Ok, ok, I know you're familiar with that line, but before we get down to it, I just want to greet you all: Konnichiwa Hivers! It's me, your ridgette again, and for today, guess who's the one that I'll draw... *drumrolls * Hai! It will be Portgas D. Ace from One Piece!
"I don't wanna live a thousand years. If I just live through today, that'll be enough."
–Portgas D. Ace, One Piece
A former captain of the Spade Pirates, Portgas D. Ace, was then recruited by the Whitebeard Pirates and later became its second division commander. The biological son of the late King of Pirates, Gol D. Roger, Ace grew up hating and questioning his existence. Thankfully, he met Sabo and, later, Luffy, and they somehow made his childhood memorable. With a cup of sake, they became sworn brothers. Although Ace didn't last that long in the series, his death did become the major turning point of Luffy's life. One of the major catalysts of Luffy's training arc, his departure also paved the way for the post-time skip era.
Enough with the sentiments; let's get down to the process of drawing the one and only—Fire Fist Ace.
Yoi, yoi ...Let's start!
1. As usual, first, I made a rough sketch from the multiple references that I have—references for his clothes and also for his character details. Honestly, I'm not really familiar with Ace's character details, especially with the look that I'm going to draw, so references were really a must.
2. After sketching, I erased almost all of it because later on I'll just trace the lines that were part of the fan art.
3. Next, I traced the lines that weren't part of the guidelines, and I made some adjustments.
4. I later colored him, which became an ordeal for me because I'm supposed to color his hat black, but I unconsciously colored it with his usual hat color, which was orange. Thankfully, black is such a powerful shade, so I somehow fixed (?) it.
5. Since I'm using watercolor pencils, I decided to blend some colors with a wet brush. Thankfully, his hat color was fixed after I blended it.
6. Then I waited for a while to make it dry, and after drying, I added some details. I cut a portion of paper, and I burned it. I glued the burned paper on the edges.
7. Since I don't like empty spaces, I searched for Ace's lines from the anime. I wrote them down on the empty spaces.
8. After filling in the empty spaces, I erased the erasable smudges from the drawing, and voila— it's done!
Drawing Ace's fan art was something I'd done on impulse. Honestly, he's not one of my husbandos ; that's why I'm not familiar with his character details. I've seen his character a lot in One Piece, but he's not really one of my favorite characters there. So why draw him? Well, I suddenly got an idea to draw anime characters with names that start with the letter A, and it happened that he's the first one that came to mind. He's a character who gained my respect, so I guess that's the reason.
Since he's not one of my favorite characters, I didn't really pay attention to his character's details before. That's why drawing him became quite a challenge for me. I'm not confident if I captured his character in my fan art. I really struggled with my sketch because I think it's kinda out of his character. I draw him again and again, until I get tired and decided to just stick with what I find satisfactory (which wasn't that satisfying for me at all). I wanted him to look carefree because that was the Ace I knew, which I guess I did hehehe.
On the bright side, drawing him was quite an achievement for me because it's the first time I've drawn fan art in just a span of hours. I'm really a procrastinator, and most of the fan art or drawings I make usually take days, weeks, or, worse—years to finish because I usually procrastinate. Then later, I'll get distracted from the process, and I'll just abandon it. It's indeed a dismal situation, but this usually happens to me, so drawing fan art of him was quite a feat for me. I intend to further continue my drawing practice through this, so I hope I'll be able to adapt to this kind of drawing pace.
Before I end this, I just want to ask for a recommendation for an anime character name that starts with letter A because, who knows, maybe he or she will be the next one that I'll draw in this space. Kindly comment out your recommendations so that I can choose a character I knew would fill this space. That's all for this day, Hivers! Thanks for being with me 'til the end. I hope to see you in my next blog! So again..
Arigatou and Mata-ne!
Some of the pictures that were used were edited in Canva, while the rest of the pictures were taken by yours truly, ridgette.
