Punchdrunk Panda

Rob Cham is an illustrator, designer and comics artist. He has done work for various people. He currently works at Create.ph where he shares a studio and does things for money. You can check out his art and junk at http://behance.net/robcham or http://robcham.me.

1a. How would you describe your art (style)? It’s comic influenced. I like working with that pen and ink style. Big influences on my style would be Moebius, Katsushiro Otomo, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Tomer Hanuka, Asaf Hanuka, and Dave Johnson.

1b. Do you have any favorite materials to work with? I work mostly with digital. I’ve grown accustomed to it. But for sketches, ideas, drafts, and depending on the project, I’m comfortable with pencil and brushes for inking, but color process is all digital these days.

2. What have you been up to nowadays? Doing freelance illustration work for various people, I work at a design studio called Create.ph where I design websites and do various things as a day job. It’s actually something I enjoy and like doing so it goes along with the art stuff I enjoy. I recently am working on contributing to different comic anthologies, my own comics, and also am trying to get something done for Pepper.ph. I have this side project called Portrades where I draw my friends who happen to be artists and in return I hope they give me a portrait, too. It’s busy fun times.

3. Where do you draw your inspiration from? Comic books, animation, and the internet. Everyday I devote a time to just browse the different blogs and artists I follow and look for new work I might find interesting. If I see something I like, I save it or bookmark it so I can go back to it again for inspiration.

4. What do you think about the current state of art in the Philippines? I think it’s a mixed bag. I haven’t seen enough of it to have a definite all encompassing statement, but with what social circles I’m in, I’d say it’s doing pretty well. I still feel like I haven’t broken in properly into the art scene, but I want to? So far I have been trying to break into the comic scene more than anything. It’s something I’m more passionate about.

5. What do you like best about working with PDP and what can we expect from your future designs? I think what I like about working with PDP is that I’m working with friends? You guys happen to be people I like doing business with. It gives off a friendly atmosphere, and well, I get to contribute to this with a group of artists I happen to look up to and respect. Also money. Exposure is a neat thing as well.

For future designs, I guess whatever I’m into at the time will influence whatever I’d make for PDP. I hope that they’d be marketable? It’s interesting to me seeing if I try certain styles and ideas, would people like it enough to buy it? Sort of seeing possible customers for future art endeavors, too, haha.

6. Any parting words of advice for our readers? Buy PDP products. They are rad.