The Maiden

This is one of my random illustrations from almost one and a half years ago. It resembles the characters from one of my earlier stories, which was set during the Spanish colonization period in the 16th century. This story was also related to my fascination with religious icons.

When I was a child, I was very much into religious icons. Every time we went to our province, to my mother's hometown, I sometimes looked at my aunt's cabinet, where on the top were some old religious statues, most of their colors fading because of time and of the poor quality of the paints. I don't know why I was so fascinated with them. But during our stay there, I sometimes drew some of them and presented the drawings to my aunts. This fascination was a main influence to one of my stories for a beloved friend.

Another thing that had an effect in this particular story is the film "Itim" or Rites of May, directed by Mike de Leon. It was a very good as well as eerie film. I watched it when I was a child, during the Holy Week. Unfortunately, I can't find any copies of that film. Even online, very little is there about it, only a few features mentioning it in brief.