Sablay | Digital Art with Note 10+

Cy Ramirez

Lately, I had been having fun playing around with Adobe Photoshop. I had been putting pictures together to create a whole new picture -- photo manipulation, is it? -- and then I will draw it.

Today, the inspiration drew from the fact that at this time of the year, it should be the season of sunflowers at the University of the Philippines Diliman. This means that it is graduation season, and the university welcomes its graduates with rows of beautiful yellow sunflowers.

_{The University Avenue in the University of the Philippines Diliman. Source}

The want to redraw a drawing from one month ago also serves as motivation to draw something. And everything just fits! One of my favorite Wattpad guys hails from the University of the Philippines (Manila), and I want to see him in his Sablay garb!

So I took this portrait photo and this Sablay graduation picture as references to draw a semi-realistic UP graduation picture of Clyden "Cy" Ramirez of Wattpad's Avenues of the Diamond by 4reuminct.

Drawing Cy

I was watching one of my favorite artists (Astri Lohne) on Youtube when a suggested video popped up. It's a tutorial video on how to "lazy paint" skin by Mohammed Agbadi. I tried it out because, well, I sucked at painting skin.

Of course, the result wasn't anywhere near what I was expecting, but I'm pretty sure I'll get there. The video was funnily concise but quite easy to understand. It just basically said to play around with layer blending and use Multiply for shadows. Saves one a lot of time, apparently.

Still! It was difficult for me. Blending much more so. I wasn't so into the quite pillowy look, so I still wanted shadows that had sharper edges.

Anyway, I have another drawing in progress, but I finished this one a lot quicker than that one so I'm thinking maybe Mohammed Agbadi was right -- this technique would save a lot more time. LMAO.

Below is a GIF of progress shots from the drawing. I wasn't too keen on recording anything for now, so this should do.

Final notes

Before even thinking of drawing this, I was browsing through my Facebook photos and found my graduation photos. I didn't have a reliable camera (phone or otherwise) three years ago, so I didn't have much. Most of my photos were tags by my classmates (and I looked horrible yikes). To wear the Sablay takes a lot of grit and perseverance. Ah, this makes me want to wear it again someday.

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