Today's post is a little special to me... because I really like how today's drawing ended up looking like. Also because I have been feeling really nice lately. Maybe because I've been working out again, or maybe because I don't have high-impact tasks at work at the moment and have a lot of time to play around.
I took my time drawing today's portrait painting to pay more attention to details. I normally just go with the flow, a.k.a wing it till you make it mindset. But today, I decided to clean that tiny smudge. Pen that stray strand of hair. Find way to add the much needed textile texture. Pick that extra, output-changing color.
During my last year in college, I had suddenly become attracted to gold, brown, bronze, and every color that comes close. I got to the point of buying brown pens to write with in my lecture notes.
When I came across this photo in Pinterest, I was transported to that moment in college, and I thought, "That's it. This is today's reference for my drawing."
The reference photo is a splash of brown bronze, gold. The model's eyes were blue and bright and wide, but I was more attracted to her hair. I decided I would like to pay much attention to how her hair should go in the drawing.
Unlike how I usually do my digital drawings, I decided to lay out some values first before I went on and add details. I don't know why I did it. To be honest, it was an unconscious decision. If I would try to think hard enough, it's probably because I wanted to see the complete picture taking form first.
Then I painted the face first. It was all watercolor brush in different opacity and pressure. I refuse to use MediBang's smudge tool to blend colors because it just ruins it, I think. To compensate, I color pick colors in between to have smoother-looking transition, the same way it should when blending.
After being satisfied with the face, I did the hair next.
Painting the hair was an arduous task. I had already laid down the shadows and lights, but I still had to do the strands. The shadows and light colors were painted in using watercolor brush, then I used the pencil tool for the individual strands.
The pencil tool was nice -- it wasn't a solid color. It was transparent-ish, so when strokes overlap, they create a nice effect.
I used the pen tool in adding the stray hair strands. It's more solid compared to the pencil tool, and perfect for the stray strands. It is always fun adding stray strands because it makes the drawing a little more realistic.
The beret and coat came next. I was sold into just painting their details with the watercolor brush, but the reference's beret and coat had this very obvious texture. I couldn't disregard that.
MediBang has a large library of brushes in the cloud, and one of them was the oil pastel.
The oil pastel brush has this dissolved color effect to it, and felt right to use on rough surfaces. I thought it was perfect for the beret and coat's texture. It wasn't as prominent, but it did the trick somewhat.
Drawing this literally made me forget about the time. The moment that I did check, I realized that I was a few minutes short of 5 hours since I started.
I only ever add close ups when I like my drawing, and I like this! I think it's my new favorite. My favorite drawing every had been Catching Fire, and while it still occupies a huge part of my favorites list, this one comes a really close second... maybe they even tied.
On another note, have you watched The Haunting of Hill House yet? It came out 2 years ago, and I remember binge watching it in the office in secret. xD Now, it's getting a second part, The Haunting of Bly Manor, on October 9th! I can't wait.
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