It's finally October, and yeah, I'm a couple of days late in saying that. Yesterday, I got really busy with finishing my bring-home tasks. I already mentioned in my previous blog that our place got shaken by a strong earthquake, but thankfully, it wasn't that damaged. After that, our classes were suspended for days, until it's finally safe for face-to-face classes, which is why I got busy with the tons of activities I need to finish. Now and then, there are still weak aftershocks that come, and honestly, they kinda freaked me out. So much for that, like I mentioned, it's finally the month of October—Inktober to be exact.
Since it's also ghost month, I decided to draw characters that were somehow ghastly, but the twist is that I’ll follow an alphabet order, meaning for my first entry it’ll be a character that starts with letter A, and it will Ara from the book I’m currently rereading. Ara is the name of the female protagonist in I Love You Ara, a psychological horror novel written by Jamille Fumah. I’ve already read this novel in Wattpad before, but I reread it now that I finally got a physical copy of it. I chose her character because I like how there’s more to her name, Ara. This is kinda a spoiler, but there are two Aras in the book…the devil and the human, but in my entry, I prefer to portray the human Ara. Her life was a tragedy because all the people who were supposed to love her betrayed her.
It was such a terrifying and macabre story, and I can’t believe that I finished reading that story in Wattpad during night while hiding under my blanket (because supposedly I’m already asleep that time lol). Rereading it now makes me appreciate it more...from the thrill, gore, horror, and even the dark romance, they all strangely fit together. Plus, what makes it more terrifying is that it's based on a true story. I've read other works of Jamille Fumah, and her horror stories were mostly based on true events that she somehow gave a deeper lore. The names and places were of course altered, but it didn't lessened the unsettling feeling I felt while reading them.
Ok...I think I shared more than enough about Ara, so before I lose myself rambling her story, I'll now share the brief process of drawing her character.
Let's start!
1. Like my usual drawing process, I started with the sketch and guidelines.
2. Then, I erased them and put new and cleaner details.
3. Since I'm quite impatient that time, I didn't really put much effort on the pencil drawing because I soon traced and alter some of her details with my pen.
4. I felt that she's quite bland to look at, so to add depth, I added more details with pencil.
5. She looks more nice, but still I felt that she didn't look like Ara, so I added the flies and scratches on her face.
6. Then I added a tinge of color—Ara's favorite one, the color red!
7. She's almost done, but she need something more.
8. I added the title of the story she’s from, then of course my signature.
And she's good to go! Here's my version of Ara Villaverde Santos.
I'm not really sure if I managed to capture the essence of her character, but I definitely tried to. I doubt it if someone can really because there's so much more to Ara, the girl who was never loved enough to be redeemed. They all said they loved her, but did they really? It was a story full of different point of views, and because of that I got confused at times. But one thing was certain for me, and that was she loves them so much. I think I've shared enough for this day, and I hope to see you on my next artblog!
