André Manguba: A Living Masterpiece

It all starts with the paper.

A paper too smooth will not do the trick; his drawings pop out best, with the most 3-D effect, when drawn on a rougher texture. Watercolor paper, to be exact, is the go-to paper for his masterpieces. The coloring materials he uses are not from a single brand. He summons his collection of colors consisting of Stabilo, Faber-Castell, and Derwent pencils, as well as Titus pens.

With his materials assembled, Raphael Alexandré “André” S. Manguba, graduating student of Claret School of Quezon City, is just about ready to create, yet again, another one of the true-to-life artworks he is internationally known for.

He starts by lightly sketching the form or shape of the face. His secret to the accuracy of his drawings is the reference photo he keeps nearby; he makes sure all the details on the face are proportional. “Example, sa eyebrows at eyelashes, so dapat exact ‘yung mga distances nila,” he said. He then uses his colored pencils to put the base color and, using cotton, smudges out the colors to smoothen them. After this, he continues to fill the rest of the face with the details from his reference picture.

Even as an artist of his caliber, he said drawing the hair is the most difficult process, describing it as “super, duper, duper stressful” because of the individual strands. Each artwork takes 3 days to finish. Afterwards, he takes a photo of his work using his phone outdoors because “natural light is the best” and posts them on his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Finally, he rests his drawing in his thick black clear book filled with all his artworks, waiting for another one to soon follow.

“Humble” beginnings

André’s artistic roots can be traced backed to when he was 4-years-old. His brother was the one who taught him the fundamentals and basics of drawing. By the time he was 12, he participated in the prestigious “Lions Peace Poster Making Contest” where he was able to claim 3rd place in the International level.

In following year, he participated in the same contest and championed its national level. This is not the only thing that he was able to accomplish. He also became the representative of the Philippines for the international level of the competition. Out of 400,000 artworks, his masterpiece was a part of the top 24.

Tasty creations

His exploration of other avenues for his artworks began in his Grade 11 school project OJT. André, along with his other batchmates, was assigned to promote Nanette’s Pancit at Palabok through their social media accounts. They decided to create food art using their spaghetti to portray trending love teams like AlDub and KathNiel.

Even on the plate, André sketches the outline of the faces using a lead pencil. “I sketch it really hard para magka-mark sa plate,” he explained. With the barbeque sticks, he dabs the plate with individual dots of ketchup. After cooking the spaghetti noodles, he uses the barbeque sticks to carefully position each noodle for the hair. He makes his food art from 9pm to 12am then refrigerates it before taking the picture outdoors the very next day.

Artworks meet their real-life counterpart

Aside from posting his works online for the world to see, André has had the opportunity of personally presenting his piece to the actual celebrity in the artwork.

During a concert by American a cappella group Pentatonix, André was among the fans cheering in front of the crowd. He brought with him a drawing of Scott Hoying, his favorite among the singers, and kept raising it for him to see. Luckily, amidst the sea of screaming fans, André caught the attention of Scott with his drawing. After the performance, he personally came down to see André, and asked for the artwork. Scott was rushing so they weren’t able to have a conversation but later, he tweeted a picture of André’s drawing expressing his appreciation.

After posting his series of spaghetti food art of trending love teams, he got invited to be featured on ABS-CBN’s Matanglawin. He also made a spaghetti food art for its host, Kuya Kim Atienza and it was even added to the works featured in their interview. For André’s meeting with Kathryn Bernardo, they prepared a skit showing him delivering food to her in her dressing room. He even proudly said of this encounter, “So I can say nagka-scene na rin ako with Kathryn.”

André was one of the artists who were invited to do a live art show for Titus. When Liza Soberano, the brand’s ambassador, visited his station, André also showed her the spaghetti art he made for her. He was star-struck upon seeing her beauty in person, even shaking as she was approaching. She said she had seen that artwork, retweeting it on Twitter earlier that day. He called the experience a “kilig moment” between himself and the celebrity heartthrob.

Pitch Perfect

His family was very influential when it comes to his singing career. He said, “I was in prep when I started singing and my mother and brother encouraged me to join the Music fest.” He sang “Isang Lahi,” a song by Regine Velasquez. In that competition he was able to achieve second place and that was the birth of his singing career.

In their family, it is a tradition that everyone who enters Claret must join the Music Fest and have their time under the spotlight. After his contest in Prep, he entered the Music Fest again during his 3rd grade where he sang “Bituing Walang Ningning” by Sharon Cuneta and claimed 3rd place. The last, which he also described as the pinnacle of his career, was when he was in 5th grade where he sang “When You Believe” by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey and finally walked away as the champion. André has also been a member of the Claret Vocal Ensemble for two years. In the organization, his highlight performance was when he sang with his brother Miko onstage for the first time at the “Iisang Bangka Tayo Claretiano”— Claret School’s benefit concert. Together they sang “Nobody Love” by Tori Kelly and serenaded the entire crowd. André also sings in various school events and even in what he calls his “concert sa CR.”

Finally, for anyone who aspires to be a great singer and performer, his advice is to always keep one’s vocals healthy and on tip-top shape. “Always avoid cold water and drink salabat; it’s also what I use to soothe the voice,” he explained. He also said to always remember to vocalize the night before the performance.

Footloose

One person who influenced André to pursue dancing and join the school dance troupe Claret Hataw was his brother Mike. He always saw this potential in André to be a dancer. Before the auditions, he was very nervous. However, he just remembered what his brother said, “It won’t hurt naman eh. Besides, it’s your last year in high school so go for it.” He would later pass the audition and join their group.

As a beginning dancer, André knows a little “B-boy” or what is often called break dancing. He usually likes to dance to different genres of songs such as Hip-hop, Groove and Electronic Dance Music or EDM. Additionally, André’s favorite dancers are simply his own teammates in Claret Hataw.

Secrets to success

André always makes it a point to be humble. He believes being arrogant about his achievements will get in the way of his passion. “Whenever I’m humble, that’s when I do my craft best,” he said.

He also encourages others to be explorative, like he is. He started with drawing with pencil and paper. Now, he is into food art and this has brought him to greater heights as an artist. In terms of his artworks, he practices every day. He often finds artistic inspiration for his drawings online, especially on Tumblr and on Behance.

He said what makes him André Manguba is his being true to himself. He always follows what makes him happy and the achievements simply followed. This mentality makes him more driven and enables him to further develop his craft.

André’s achievements are strongly rooted to his passion to develop himself. With his forte in the arts, he said he dreams of making it big in the industry. As a senior, this is his final year to walk our halls as a student of Claret School. However, this won’t mean that we would see the last of him. With his world-class artistry and driven mindset at such a young age, it seems André Manguba has only just begun.

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Here are some of André’s works, originally posted on his Instagram account (@heyheyandre_art):

Taylor

Zayn

Selena

Manny

Liza

Kathryn

Ariana

Harley

Daniel

Aldub

#Art #AndreManguba