Voila Steemians!
It's me again, Justin.

You've heard it right! - the annual celebration of the patron saint here in Cebu, Philippines is about to commence.
I would like to share to you the SINULOG Steemvasion Banner that I created.

My friend, @jassennessaj, with the fellow Cebuano Steemians and the support of STEEMPH.CEBU came to an idea to invade Sinulog 2018 with the good news at hand of what the platform could provide to our fellow Cebuanos. And yes - SINULOG Steemvasion was born.

Three days from now (Philippine Time Zone - UTC+08:00), STEEMPH.CEBU and Cebuano Steemians will get together, to advertise the platform and to celebrate the annual fiesta of Snr. Sto. Niño.

As a self-proclaimed graphic designer, I came to a plan to contribute for the incoming event. And thanks to @jassennessaj, he accepted my offer to design the Official STEEMNULOG BANNER/ TARPAULIN.

I finished this composition/ design last Monday. Though I wanted to post it that day but I lost connection to our internet due to some reasons. I have to settle it and contact our internet provider. Thank God, it didn't lasted for weeks after I had reported it.

The design I made is not a straight-forward design. Every element of the composition have different stories to tell. Metaphors are one of my style as an artist. Here is my vision on how I came up with the design.

• Mask
  Every annual fiesta of the patron saint, plethora of masks on sidewalks are very visible. Some are sold as souvenir item and some are used for accessories and/or design. Some masks are worn by the Sinulog dancers and include it in their parades, and some were just worn by civilians to celebrate the joyous event.
  The concept of the mask plays a vital role in my composition. It depicts that of all worries and problems Cebuano people face in their daily lives, the annual celebration veils all troubles and miseries. Our faith raises as the celebration commences. Hope and joy fills our hearts. And of all the things Cebuanos have encountered, new hope will emerge.

• Headdress
  Headdress represents the creativity of every Cebuanos. The vibrant colors depicts the colorful lives of each one of us. Cebuanos always do their best and be creative in any measure to live.

• Streamers
  Streamers or banderitas as what we call it in our native dialect depicts how Sinulog is not an ordinary celebration - but a festive and extravagant event. It's a one of a kind festival here in the Philippines.

• Steem Logo
  Instead of the static Steemit Logo (the old logo), I made it a little dynamic to tell a story. The scattering effect of the Steemit Logo represents the Cebuano Steemians. The Cebuano Steemians will disseminate and share to their fellow Cebuanos about their knowledge and experiences of how Steemit changed their lives.We aim to share and announce to all parts of Cebu (in any measures with all might) about the existance of the Steemit Platform.

Overall, the composition expresses the lives, the culture and the birth of a new hope, the Steemit Platform.

SINULOG is a dance ritual in honor of the miraculous image of the Santo Nino. The dance moves to the sound of the drums and this resembles the current (Sulog) of what was then known as Cebu’s Pahina River. Thus, in Cebuano, they say it’s Sinulog.

More than just the meaning of the word is the significance of the dance. Historians now say that Sinulog, which is of pagan origin, is the link between the country’s pagan past and its Christian present.

Historical accounts say that before Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan came to Cebu on April 7, 1521 to plant the cross on its shore and claim the country for the King of Spain, Sinulog was already danced by the natives in honor of their wooden idols and anitos. Then Magellan came and introduced Christianity. He gave the Santo Nino (image of the Child Jesus) as baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, wife of Cebu’s Rajah Humabon who was later named Queen Juana. At that time, not only the rulers were baptized but also about 800 of their subjects. Unfortunately, however, shortly after the conversion, Magellan went into a reckless adventure by fighting the reigning ruler of Mactan, Rajah Lapulapu, with only a handful of men. He died in the encounter. That was on April 27, 1521.

Source and Further Reading: Sinulog Foundation
Images in this section are not mine. Just grabbed it from Google Images.
Assured that they are images for public use.

Before I came up with this composition, it underwent to a lot of process. I admit it, I am strict on details because I want to tell a good story. Stories that create marks on my audience's hearts.

Planning

Last 2nd week of the month of January, I had it in mind to create a shirt and a banner design. I went to malls and streets to look for inspiration. With lots of fortune, I was able to gather ideas on what design I am going to lay on. (Unfortunately I was not able to take photos since I forgot to borrow my mom's phone 😞😞). I also went back photo searching on my previous Sinulog experience to check on the colors for me to apply on my design. (Also to feel the Sinulog vibe). Here are some photos I have taken from my previous Sinulog experience.

