My First Art Entry in the HIVEPH Art Challenge: MASK (Week 4)

_{This poster is owned by me and was drawn using the Sketchbook application and was posted on my Instagram account.}

I'm not good at art. I admit that. However, I used to draw from elementary to high school. I'm not that skilled and talented like the other people. I just know how to draw in poster making because that is where I always joined in. I can't show any proof because I'm not sure if who took some pictures of me during the competition and awarding and whose account should I visit where they uploaded my pictures because I didn't have a proper phone back then because I was still young, and all my awards and certificates were previously abandoned in our old house, and I'm not sure if my father and his mistress still kept them or threw them away before.

That's why, if you can see in the image above, my entry is not just like the other entries that have been drawn by professional artists. This is my first time drawing and trying a poster based on the Sketchbook application, and I only used my finger to draw this. Because if I drew a poster, I always used an illustration board and oil pastels to color what I had drawn.

Since I was a first-time user of the Sketchbook app, I'm not confident in drawing there. I'm not used to using the brushes yet, and if I draw what I want to draw, I wonder if I will be able to draw what I have imagined?

For today's blog, I joined in the @hiveph community's Sining at Likhain HivePH Art Challenge Week 4. I haven't joined any of their art challenges in the last few weeks because, like I said, I'm not confident in drawing something because I know that there are so many talented people here. But this time, I would like to join or participate in this art challenge because I remember something about their word, "Mask," but before I will explain to you why I chose this word. What motivated me to draw this? Who inspired me to draw this? Etc., let us know first how I started to draw this masterpiece! :)

So the application that I chose to use is Sketchbook rather than Ibispaint-X because the Sketchbook app is easy to use. Anyway, the first step that I did was to draw four big circles.

First Step:

I use the circle shape ruler of the Sketchbook that we can see above, together with the other features. I still use a ruler because I'm not good at drawing a perfect circle using my fingers on the screen of my phone yet. This circle shape will be the body of the viruses. I used a paint brush type of brush to draw the circles and in the shade of black. I noticed that the circles are not enough or I'm not satisfied, so I decided to add a small circle. It's smaller than the big circle in front.

Second step:

Then, after I drew the circles, I used the guiding circle ruler to draw a small circle again. This time, I drew it like a needle or nail of a virus. I don't know what to call this one. Anyway, I used my own hand to draw the body of the needle-type something and didn't use a ruler to connect it to the big circle. I did that over and over again until I drew everything in the big circles I drew.

Third Step:

Coloring is really hard for me. because I don't know which type of brush to use to blend the 3-4 colors together. I picked a color that I will use first since viruses are always drawn in the color green, and in poster making, they don't usually use the color red. I tried some colors of any variation of color green, but before that, I tried the familiar brushes that I tried before when I was new to the sketchbook app. The first brush that I tried was the paint brush. I tried to paint it on the one nail of the virus. All the colors I put there. I started with the dark green on the sides and followed the lines of the nail, then I used the yellow green on the left side and the green color on the right side and blended them together with the smudge brush, but I didn't like the result, so in coloring, I just followed how I colored using oil pastels on illustration board. If how we color and blend the colors from light to dark colors, I also changed the brush and now use the Art Pencil from the artists' brush set.The thinness and thickness of the art pencil depend on the size of the object that I have drawn.

In coloring, you will not do the same thing with the first object as you did with the second and other objects. It depends on where you imagine the light.

As what you have noticed between these two images that I uploaded above,the color in the big circle on the left side is yellow green, which is lighter than the color on the other side. Which means the light is reflecting more on the left side than the right side.

Fourth Step: Let's draw the earth

I admit that in this part, I don't know how to draw the countries. Anyway, before I draw the countries, I first draw a big circle first using the paint brush and guiding ruler that I have used to draw the circle of the body of the virus. Then, I searched a globe and saw if I could draw the countries where you can see our country (Philippines). I just follow it by remembering the lines and the other parts of the country are just invented because I don't know how to draw them. What is important to me is the Philippine country will be drawn well, but that is my mistke because I thought that it should be shown. However, I remembered that I needed to draw a facemask!

