Orient Pearl Odyssey

Orient Pearl Odyssey (click for full view)

This is my latest digital doodle i made in illustrator. I actually made this a month ago but i kept it in my computer and almost forgot to finish it. I decided to finalize this one so I can post this while I have the time. The last thing I did is to add a texture so it won't look plain, i guess. Again, I used the ukkil style in this one like what I did in my previous doodles but this one is more clean and detailed. I titled it "Orient Pearl Odyssey" because i don't want to give it an obvious title like "the tales of the mermaid and her undersea friends"...hehe. Orient Pearl refers to Philippines as what the early conquistadors call it. I want to label this piece as a Filipino art though it has the influence of the western doodly character style. This is like a Filipino storybook version of Little Mermaid in her search of the orient pearl. It is also symbolic of how I feel towards the Filipinos around the world. We are highly influenced by the foreigners who once colonized us. Now, we can see its influence in our food, clothing, lifestyle, music and arts. It is our struggle as filipinos to look for our identity which is now a question mark for everyone. We don't have a strong identity in the world which one can easily point out in whichever aspect of life. We are so diverse and divided like our archipelagic country. So, it is also my advocacy as an artist and a Filipino to search for that identity so that one day we Filipinos will be looked in a different perspective in the whole world. Talking about Filipinos, i want to greet all Filipinos a belated happy independence day! Let us be proud of who we are and keep the fire burning in our hearts as we continue the odysseys of our lives. :D