My interest in sketching started in grade school. I remember playing the famous card game “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and watching the TV series of the same name. The dark, monstrous paintings and the overall aesthetic of the franchise somehow inspired me.
My parents would always enter me in art competitions, most of them oil-painting and collage-making contests. In high school I also did a couple of those, as well as woodcarving, which eventually led to my interest in mixed-media art and wood textures.
I credit music for my love of metal textures. Not metal, the music genre, but a metallic headdress worn by Luke Steele of Empire of The Sun (one of my favorite bands), which got my attention.
Also, I’m a huge fan of Legend of Korra’s whole idea of “metal bending,” in which people can manipulate and form shapes with metal.
For years I’ve been using wood and metal textures in some of my artworks, including a poster I did for a University of the Philippines student organization event.
My style in Photoshop and my interest in putting together pieces to make collages eventually combined, and thus gave birth to this new style.