Pinoy artist draws anime-like scenes with background inspired from places in Manila

A 21-year-old student from Quezon City with the pen name Aeonix, creates backgrounds that are inspired from random places in Manila — adding to the list of artists who reimagine local places and make them look like scenes from an anime film. He has been drawing since he was kid but pursued it seriously when he was 17 which was largely due to the influence of his dad who taught him how to draw.

When asked why he decided to illustrate backgrounds inspired from local places in Manila, Aeonix shared with InqPOP! that these places — such as the MRT, old establishments, or even marketplaces like Divi — gave him a feeling of nostalgia. He recalled how his grandma or mom brought him to these places often when he was a kid. “So I guess going to these places again as an adult [impressed a strong feeling of nostalgia] to me that it inspired me a lot to draw,” he added.

Aeonix shared that his “…favorite time of the day is 5pm, or the golden hour — where shadows are long, and almost everything looks melodramatic and a bit sad, but hopeful. He wanted people to “…see these familiar sceneries in [his] perspective” and that in doing so “…they’ll appreciate them as well in a different light.”

It is also noticeable how his artworks are anime-like because Aeonix was greatly influenced to draw mostly with backgrounds by Studio Ghibli, films by Makoto Shinkai, Penguin Frontier, and Teikoku Shounen. He also cited Zeen Chin, Krenz Cushart, and Bibox as his influences when it comes to colors and characters.

So far he has featured the following places in his digital drawing — all created using Photoshop CC 2015.

Timog Ave

leaves are painful to draw ;-;; Posted by Aeonix on Friday, April 20, 2018

Amoranto

I've been bottling up a lot of negative feelings for some time now. I realized how dark my colors are on my recent… Posted by Aeonix on Monday, January 15, 2018

MRT North Avenue Station

Timog Ave.

MRT North Ave station

Kamuning

Anonas

Lagro

Aeonix is currently working on his webcomics “Smile” and would like to produce a hardcopy version of it in the future. You may check his social media accounts for updates on his works: Facebook and Twitter.

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