Ana Rocel

A few months ago, one of my cousins asked if I could draw her. Naturally, I declined. I never really liked drawing someone I personally know because I wasn't always sure if the drawing ends up looking like the person of reference, or I was just too immersed that I thought it looked like that person. (If that makes sense.)

She said I could take my time and sent me a reference picture, anyway, so I agreed. But heck, take my time I did. It was some time in July that this exchange happened, and it is currently the middle of October.

A few days after that exchange, I started working on her portrait. In the middle of the work, though, I wasn't happy with how it was turning out so I stopped. Earlier today, I picked it up again and started from the base colors.

In the Philippines, we add a prefix to the name of a woman older than us with Ate. Ate Rocel is one of my cousins from my father's side. She's a couple of years older than me but I enjoy her company every time we go visit them. She's fun and has a lot of stories to tell, and she enjoys the outdoors. Ate Rocel is also a teacher so she's really well-spoken.

I would have loved to add a link here pointing to the reference picture, but I'll have to pass. I'm not exactly keen on broadcasting my cousin's face on the blockchain, but she's on Instagram.

Drawing my cousin

Completing this sealed the deal: I'm not really a fan of drawing someone I personally know. Many times I showed my in-progress work to my father to ask if the artwork resembled somebody, and he would say he didn't know. I told him, "A cousin." (Mind you, I have lots of cousins.) He answered, "Rocel."

And that was in the incomplete version. When I was nearly done, I showed a snippet to my big sister and asked her if the picture looked like a person it should resemble. She hadn't a clue, but she said, "Ate Rocel." I asked my mother next, and she couldn't figure it out, even with clues. But I was satisfied with a 2/3 hit rate. :P

I couldn't remember much from 3 months ago, but I was sure I took my time drawing her sketch. I eventually started painting on all the details, but I was not proud of how they were turning out. I scrapped half the progress and started again earlier.

Details

Device: Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
Apps:
- MediBang Paint for Android
Brushes: watercolor (at varying opacity settings); pencil (100% opacity); blur

Notes

I'm the baby in the family. Among my cousins (and myself and my sister) in my father's side, I am the youngest. And there are literally dozens of us. All of them are older than me by a decade and more, and I didn't grow up playing with them. Instead, I grew up with the children of some of them. Heck, some of their children are older than me, too.

Anyway, we got an interesting extended family dynamic going. XD

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