Charcoal Drawing

There are some things that never get old even with the passing of time. Fads will come and go, but there will always be something to appreciate about them and charcoal drawing is one of those. For this, we’re going to need the following: Sketch pad Cotton buds / Cotton balls Regular pencil Charcoal pencil/Charcoal sticks Eraser (preferably the kneaded kind) For starters, we’ll prepare the sketch we’ll be working on. If you’re the talented kind who can sketch portraits with ease, you can just go and draw a rough sketch of your preferred subject using your regular pencil. If you happened to be sleeping when the skies opened up and showered mere mortals with drawing talents, on the other hand, you can do it the easier way by tracing photos from magazines or photocopied pictures of your desired subject. When your sketch is ready, we’ll move on to the charcoal painting process by identifying the so-called dark areas of the human face. These usually include either side of the hair right next to the jaws and cheeks, the thin line between the upper and lower lips, the outer corners of the eyes, half of the nose and the eyebrow areas just a bit above the nose. Doing this is important because the work we’ll be doing in those areas will give our painting its defining silhouettes. Next, we’ll whip some strokes on the areas mentioned above using the charcoal pencil. The strokes don’t have to be particularly heavy, but they should be heavy enough to be distinguished from the lighter lines of your sketch. After that, we’ll get some cotton buds and rub the pencil strokes on the dark areas lightly to smudge them a bit. If you want the smudge to cover a wider area, we can use some cotton balls, but if you want to control the area that will be covered by the smudge, we can stick with the cotton buds. From one area, we’ll work our way to the other sections of the portrait until we’ve got all the dark spots covered. Once we’re done with the smudging part, we’ll finish the rest of the painting by tracing our sketch so the lines we’ve made earlier will be more pronounced. We can also fill in the rest of the painting by shading the spaces in between the lines. When all of these are done, we’ll add some finishing touches to the painting by using a rubber eraser to erase certain parts where shading has been done to give them a sparkly look like what we did. And that’s it! Our finished charcoal portrait. Make sure you don’t forget to put your signature somewhere on the paper. Who knows, it might actually command a high price someday....

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Plant-a-Berde; Painting the Town Green One Tree at a Time

Marathons aimed at promoting environmental awareness have been in vogue lately, and although we want to do our little part in advancing this cause, we’re afraid our less-than-sturdy physiques won’t be able to take all the strain, especially considering the only exercise we get during weekdays is the inconvenient walk between our work stations and the water dispenser. Luckily for us, the guys from Green Team Philippines had a different idea in mind when they invited us to join “Plant-a-Berde,” a tree planting project organized by the group in coordination with local government units and non-government organizations. So, equipped with backpacks containing some water and snacks, we left Lucena City in the morning of November 6th to head for the plaza of Sariaya, Quezon where we were supposed to meet up with the other groups who will also be participating in the said project. We initially thought we’d follow the organizers’ vehicles on their way up to Barangay Mamala, a sizable area covering a portion of Mount Banahaw-San Cristobal where we will be planting the rambutan and acacia saplings that we had with us, but it turned out that they had requested military officers to give us a hitch in their military trucks. Given how the medical doctors, teachers, and students who were with us that time gamely climbed aboard the imposing truck, we think it’s safe to say it was an idea that was well-received. After traveling for about an hour, we stopped a few hundred meters away from our intended destination to travel on foot after the narrowing path made it difficult for the large truck we were on to proceed. It was a good thing the day wasn’t particularly hot, thanks to the bulky trees along the road, so the uphill climb was still enjoyable even if we had to stop walking a couple of times to catch our breath. When we reached an abandoned patch of land that was said to have been cleared using kaingin methods, the coordinator led us to the spot where we were supposed to plant the saplings, although they had us participate in a native ritual intended as an offering to the guardians of the forest first. They gave us the signal to start planting after that, but they advised us to check the holes where we will be planting as there were some “buried treasures” in them.  When all the saplings had been planted, they rounded us up to award the treasures which turned out to be some gift certificates among other things. After all the prizes had been given out and the organizers called it a day, we all prepared to leave, although of course, everyone flashed their best smiles for some souvenir shots first. It was already past lunch when we reached the town plaza where our short journey started, but in spite of our hungry stomachs and soiled shoes, it was an experience we truly...

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Covering New Grounds

The month of October is a month of new beginnings for BNP Design Studio. Not only have we launched our very first blog and added some new modifications to our official website and merchandise store this month, our long delayed plan of moving in to a bigger and more appropriately designed studio has also finally pushed through. From a small improvised office converted from a one story studio-type apartment unit to a two story building with minimalist interiors, our staff of eight people all packed and manually carried our equipment and belongings to the place we’ll be calling our new home – or office to be exact – sweating and collecting specks of dust along the way. It took us about half a day to unpack and rearrange our stuff, and when we had the chance to rest and scan our new environment with its grainy walls, smooth painted floors, ample bookshelves, spacious drawing area, and sleek and shiny computer units atop pristine desks, choosing which newly purchased seat will belong to whom became a race. Of course the matter was settled amicably, and after a hearty meal and some casual exchange of lighthearted jokes in between bites, we decided to call it a day. All in all, it was a tiring task. But that aside, it was really...

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