by Kara Pangilinan | May 21, 2016 | Personal Blog
People say that the College of Architecture is the college that never sleeps. Whether it be at UST or UP Diliman or wherever… I think that holds true. Architecture students are always swamped with work. During plates season, we know no time, destroy our body clocks and forget to eat regularly. For those particular reasons, deadlines also serve as markers of freedom. Right after dropping off our deliverables at school, it seems as though the whole universe gets a little and brighter, instantly making it a lot easier for us to breathe. Suddenly, we can do whatever we want to do – and more often than not, we end up doing… nothing. However, I’ve come to realize that nothing means different things to different people. For some, it means lying in bed all day, watching movies or a TV series. For others, it means sleeping in. What people do during their free time really says a lot about them. I find that kind of interesting. Anyway. Last night, I realized that for the first time in forever, I had a free weekend. No plans, no murals, no events marked on my calendar. Of course, there’s still quite a lot to catch up on, in terms of school and Details Ink projects but, I decided to see how things would pan out. So, hooray to my first Do Nothing Day in a billion years. Although, that for me means a whole day of thinking and dreaming and planning. I call that my life mode… or an FML session. (Fix My Life Session hihi) That means an entire day of coffee and notebooks and pens and,...
by Kara Pangilinan | May 16, 2016 | Personal Blog
First of all, I want to share one of my most recent projects. It was an “adventure box” birthday gift for a nice lady’s boyfriend. She shared with me many aspects of his adventurous lifestyle and had me translate these stories into the illustrations on the box above. There were wind surfing, scuba diving and hiking scenes, as well as personal elements like a Land Rover Defender and San Mig Light bottle. I think I particularly love doing projects like this because it takes me back to my initial style, before I ever even knew I had a style. Haha. I’d just put things together. Random objects in my head, all incorporated into one cohesive image. With patterns, just there to fill in the gaps. It would always end up looking the same – intricate black and white art. But, it would always represent something. Like… everything I want to do before I’m 25 or what I want to do in summer. Good thoughts, bad thoughts. I’d release them from my system by putting them on paper. Anyway. I loved that project. I love most projects I do and I generally love this creative outlet. I have had it for almost five years now and I’ve been able to get through life just fine. Balancing Details Ink in high school was easy but, of course, it wasn’t as much work as it is today. Right now? Hm. Juggling all my orgs, my architectural studies, running this business and doing one too many projects a month is starting to get a little bit overwhelming. – – – – – – – –...
by Kara Pangilinan | May 1, 2016 | Details Ink Blog
Yesterday was the most awaited Satchmi Vinyl Day 2016 – and by far, one of the best events I’ve ever attended, if not the best. Haha. I was invited to do live art for the event, and I’ve never done anything like that before. (Murals are totally different.) I was basically freaking out for hours before we started at 6:00 pm because, one, I hadn’t thought of what to do; two, there were just so many people; and three, they positioned our easels right in the middle walkway, for the whole UP Town to see. Haha. I have to say… despite the pressure, the heat, the intimidating giant blank canvas staring at my face and the one billion blank moments I had during those four hours, I had so much fun. Haha! Of course, I had fun. The line up was super solid. Reese Lansangan, Jensen and the Flips and Ransom Collective were just three of my favorites. Good music, good art. My type of night. Yay! Here are some photos of the whole live art thing. This was the concept I crammed in my booth prior to the event. I was searching far and wide for inspiration, until I decided to simply do what I do in my private art journals. I just answer the horrible question: What’s on your mind? Haha. Despite how much I try not to make public art that reflects too much of what’s in my head, I cannot. It’s dishonest. Haha. So there. Anyway. More photos. Photo by Edric Chua Photo by Miguel Sebastian Photo by Jonas Tamayo Photo by Jonas Tamayo Photo by Jonas Tamayo Photo by...
by Kara Pangilinan | Mar 25, 2016 | Personal Blog
Manila is beautiful at 5:00 in the morning. When 2016 started, one of my resolutions was to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. I would go to bed at 10:00 PM and wake up at 5:00 AM before anyone else in the house was up. Those few hours spent by myself made my days slower and more focused – and I totally loved it. Of course, as the weeks passed, life got in the way of my morning routine and it has been so long since I got to have that perfectly placed seven hours of sleep. But, that’s fine. Yesterday was the first official day of Holy Week and instead of going on our usual trip to Tali Beach, we decided to have a staycation here in the city. It’s been great! I spent hours and hours just doing my thing – which is basically sitting outside with my art box, some good life books and my Muji sketchbooks. And Spotify. Haha. And I even had time to go downstairs and watch that sunset by Manila Bay, which was still beautiful despite the evident pollution in the pink sky. It was exactly what I needed. The past weeks have left me overwhelmed, tired and kind of empty. I’ve been quite stuck in the aspect of personal creativity. Like I forgot how I used to make art for the sake of art. And I forgot what I used to do for just me – not for the Details Ink Instagram, not for any client, not for school – but, just for me. Which was so bad because as my annual week of rest...
by Kara Pangilinan | Mar 8, 2016 | Details Ink Blog
Last Friday, I had the privilege of giving a talk to the UP Business Administration Student Council. #AdvantEDGE is what they go by if I’m not mistaken haha. It was a nice, quick, chill workshop that started with a lecture and ended with a little pen and ink art demo. The lecture portion was basically a casual kwento session. I shared how Details Ink started, including all the yucky technical things I had to figure out and I also shared some of the things I wish I knew when I was just starting. Here’s the slide: As much as I’d like to elaborate on these vague tips now, I think I’ll save that for another time. Hehe. Preparing for this talk made me realize that I have been so hard on myself these past months. And that I have not stopped to look back and realize that hey, I have grown a lot. But sharing these things to people who are just starting out made me realize that despite all the mistakes I made in the past five years… I did one thing right – I didn’t stop doing what I loved doing. In the last part of the lecture, I shared these cliche-but-true lessons which I stand by to this day. These are things I have to constantly learn and relearn; things that I’ll have to tell myself thrice as much as I tell anyone else. And all this goes to show… just how business-minded I am not. Haha. Because I was there in front of maybe 20 business students, telling them my number one entrepreneurship tip: never stop doing what you love…...
