ILOILO CITY — While waiting for his classes to start this month, Edgian James Florida made use of his idle time to get creative.
Since April, Florida, 18, a Grade 12 student at Janiuay National Comprehensive High School, has produced more than 60 fashion sketches using leaves, fruits and flowers found in his surroundings.
Florida uses pens, colored pencils and sketch pads to draw the outlines of figures and dresses. But he uses colorful leaves, seeds, grass, stalks and flowers of different plants and vegetables to fill in the outlines. These highlight striking natural hues and textures especially on the bodice and skirts of dresses.
Other than parts of plants, he also uses game cards and cardboard for his sketches.
Readily available
“The materials are readily available and free. These also look better,” he said.
Florida said he wanted to promote traditional art materials available in their rural village of Calansanan in Badiangan, Iloilo, at a time when digital art is gaining popularity.
He takes photos of his sketches to preserve them as the natural materials would eventually wilt. The works he had posted on social media had gone viral.
He said he wanted to help promote positivism through his artworks.
The younger of two siblings, Florida said he started sketching while in Grade 10. He has no formal art training, but he has been joining poster making and other art contests in school.
Passion
“It’s a hobby and a passion,” he said.
Florida dreams of going to college and finishing a course on fashion design. But he said this would all depend on his family’s finances.
His mother is a domestic helper in Malaysia while his father is a former seafarer. His older sister is in third year college.
Florida is, however, committed to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer no matter the challenges.