"I try to deviate from the traditional portrait," says Sion." I want to have my own identity when it comes to my works, so that they won’t look like other portraits. When you see one, you know at once that I made it."
Sion got his first break as a portraitist after the Edsa Revolution in 1986. His first commission was a portrait of President Corazon Aquino, which eventually landed on the cover of the 1986-1987 edition The Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook.
"When people discovered my style, it suddenly became popular," he explains.
One of his biggest supporters was the late Betty Go Belmonte, Philippine STAR founding president. It was through Mrs. Belmonte that he got the commission from Speaker Ramon Mitra to render the portraits of all the country’s House Speakers, both past and present. For reasons of continuity of style, he gets called every now and then to draw the portrait of new House Speakers.
During the Aquino administration, he was often called to the Palace to make the portraits of all visiting Japanese envoys, which President Aquino gifted them with.
He did a brown pencil portrait of three daughters of Tarlac Governor Tingting Cojuangco, namely Mikee, Mai Mai and China.
He is also proud of having made a portrait of former US First Lady now Senator Hillary Clinton, which was given to her as a gift during her visit to the Philippines.
Sion’s list of commissions includes a star-studded cast. However, he rarely does portraits of showbiz personalities, except for one. He did a fine drawing of megastar Sharon Cuneta, upon the request of the family of her spouse Senator Francis Pangilinan.
Lest you think portraits are old-fashioned, the artist begs to disagree. He says portraits are genuine works of art compared to photographs.
"If you take someone’s portrait with a camera, everything about it, from composition to the angles, is purely mechanical in nature. Whereas in a portrait, the artist has more leeway and more freedom to explore touches that may enhance a picture," he says.
To differentiate his portraits from those of the others, he tries to capture the soul of his subjects.
"I leave the eyes unfinished until the last moment," he explains. "I try to emphasize through the subject’s eyes his soul, his personality."
This process is easy if he has actual contact with the subject. However, for portraits that are intended to be gifts, he studies as many pictures of the subject as possible to determine for himself their personality.
"Sometimes, it’s easy to make a portrait. I’ve worked on a drawing for just three days. Sometimes, it may take me a month because I can’t find rapport with my subject. I just tell him that it’s so hard to draw his face," he says.
Sion didn’t develop the knack for making portraits until after college. After obtaining his fine arts degree from Philippine Women’s University, he joined group shows. Although he had a fascination for faces, he focused his attention on genre pieces, like landscapes and still lifes. When he found a following for his portraits, he devoted his time to this endeavor.
"I still do oils, but I’m now developing my portraits," he explains.
Most of his exploration of portraits he did with fellow artist Caloy Gabuco. They would critique each other’s works and share secrets to achieving a satisfactory image.
He looks up to his mentor, the late Ibarra de la Rosa, as an inspiration. "I especially believe in his discipline as an artist," he admits. "That’s what I always aim for."
He is now experimenting with colored portraits, but with the same ethereal quality as his sepia portraits. Hopefully, this new style of doing portraits will be just as popular as his sepia ones.