Alternative contact for OrangeJar

Hi there! For those trying to contact me through orangejar (@) orangejar.com, I cannot apologize enough for the full inbox automatic messages that you have been receiving. I am having a bit of technical difficulty at the moment. I do still get the messages, and I respond with  my personal email.

In the meantime, you can also contact me through orangejar (@) gmail.com or though a convo/message in my Etsy shop.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you! 

Group Caricature for a Going Away Present

I feel like I won an award every time a client emails me their feedback on a clay work or caricature order. More so, when they also share how much their recipients loved the caricature gift.

Nermeen, contacted me from the UAE. They wished to give their boss, who is moving to the USA, a memorable going away token that will remind her of their group, their department and all their hard work and successes. She also requested for the background to reflect the journey of their boss through the landmarks in the background: from Egypt, to the UAE to the USA. After I sent her her the finished artwork, she had it printed on canvas which turned out great. 

To Nermeen, thanks for sending the photos and leaving such a lovely review in my OrangeJar Etsy shop!

5 stars from Nermeen:
"Ria is a super Artist with very accurate, fast execution and time management. While others provided longer periods with very exaggerated prices, Ria is providing a very professional service with impeccable timing as well as super attention to details with very cost effective prices. The portrait was for my boss's Farewell and enough to say that my boss said: "This is the most amazing gift that I have received in my life"!! I would recommend Ria to my friends and co-workers"

Client feedback & new dolls

Ugh. I've just been really slow at crossing off items in my to do list. The holidays lulled me into a very zombierriffic state. I did catch up with a tons of TV series I wanted to finish though, which is always good for the soul. ;)

Last month, my client sent a great big thumbs up, a feedback from his team, for the group caricature he ordered. Always tickled pink when client sends feedback. The team was from a very international background so I had fun playing with the setting with scenes from China, UAE and Japan to name a few. 

Year's starting slowly... hard to get back to routine after all the lovely food and late mornings. But one thing I did get back on to is my clay work. Here's a preview of one of my latest creations: Filipiana doll in the simple baro at saya (top and skirt). I'm still not done with her, still tons to do and learn, but this is the reason why I became interested in clay work in the first place. And I am quite happy with how she looks so far. Hope you like it!

Tennis themed caricature & places to get prints

Always great to hear from clients. This is from a client in Ajman who told me they had they had their prints made in a Kodak store. That's really great news, it's been years of course, but the last time I checked with a Kodak shop, it would take them days to print anything bigger than 5r because they did not have the machines for it (the branch near my home in Dubai before had to send it off to a bigger branch). So it's great to know that they offer bigger formats now with less wait. This shop was from one of the malls in Ajman and I believe my client waited for only a few minutes for this print.

If you have a very good printer, you can even print the artwork at home. Caricatures are great for invitations and seasonal greeting cards, not just wall decor.

Before this, I always recommend a specific digital printer in Dubai called Al Suwaidi Computers along Mankhool Road. Their big HP printer is really good. I'll be adding Kodak to that list now - they are usually easier to find, being in popular areas like malls and you get assured photo quality prints,

Thanks EMT for sending this photo!

Dubai Skyline

I have done a lot of Dubai skylines over the years as backgrounds for caricature artworks. It is, admittedly, a frequent request specially if the caricature is going to be given as a going away gift. Since I don't want my backgrounds looking the same, I vary it depending on the brief.

One of my recent clients (who ordered a superhero themed group caricature) wanted to get the feel of  a Superman poster she found online – the flying superhero is standing afloat a beige sky, cape waving around, behind him the vivid red of his insignia and underneath, the dark contrast of the city scape in black.

To catch the same look and feel, I made a silhouette of the famous or more familiar landmarks of Dubai (Burj Khalifa - currently the world's tallest tower, Burj Al Arab - Dubai's 7-star hotel, some of the older buildings along Sheik Zayed road like Emirates Twin Towers and Dusit Hotel, interspersed with traditional Arabic houses). But instead of black, I used brown to convey the feel of the UAE desert.

Creating a darker shade of  the poster sample background, I applied a stain filter and made a layer filled with random scratches to further get that vintage feel.

OrangeJar caricatures depend on the client's brief - most clients know what they want so it's nice to get some fun requests that I can play around with. Alas, I'm not allowed to post the whole thing, so here's a portion of the background I made for this group caricature project.

On Vacation till July & Lourvre Abu Dhabi

From today till the  end of July - OrangeJar will be on a holiday break! 

For inquiries, I can still be reached at orangejar (@) orangejar (dot) com (I am not able to post all products I work on but I accept a variety of projets such as corporate presentations (slide presentations / short video presentations), design (brochure / book layout / emailer), web design, caricatures and illustrations).

