Drawing: Mabuhay

“Mabuhay” is a filipino word basically meaning “Cheers” or “Welcome” or “Yay” (and yes, it would be good to learn my own mother language, no?)

I wanted to make something for my parents so I thought of doing something traditional and retro. I took much inspiration from these vintage Philippines travel posters:

I also did a lot of research on the Philippines traditional dress. This one is called the “Maria Clara” which is based off the heroine in a novel written by Jose Rizal in 1887.     It’s a pretty dress, and this was very fun to draw.

I created the work in Clip Studio Paint, and filtered it through Autodesk Pixlr for the aged look.

I did a lot of humming of “Bayan Ko” while working on this. >_>