Just consider the background of these photos. The masks on the first photo and the banderitas on the second photo and those random paraphernalia at the back of the second photo.

Then,

I created a rough sketch to put up everything and to check if this element is needed and this is not. This part of planning is one of the hardest part since I have to open the other side of my imagination so that color and design will be visualized in a black and white sketch. This always take me hours to spend. But critically thinking on this kind of matter helps me create a wonderful composition. (Hehehe 😉😉)

Designing Proper/ Illustration Proper

Since I don't have Adobe Illustrator which helps in creating stunning graphic elements, I used my Adobe Photoshop CS6 as a substitute.

1. I prepared the canvas first with 6ft by 8ft dimension at the sides. Then, changed the background color to bluish-black (#2D2E40). Since I want to put on some papery - texture on the canvas, I took on a cool paper texture on google and downloaded it. I then put it on the canvas and change its layer property to Multiply.

2. I started off with the festive mask that will be the center element of the composition. I divided the festive face mask into two parts: the headress and the mask itself.

   • Headdress: Feather Process
     

     
     I used pen tool to create the base flat of the feather. I colored the feather with black in order for me to visualize the shape and how the feather would look like. On the latter part, I prepared hues of yellow to red color palette. I decided to use these colors to embody the fiery experience of Sinulog.

   • Headdress: Headdress Plate Process
     

     
     I cut the headdress into half since I'll be just duplicating it and mirroring it to complete the headdress plate. I started to create a swirly head plate to create dynamic shapes on my design. Then, I proceeded with the details of the headdress. I used the path tool and a soft brush for the beads. And a solid brush for edge lines of the plate.

   • Full Face Mask
     

     
     In creating the full face mask, I used the ruler tool to create guidelines for the face. I filled the shape with solid white color and put an outline of 2pt to show the edges of the mask. Then, put on the eyes, nose hole and the mouth. I went up googling and copied the new steemit logo and steemph logo to my canvas. I changed the location of the stars of the steemph logo near lower left eye since it will be covered if I leave as is on the original. I warped the sun and some of the stars to create a bulge effect on the mask. Lastly, I made the shadows of the face mask. I assumed the the light is directed on the face of the mask thus, little amount of shadow is visible. (It was kinda messy but on the latter part it will be covered by the headdress)

   

3. I joined then all the layers I had created to complete the festive Sinulog mask. I duplicated layers of the feather element and arranged it in radial manner. I adjusted and played on the Hue and Saturation of the other duplicated feather layer to create new sets of color. I also added radial lines at the back of the radial mask.

   

4. Streamers are then added to a more festive look of the composition. Why did I choose red and yellow for the banderitas? Well, I got my inspiration on the banderitas of the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino de Cebu. The banderitas are just custom shape and I created a brush preset for it for easy application. I just made a one line of banderitas and the rest were just a duplicates of it (the duplicates were free transformed).

   

5. On a separate file, I copied the old Steemit logo and created a shape layer out from it. With those, I have now a high quality vector shape which I can convert as a new brush preset. There were two brush presets I made out from the shape layer which I had created - the outlined and solid steemit logo.

   

6. Then, applied the brush presets created in 5. To create the dispersion/ scattering effect, I tweaked out some of the settings of the brush. I changed the Brush Tip Spacing, Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Color Dynamics to the brush preset being used. I first applied the outlined brush preset and then the solid ones. My aim was to create a radial dispersion of the two brush presets which turned out to be okay.

   

7. I worked on then for the typography part of the composition. I used various fonts so that it will be catchy to the eye of the audience. To create more life on the Sinulog text, I duplicated multiple layers of it and applied linear gradient in any direction or angle. On the duplicates of Sinulog text having linear gradient on, I applied halftone effect and applied various color to create a party-ish look on the text.

   

8. Since it looked bland on the typography area, I found some cool watercolor brushes (which is free to download by the way) and applied to the bland area. I selected various colors from the range of reds, violets, blues, cyans, greens, yellows, and oranges. I played along with these colors to finish the composition.

Below is the GIF Process of the Banner Design:

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Once again, I would like to thank @jassennessaj for accepting my contribution and as the official designer of the SINULOG Steemvasion banner, and to my fellow Cebuano Steemians on coming up a great initiative to introduce the Steemit platform to the rest of the Cebuanos. And also, to the support of Steemph.Cebu.

VIVA PIT SENYOR!

Are you feeling excited for the commencement of the event? Feel free to share your thoughts.