Images in Charcoal

These images rendered with charcoal are titled "Grace and Husband," "Totoy Bibo and Wife," "Lynn at Ateneo 1982" (Secret title is "Ang hirap mabuhay") and "The Debutante" by Eliseo V. Villamin (Ely, my husband), 2006. "Lynn..." is for revision of the nose but it's taking him forever, so I posted it anyway. "The Debutante" is Isay, our daughter who is turning 18 on 1 January 2007.

Ely has worked on so many charcoal images of neighbors in Golden City, images of couples on their wedding day, teens in "movie star" poses, graduates, a beloved father who has passed away, a housewife who wants to preserve her pictures on the beach and at a dinner party (actually it was she who makes Ely popular in the neighborhood because she hangs her portraits at her store for everyone to see), Dangal ng Bayan awardee Prof. Fortunato T. de la Pena, (which hangs on his office wall at the Department of Science and Technology), and others.

Most of the time, Ely's subjects provide him with the illustration board, charcoal pencil, and artist's spray. I buy the eraser (laughter). Most of the time, the creative work is a labor of love, his way of giving back to our community who loves Carlo and always plays the Philippine National Anthem (which is Carlo's favorite, the first time he listened to Sarah Geronimo sang it in the last Pacquiao-Morales battle) every start of and in between thereof the neighborhood videoke party (which is often as always there is a birthday celebrant or two in our block and nearby).