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It has been cold the last week (at least for Southern California standards) -- cold enough for me to wear sweatshirts and fuzzy socks inside the house and drink hot chocolate to stay warm! It feels like I haven't really experienced autumn this year -- or summer, for that matter -- but now that the days are getting cooler and shorter, I think it's finally sinking in that time is passing. We're transitioning from fall to winter and that change inspired this piece -- a girl taking the last apple off a tree before winter fully sets in. I wanted it to be warm and a little nostalgic -- I listened to a lot of happy and soft songs while drawing this. This was my first time drawing a full face and I had to search up many tutorials -- how to draw a face in 3/4 view, how to draw hair, how to shade hair, how to draw eyes and a mouth... 46 layers later, I still have a lot of improving to do!

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

The first non-digital artwork that makes an appearance on my blog! I wanted to show the contrast between the straight-edged, primary color, perfectly orderly watercolor blocks with the winding, metallic, chaotic flower vines. There's something so cool about seeing the two interact and form something more interesting than either style on its own. To make the watercolor rectangles, I laid down painters tape everywhere except the area I wanted to paint, and waited for the watercolor to dry before carefully peeling it off. It was so much fun to draw the vines and make them swirl around the blocks and connect them all together! Despite my less-than-stellar photography skills, I'm happy with how this one turned out.

Drawn with watercolor and Sharpie on textured paper

In a way, I feel like ramen is "my" food in my family -- I'm always the first one to suggest it when we're looking for somewhere to eat, and ever since I've been stuck at home, I've perfected the process of making my own (and eaten at least one bowl daily for the past month and a half). My parents have even given me ramen socks and a ramen shirt as gifts for my birthday! I definitely love the food, but I love what it represented even more -- I used to go out to eat ramen with my friends at summer camps and after debate tournaments with the rest of the team, so the hot soup wasn't the only thing that made me feel warm. I miss that part of the experience so much.

When I first started drawing this, I thought I would scale back a little bit and not get too complicated. Little did I know that this would actually take four days to complete! And honestly, there are still things I would have liked to improve, but I decided that I could still be satisfied with the state that it is in now. I'm actually pretty proud of how the eggs and meat turned out -- adding the shiny highlights made such a difference!

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

This is my first blog post for the month of October, and it is finally starting to feel a bit like fall! October also holds a special place in my heart because it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I tried to combine the two themes into my artwork and ended up with something that feels uplifting and a little inspiring. Surprisingly, this piece took me a while -- I've worked on it the entire day! I knew I really wanted to convey the motion of the woman spinning, and I wasn't sure whether justsketch.me would capture that movement, so I ended up using a pose reference that I found online that had more of the feel that I wanted. I researched and learned a little bit about how clothing is supposed to fold/flow when twisting, and I did my best to apply that to her dress to show her motion as well! It was fun to figure out what the leaves and ribbons would look like if they were twisting in a wind, and I adjusted their size and rotation to try to create a 3D effect too. After all of that, I messed around with the shading and glowy elements until I was satisfied -- which also took longer than expected. I'm glad that I could create a sort of inner glow for the breast cancer survivor -- it's as if her inner strength is shining through!

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

The sunset today was so beautiful! As I was watching it, I was struck by the sudden thought that change -- even towards darker times -- can hold beauty and promise. My life might seem a little busy and chaotic right now, but taking a second to step back and just reflect on this transition from teenager to young adult reminds me to appreciate the moments I have now. This was a very difficult drawing for me -- I had to redo the background and clouds three times before I could move on, and even now I hope to improve my cloud-drawing skills in future pictures. Drawing "me" was also a challenge because I don't really know how to draw even a semi-realistic human figure...after searching Google for many variations on "pose references sitting girl from the back looking up" for about an hour, I finally ended up using a website I discovered (justsketch.me) to manually position a 3D model to create my own reference! This was a really amazing learning experience and it turned out better than I thought it would at first.

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

Today I was inspired by the music video for "Ex" by Stray Kids, which is full of ghosts, flowers, symbolism, and a hauntingly tranquil atmosphere. The song itself is beautiful, one that you might put on to relax -- but the (translated) lyrics are incredibly sad. When I searched them up, one particular line stuck out in my mind: "I search for you in the midst of shattered memories//Even if I grab them, it just reminds me of your tears". It's a song full of pain and self-directed anger as the singer grapples with their mistake of letting go of someone important. The interplay of sweet melody, heartbreaking meaning and slightly unsettling visuals creates an experience that's hard for me to communicate but is extremely engaging. I tried to capture the video's sense of unsettling peace. I'm not sure how well I did, but I am proud of how it turned out! It took 17 separate layers and I learned so many new things: exploring different brushes and their textures, finding the blur tool, learning how to shade fabrics and adjust transparency for the ghost, and more.

Click here to watch "Ex".

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

Today I was reading over my poem, "climb", and realized that I wanted to bring it to life through pictures as well as words. All of the flowers in this picture are from the hill behind my backyard, where "climb" takes place -- the pink flower in the center of the drawing is mentioned near the end of the poem. I actually have no idea what kind of flower it is (I've even tried using Google image search, but I can't find any matches for the leaves or petals!) -- however, the smell and texture of the leaves almost reminds me of sage. It's very calming yet energizing, and I love visiting the "sage" bushes every time I scale the hill. I'm thinking of doing more illustrations for "climb" in the future -- there are many more images that I was too afraid to attempt this time!

Click here to read "climb".

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook

I took inspiration from the recent wildfires in California while drawing this picture. I was thinking about the duality of fire -- how it can be a force of destruction and pain, but also a source of warmth, beauty, and hope. And thus I came up with a picture of little butterflies of fire being birthed from a limbs of a dying tree... It turned out much better than I expected! I haven't drawn tree branches or realistic fire before, so creating this picture was a bit of a learning process, but I'm proud of how it turned out.

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook