The Voyaging Storyteller

With the copious amount of time these days, I’ve been amusing myself with voyaging more hopelessly into the vast world of art. I have even dared, for the very first time, to draw some of my characters and will subsequently be introducing two of them to you.

I hope you enjoy these glimpses into my art-journey.

This was my first full-body drawing, and I was exhausted after completing it. You have no idea how hard it was to get the proportions right, and how skinny and short Legolas’ arm once was, because being the stubborn-headed individual that I am, I dove right into the sketch without practicing basic proportions first.

Tip: practice basic proportions first. It’ll save you a lot of pain and erasing.

But now that it’s done and now that time has passed, I must say, I rather like this one. And rear view in general, because you don’t have to draw the face.

I saw a similar picture on Pinterest and decided I had to draw the cute lil kitty. And add a bit of color.

It was so much fun, but I had no idea how satisfying it is to draw butterfly legs.

Behold. My first ever character art. So technically this was based off of a picture and he’s not even the age he is in my story (17), but it looks just like him when he was a wee lad. Meet Phydaluel (Phyd for short), the oldest of five siblings, lover of animals (especially horses and cats.) Among other things, he’s serious, quiet, a planner, and responsible. He has a strong sense of duty and honor. He’s always hungry.

Not at this age. As a little boy, he had no idea what duty or honor meant and he preferred feeding his dinner to his cat.

Also I am extremely proud of how his hand turned out because it now actually looks like a hand. And his fingers actually look like fingers. Hands are torture to draw. If that wasn’t obvious.

Behold. My second ever character art. This one is legitimate and depicts her at the right age (about 15.) I drew it entirely out of my head and it was extremely challenging, but I am immensely pleased with how it turned out.

Meet Laethierre (Laeth for short), middle child of five siblings and every parent’s worst nightmare. She’s mischievous, reckless, impulsive, and headstrong. She enjoys pulling pranks and being aggravating, but she is fiercely loyal and protective of those she loves. She has always been good at climbing trees and she loves insects and bugs, especially spiders and millipedes.

She also loves attention, which is why I will stop talking about her now.

Behold. My third ever – okay, okay, I’m stopping. This is Kokai: manipulative, heartless, cruel, creepy, and altogether a jerk. He’s one of my friend’s characters that I drew because I wanted practice drawing evil somewhat-Japanese teenage guys. His nose is off and rather smushed, but I care not because a guy like that deserves to have a smushed nose.

Do you recognize her? Any guesses? No? That baby, my friends, is me at six months. At the risk of sounding vain and conceited, it was so much fun to draw myself, even if it didn’t quite turn out exactly like the picture.

Here is the original picture, for reference:

(My nose was yellow-ish because at the time carrots made up a large portion of my diet, and babies’ noses turn that color when they eat a lot of carrots.)

This is my grandfather, who I call Ông, when he was a young man in the Vietnamese army, fighting against the French and the Japanese. The first time I drew him he looked like a weird mixture between a frog and Captain America, but after I erased basically the whole face (instead of using a new page like a smart person) and re-did it, you can now somewhat recognize him.

Here is the original picture (which could fit on a light switch it’s so tiny):

Do we look alike? 😛

I drew this for Mama as a Mother’s Day gift. It gave me oceans of grief trying to make it look realistic and trying to get my hands not look too deformed. It’s still not quite there, but for my current artistic abilities, I’m pleased with how it turned out and even more pleased that Mama liked it.

Again, le original photo for reference:

(the mark on Mama’s arm, by the way, is not a tattoo, but an unfortunate mar on the photograph.)

I followed this wonderful tutorial by Paint Academy

Before I attempted a full-on watercolor painting, I wanted to get a feel for using water, so I did something a bit easier: using watercolor pencils. Basically they work like any other colored pencil, but when you paint over them with a wet brush, it blends the color to give that watercolor texture.

After doing so many drawings in black and white, it was refreshing to use so much color and so satisfying to watch them blend. Also, to my relief, flowers are much easier to draw and much more forgiving than faces.

I followed this awesome tutorial by AhmadArt

Confession: I had no idea what I was doing while I painted this. I was happily slathering paint, watching the tutorial, dipping my brush in water…when I finally finished and stepped back, I was truly surprised at how it turned out. Watercolor is very, very forgiving. Blending similar colors together without an ounce of thought actually comes up with a fairly decent cloud and sky arrangement. No masterpiece, but still half-decent.

I used part of this tutorial by AhmadArt.

That ocean gave me a literal ocean of grief. I was using far too much black and was worried it would turn out like a blob of ink, but apparently that is how you get the wave texture. It still doesn’t look like an ocean to me, which is why I added a dolphin so it can trick your mind into believing its an ocean.

Also because dolphins make everything better.

Inspired by this photo from Pinterest

My first portrait using colored pencil! I must say, even though colored pencils don’t let an erase-crazy person like me erase very easily, I really enjoyed how using color adds such a different layer. I will definitely be practicing more of these in the future.

---

And that’s it! For now. The more I get sucked into the world of art, the more I realize how I’ve only just scratched the surface. But that’s part of the beauty of art, how there are always new things to learn, new things to illustrate – a bountiful, everlasting ocean of novelty.

Bon voyage!