I hate that every time I write back here on Hive, I will inevitable have to say, "It's been a while!" But, well, life. (As if that says a lot, but I feel that you'd understand.)
I think it is very much an understatement to say that I have been through a lot since the nearly two months I was last here. I can't even believe it's been nearly two months -- I could have sworn it was just a few weeks, say, max 2 weeks? But nope. It has been such a long time, and it's even worse when I realize that I haven't been putting out a lot of artworks.
But I want everyone to know that while it has been a roller coaster ride of a life for me lately, I still try to curb the stress by drawing every once in a while. Except this drawing has been... what, a month old, too? This was a very quick portrait drawing from August, just to exercise my fingers and whatever was left of my "skills."
This was based off a pin on Pinterest that I thought looked so pretty and simple enough for me to practice on. At the time, I haven't held the pen in a few weeks, and honestly, drawing this felt iffy for some reason. It always seemed like my hands were shaking, and I can't even remember some of the tools I was used to using in Medibang.
I drew this straight on. I didn't even bother saving WIPs for a progress GIF. I guess you can say that I just really want to draw that time, and nothing more, if just to reassure myself that, yes, Erang, you can still draw. I wanted to focus on the face, so you'd probably notice that some parts were a little too haphazardly done. (I personally loved drawing the eyes!)
I ended up having to adjust the colors because it was too pale. I mean -- that's no news, I always do some final color adjustments. It's just that... I don't normally do that when I draw straight from reference. For the adjustments, I used the always reliable Snapseed.
Adjusting the colors with Snapseed was a good choice, I think. It definitely brought out brighter, more vibrant colors than I could have wished for. Take for example the eyes! Doing the adjustments helped so much bringing them out, plus, the effect of the sunlight was more evident overall.
I feel I can talk so much about this, but this one is going to be my last commentary about this drawing. I enjoyed drawing her nose. Like, please, I don't normally love drawing noses, but this one is just -- *chef's kiss*. It was honestly almost therapeutic. I nearly only ever drew the face and stopped there, but I couldn't help it... I ended up drawing the whole portrait. (I disliked drawing her hand here... great that it ended up pretty well.)
I wasn't exactly planning on sharing this work, but I haven't been drawing and I wanted to share something, so here I am. I think I might draw more portraits in the coming days (or weeks) depending how busy I am with work, but I've been seeing so many photos I can work on as reference. I'm excited, but a little anxious that I might not be able to draw... again.