In the meantime, here's some news from the UAE artworld:

Louvre Abu Dhabi Talking Art Series

Using Science to Unlock the Mystery of Art
Wednesday June 26, 6:45 - 8pm
Manarat Al Saadiyat, Auditorium

Through laboratory analysis fascinating discoveries have been made that give new insights into the comprehension of art history. These studies provide a closer view of the intimate process of creating artworks, and sometimes unlock new information that leads us to reinterpret the meaning of the artwork itself. In this panel, the results of the analysis of Les Enfants Luttant or Breton Boys Wrestling, a remarkable painting by Paul Gauguin that is now part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection will be presented. Along with a discussion of the tools and techniques applied to the masterpiece that enabled a far greater understanding and scientifically supported interpretation of the Gauguin creation.

The panel will also begin with a discussion on the importance of a scientific laboratory in the life of an ambitious museum in this region. Offering examples put forth by the Sharjah Museums Department, this panel will examine the history and current status of collection care in the UAE, and the need to further develop the facilities and expertise in the region. Speakers include Hazelle Page,Collections Manager at Sharjah Museums Department, Marie Lavandier, General Heritage Curator, art historian and anthropologist with Laurence des Cars, Curatorial Director of Agence France-Muséums and curator of the Birth of a Museum exhibition (currently ongoing at Manarat Al Saadiyat until July 22, 2013).

For more information, please visit http://saadiyatculturaldistrict.ae/en/cultural-programme/talks-and-panels/.

June projects

It's all water color this month:

Blurred company logo. No frame.

Frame included in order. 

Watercolor portraits.

Watercolor caricatures

Currently working on another project, designing a slide presentation for corporate use. Not as colorful as portrait/caricature work but just as intensive.

Finished two watercolor caricatures recently for two different clients. Remembered to take photos before wrapping up for delivery. The first one is A3, ordered with frame and the second is A4, without frame.

Blurred one section there were specific details about the client showed.

March projects

Quick post on a projects I finished recently. Had a string of framed orders this month, so all of these were delivered framed:

My friend Malen also came by over the weekend to buy more accessories - she took this red heart pendant and orange brooch home with her.

Argh. Can't believe it, March is nearly over!

Caricature for Dea

My friend from high school treasures the month of February in her relationship. It's not just because it's the worldwide month of love but because it is the month when their love for each other was first officially acknowledged and from then, steadily strengthened.

This year, in celebration of Valentines and the month of Feb, she commissioned a caricature of her and her husband, Chef Andrew, as a surprised gift. In it are all the wonderfully significant things and places in their early relationship - a bag of chili dilis (small crispy, chili fish), telephones, a shower (because according to the rules of the universe, the phone will ring when you're in the shower, and that much-awaited first call did come when she was in the shower!), Big Boy, Starbucks, Figaro Cafe, Galo's, Slim Jims and finally, a treasured message that her hubby wrote on a piece of paper.

It was fun creating this piece - there were lots of details that built up to the lovely, loving couple they are now.

Happy anniversary Dea and Andrew!

Watercolor portraits

Happy New Year!

Just before Christmas I received a rush order for a caricature, and the client opted for a fully hand drawn caricature. So here's my style with a hand drawn and hand colored one:

And here are some watercolor portraits I made which went out as Holiday Gifts:

Argh. Gotta get back to work, but going to New Year lunches seem more enticing! Cheers! Hope you all have a great one!

Ate Maria caricature gift

Just taking a quick detour on my to do list today to post this.

Got this photo in the email yesterday, a photo of OrangeJar caricature being given to the recipient, Ate Maria. Feedback was, she loved it and was very happy to receive a caricature as a going away present.

Ate Maria

Good luck in your new life abroad Ate Maria!

It's so heartwarming to hear feedback- big thanks to Bernie, for letting me know and sending the photo.

ARTE Souq Timesquare Yesterday

Was at ARTE Souq Time Square yesterday - tons of fun talking to people interested in my clay line and learning from the other vendors. A huge thank you to my friends Ena and Lucy for keeping me company, and to all friends who dropped by. :) Thank you!

If you want to see my work, please drop by ARTE Ikea on Nov 2 or ARTE Time Square on Nov 9

It was only my second time with ARTE - the first one was last year around Ramadan. Back then, my neighbor vendor was another Filipina who sold jewelery. She started it as a hobby after she quit her job and got married. One of her husband's friends recommended her to ARTE and she had been with them ever since. After a few months (or was it a year?) she opened a small stall in Ibn Battuta mall. Quite a feat and inspiration. 

 

So, here's to hoping that I go the same way with my new clay line. I have zombies, angels, and UAE-inspired clay work. The good news is, I also got custom order for a Star Wars set and two custom order to make likeness of people but in the same style of my current clay collectibles. There was also a client who wanted to discuss character development. So it's all good.  