But before that,let's color the planet Earth first. I don't know if I will just color the countries above like the color that I have used with the color of the virus, but since they are sticking together, I changed my mind and colored the countries above with brown, light brown, dark green, and yellow green. so that it would not look so dull or plain. But in the countries below, like the Philippines, I just use the colors yellow-green and dark green. And color the water light blue and add a little dark blue as a little effect.

Fifth Step: Let's draw the facemask

Now, for this part, we will begin to draw the facemask. I don't know how to draw a face mask, so I just used my imagination. At this point, I'm imagining the surgical facemask being put on the right side of the earth. I was so surprised because I was able to draw a facemask using my hand on the screen. This was my first time and it was a great experience. Lol

I thought I would be disappointed because of expectations vs. reality. HAHA

Meanwhile, the color of the surgical facemask is light blue and a little dark blue, right? I used 3 colors only, which are baby blue, light blue, and dark blue. In coloring, just like in poster making, the first is the dark blue color, the second is the light blue color, and the third is the baby blue color in the middle or center. I am glad that the color looks good and I can color what I just like in my imagination.

Sixth Step: Let's draw their eyes, hands, and mouths

As previously stated, I became accustomed to creating posters. So, the eyes, nose, mouth, and hands are cartoonized, as we always use them in poster making contests.

Since then, I'm still not confident and I don't know how to draw a realistic one.

Oh my god! I didn't realize that I didn't take a screenshot of how I drew the hands! I thought I took a screenshot earlier. Oh well, I finished this around 4 AM or something in the morning. So I can't blame myself if I forgot to take a screenshot of this part because I rushed it already.

Final Part

This part is where we will draw the background. My imagination is that the earth is in the galaxy together with the viruses. But I don't know how to draw stars or a galaxy.

• The Background color is Black.

And I use the technical pen color white to add a few dots as stars.

Then, as an effect, I add "air color" with a "flow air brush" in the color shades of "Violet," "Blue," and "White."

What I Have Learned After Doing This Art Is About:

LAYERING

You know, this is my first time learning how to make the perfect layer. At first, I thought that using an application like this would mean you would draw all the objects in just one layer. That's also the reason why I didn't get or achieve what I wanted to draw. However, after watching several tutorials on YouTube and other social media about how to use and how to color using art applications, I have learned about layering.

Which will be used as a separation between two objects so that when you make a mistake, you won't erase the entire object.

In the past, I didn't know which object should be first. So I still made mistakes and didn't get what I wanted, but thanks to this Hiveph Sining at Likhain Art Challenge, I can learn how to layer the objects I've drawn.

Now what is the reason or who inspired me to draw this?

When I read the word "mask" in the lists of the objects that we can use to participate in the art contest, I remember the previous years when we suffered a lot.

I remember that our family experienced not being able to have a meal or viand to eat because of lockdowns. All my aunts and uncles and our entire family didn't have any money during that time that COVID-19 attacked our country, and we really didn't expect this virus. Of course, just like the other people's normal expression when they have heard about this virus on the television, we don't believe this, and we didn't expect that the virus would spread around the world and even our country would become one of the most affected countries because of this.

And you know, I'm drawing this because many people died because of this cruel virus, and we didn't expect that one of the people who died because of this was our uncle (our grandma's youngest brother). Our great-grandpa died too, and they died on consecutive days, meaning that our great-grandpa let himself die after knowing what happened to his son. Because at that time, he was fighting for his life even before what happened to our uncle, and he let himself rest because he wanted to be with his son.

And this is our sad memory because of COVID that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I'm still mad because "while the virus kills lots of lives, the people in this world have suffered a lot because they lost the love of their lives."

And this is my submission for the word: MASK.

CONCLUSION:

I'm glad that I finished this artwork. I began drawing this around 12 MD and finished it around 4 AM.

However, though, this artwork is not perfect. I'm still glad because I learned something new and I enjoyed participating in this art challenge hosted by this amazing community. I am very thankful that @hiveph has this kind of challenge and I can be able to share my art work even though it's not that good because I'm a beginner in drawing with applications.

So this is all for today. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.' 'See you when I see you!

Published by: @xanreo | HIVE
Date: October 26, 2022