece of FRINGE tidbit, Massive Dynamics headquarters was shot at The ROM. I recognized the front facade right away and the interior of Nina's office is a part of the new addition.


****Hmmm....add to my wish list this year, renew my membership, been a while since I've gone down for a visit.****

Unintended Abstractions

Learning curves...obviously was not paying attention to my exposures, this originally came out under-exposed. The sketch was of an Arakocra, a D&D creature that I had tried to sketch using simple pencil and crayons that you would buy at a local convenience/dollar store. 
There are days when I would just sit and doodle to see what I come up with. I chanced on one of these D&D books lying around that had creatures from A to Z. 
For fun, I decided to diverge away from human faces and concentrate more on natural-looking creatures. Needed practice with the wrist anyway...to make the long story short, I decided to fool around in the post-edit prior to loading on blog. 
This is what came out:

Of Lines and Perspective

Pencil and Charcoal  - I attempted to sketch this portion on a Rodney Matthews book, practicing on lines and perspectives. It took 6-8 hours after I was satisfied that my study session is passable. The original photo that I took was a bit dark so I had to brighten the image as some of the details were missing.  

Kenpachi - Homage

Zaraki Kenpachi - one of the characters in "BLEACH". Highly suggest and recommend it if you're into anime and comic books. Awesome characters and intricate plots. Beautiful lines and each have their own uniqueness -  have a lot of respect for the artists that created them.

This time I used the usual Stabilo finepoint coloured pens then acrylic paint on beige-coloured cartolina just to see what effect it would give the type of paper I'm using, once it dries.

Needless to say, this is the end result. I was trying to bring out his rough personality through the expression on his face.

Hope I did his character justice, what  do you think? DC

Blue Kimono

Oil Pastel on Paper - Started out as a pencil sketch and decided to experiment with this nice blue shade. Used a simple technical pencil that takes 0.5 refills and art eraser to spread out the colours. Camera exposure not that great - conditions are indoor, low light and had to mount DSLR on a tripod. Shaky hands will produce blurred picture obviously....hahaha.....DC

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Leonardo's Angels

                   A portion of the site dedicated to my ancestral lines and heritage. 

                              In memory of: Preciosa Arroyo, Leonardo Arroyo 
                                          and my Mother Norma Arroyo-Cabanas

Photo: Donna Cabanas



         A PRAYER TO MY ANCESTORS
We are a part of you ... the chain will never be broken....
Only strengthened by your light eternal 
May you continue to protect and watch over us
And bless the earth continually....
We need your protection now more than ever...
O Great Spirits that once walked the earth
You gave shelter and peace
And protected anyone that needed help....


As the Mighty Eagle spreads his wings high into the sky,
The She-wolf howls to celebrate 
Raven looks on silently
As He bids Spider Woman
To once again weave the Web of Life...

As above so below
Your Children will remain faithful
To our songs and traditions
Of love, brotherhood, and compassion
So that one day
We will finally become
One Tribe
All connected through 
The Web of Life

Written by: Donnabelle Grace Arroyo Cabanas
I remain your humble servant and keeper of the Light

 
One Tree Hill (Tree 2 - DCabanas)
 

Friday, August 20, 2010

Whisper of Trees

DEADCAT'S POET SOCIETY

 ..as I take each step, I hear the echoes. Like a pebble dropping in still water...the ripples echoes of a different time... the wind whispers softly to me...be one with me and everything that is...
 ... I looked up into the sky, Mr. Sun is shining down on me, bathed in his warmth....I close my eyes....and turn my face towards him for a sun kiss. 

Click,click...this is the image that I see when we open up our hearts and just BE....
- Deadcat's  Poet Society


Encyclopaedia Donabella
Tree5 - Photo by D. Cabanas

Deadcat's Gallery

Kingdom Plantaea - Design Study for Book Project I'm working on.    

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

DEADCAT'S GALLERY

"Life is not all about society...what are we doing to protect this?

Location: Riverdale Farm, Toronto Ontario.

Photo by: Donna Cabanas
Encyclopaedia Donnabella - Yellowflower (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)
                 Welcome to my Garden   
                        (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)

".....and perhaps in my own way, I can help mankind have a better understanding of the meaning of compassion, love, happiness and brotherhood. " - Donna Cabanas







Trees (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)
At times when I look above... it makes me realize how tiny we really are... 

 ...as above so below...a phrase that came to mind as I looked down and saw a reflection of the universe upon a little pool of water.
Catch A Universe (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)


 Red Flower Series ( Photo by : Donna Cabanas)
Riverdale - Favourite haunt
 Red Flower Series  (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)
 Red Flower Series
Riverdale Park Curio (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)
 Alfrescodeflores (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)
The Road Less Travelled   


Red Flower Series (Photo by: Donna Cabanas)

Riverdale Horse  (Photo: D. G. Cabanas)