These little darlings are now available at Etsy. My shop name is www.etsy.com/shop/OrangeJarArt

I've also added the clay collectible products to my newly opened Etsy shop, so please stop by to visit. My Etsy address is www.etsy/shop/orangejarart. It's OrangeJarArt. Unfortunately, there was already another vendor with the shop name "Orangejar" so I couldn't get it and I did not want to change my shop name because this has been my shop name for years! Anyway, just please remember to add "ART" at the end of "OrangeJar" to find my Etsy shop. Thanks and see you there!

DealGobbler & Wedding tokens

This was a busy time last year. One of my projects included a partnership with DealGobbler.com where we offered 50% off on caricatures.

There were 15 clients who bought vouchers - I know it's not much but that was still more than a dozen! And it was my first time to enter such a partnership. Most of the clients redeemed their voucher towards December making that month even more hectic.

Screenshot after the deal was done

Which leads me to another client...

Wedding tokens

Caricatures can be used for so many things. The design can be used for invitations, greeting cards, stationeries, mugs, and so much more. So around this time too last year, I was approached by a lovely couple who were about to be married. It was to be a small wedding - yes, they know each and every one who will be there, and they wanted a caricature for each of them. The artworks served as name cards which they could take home as wedding tokens.

After our meeting, we settled on the price, the style and the type of paper they want. I drew 90+ pen and ink caricatures on A6 quality drawing paper for them. My clients would send photos with complete descriptions of what they wanted in each artwork - which of course, made researching details and drawing each piece easier.

Pen and Ink is my first love so I really enjoyed going back to this medium. And I'm happy to report, even if it's a year later, that my clients said they were extremely satisfied with my work, in fact, I was the only supplier for their wedding that they were happy with (that's what they said! and I'm happy they're happy! Hmm that doesn't say much for Dubai wedding suppliers though - but they did not elaborate so I have no idea how their deals with the others went).

Seeing those caricatures as I was cleaning up my external harddrives made me long to make more pen and ink artworks which I loved to create when I was younger. Hopefully this would push me soon to start doodling and sketching and creating more artworks in this medium.

OrangeJarArt on Etsy now open!

I have been considering Etsy for the longest time. But it was only a few months ago that I actually signed up to become a seller... then I left the account empty. For weeks now, I've been wanting to post my art prints and clay work but I've been too worried about shipping and packaging so I did nothing.

In the meantime, I've been trying to find the best way to ship out and well, experimenting on packaging.

But I realize now that I have to make the jump. So today, I officially opened my Etsy store. I couldn't take the name OrangeJar anymore - imagine that, somebody beat me to it. So I put in OrangeJarArt. If you want to check it out, just click here. It's a leap of faith, I wasn't ready for it, so there's only one product listed up there and that is my caricature/portrait service.

OrangeJarArt shop and the one and only product listed ;)

Etsy's email confirmation

I know I should have done this a long time ago. It takes eons of time to promote and for a shop to get recognized. But at least, I opened it. I took the plunge. Now, I just have to sort out packing and shipping and I'll be posting more stuff in there.

Here's to hoping for more clients to stumble in my humble shop!

ARTE Time Square on Oct 12

OrangeJar is joining ARTE this October 12 at Time Square from 12 noon to 7pm. We hope you can join us! It's only our second time with ARTE so we're pretty excited.

ARTE is also holding a competition for the artisans' posters. Most liked gets free stations next year - please support our poster and LIKE it in FB. Just click here and it will take you directly to the poster. 

Thanks and see you there!

Client feedback

It's always great to hear feedback from happy clients. This just came in email today - clients are from Abu Dhabi - and with pictures too!

THANK YOU RIA.

Another Happy Client.  

We are all glad we met you.

Best Regards,

Bernie

Thank you Bernie for the repeat order. Always a pleasure working with you.

Changing styles

I was watching an Awesome Horse Studios video a while back and one of them (it's a group of four established artists, excellent in their fields who decided to share their expertise to the world for free - quite cool!) was saying that you should experiment  with your style and just let it flow. So just to practice while watching, I opened another browser and decided to draw from one of their profile pictures (the photo I based this on doesn't seem to be on their site anymore hehe).

The one on the left is my default style and the one on the right is the redraw with me making it flow freer. Gotta do more of these exercises. Quite fun!

Pawan in the house!

Haven't had much time to update the site - but this is one fun work I finished recently: Pawan Manghnani dubbed Sheikh of Stand-up comedy!

You can check out his FB page here. 

OrangeJar mentioned in Kabayan Weekly newspaper

Kabayan Weekly newspaper, the only Filipino weekly newspaper in the UAE, featured the ARTE souq last week, luckily, during OrangeJar's first time at that artists' and crafter's market.

Some OrangeJar photos during the event: