This was actually a really fun one to draw.
Also... surprise? Even I am surprised that I finished another artwork. LMAO. Like the one I shared yesterday, this one's been sitting in my gallery for a while now, badly incomplete. I wanted so bad to draw something with a cold ambience, so here we are.
I contemplated really hard how I wanted it to look like, but the decision wasn't a hard one to make. I settled with drawing just the head and her hand, and (another surprise) I liked it.
The reference for today's artwork is this one, yet again from Pinterest. And today's motivating music is Cry Baby by Official HIGE DANdism (maybe most popular as Tokyo Revengers OP 1).
The first time I came across today's reference, I thought, "Holy shit, that looks so cool!" I didn't save it, then moved on. I just really liked it. The second time it blessed my feed, I thought, "This is it, I really want to draw this!"
It was when I zoomed in to the reference photo that I realized why I actually liked it. The lighting. I can't say it in detail, or proper terms, but I think it's genius! Especially how the lights reflect off her hair and skin.
I was so sure it was going to be a challenge, though. And... it was. I ended up not finishing it when I started it. There was a part of me that just couldn't, for the life of me, color. And that was a weird feeling, I tell you.
So, like every other WIPs, it sat in my gallery for over a month now. Can I just say, though, that I absolutely enjoyed drawing her eyes? They're anime eyes in real life, I tell you! It's like they're judging everyone the eyes were pointed to, and I love it.
But besides the eyes, which are almost always my favorite parts whenever I drew a portrait, I liked how the lips and hands turn out. I personally can't say why, especially since they're not as detailed as other portions of the artwork, but I'm kind of really proud of them.
As with other artworks I'd been sharing since last year, this one was pretty straightforward. I played around with Medibang's watercolor brush yet again and did adjustments with Snapseed.
With Snapseed, I adjusted the curves, brightness, saturation, shadows, and highlights so it glows. Every time I use Snapseed, I feel like the original artwork is dead. 😅 I also added blurs, and I think it added depth to the artwork, so I love it!
Below is this work's progress GIF. Enjoy!
The last few months were weirdly bad for my financial standing. I'm not even kidding. I had to shell out so much money from my savings (including HIVE savings), because I hadn't yet received my salary from my new workplace (hence why you're seeing me now for three days straight; I needed the money). I even had to borrow money from my big sister, because as if things couldn't get worse, it just did. I had to go fix my tax compliance (very, very long and frustrating story) if I wanted to get my salary... but I hate anything relating to tax and accounting, so I had to hire an accountant to fix things for me. She's very expensive (and also my tax dues!!) might I add, and I'm just done with this financial thing.
And not earning 2 months' worth of salary is so bad it degrades my motivation to do work. When I told my supervisor, he was actually understanding, and offered to help me fix this, which I really, really appreciated. Anyway, it wasn't exactly a peaceful and fun last few months, but something happened today that just turned everything 180.
The research paper I and three of my colleagues published last year just won an award... and dude, that means a lot to me and them. I kept going back to the announcement email, rereading and flashing back to 2019 when I hardly got any sleep experimenting. I'm just so happy it paid off, even when I thought that it was a bad paper. LMAO.
I hope everyone's been having a great, fun time. And may everyone achieve what each of you has been waiting sincerely for. ❤
