Gail Arts: Portrait for Ate Carms

Hello everyone especially to all the mothers out there. The mother's day celebration is really created for you to relax for a moment while the fathers and kids are doing all the household chores. Is that what it is supposed to be?

Anyhow, mommies, did you enjoy yesterday's Mother's day celebration with your kids? I bet you did!

And kids, what were the surprises that you made for your moms? Well, I surprised my mom by telling her that I haven't prepared anything for her at all. She just laughed at it then.

To all the mothers out there, we would sincerely like to thank you for all the sacrifices you have made and we do not have any idea on how to repay you. You served as an inspiration to our lives.

To all the mothers who cannot be with their children because they are working overseas, being far from your children does not make you less of a mother. You have deprived yourselves of comfort just to provide the needs and wants of your families.

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Art Process
Anyway, for this moment, I would like to share a quick art process that I made for a friend who is soon to be a mom. She is Ate Carms and we met like few years ago at graduate school.

I really do like her a lot because she is just so cool. She is a licensed nurse but is currently working as a police officer. She will soom become a mom and we are all excited for her.

Anyway, let us get started, shall we?

Using a brown cartolina, I started sketching Ate Carm's portrait. I used 2H lead pencil because it can easily be erased when a mistake is committed.

I actually do not have a copy that is why I just tried to recall how she looks like.

I then color for her hair. I used the black colored pencil and then added some accent to it using the color white.

When I was done on the one side of the hair, I added undertones for the skin. I used the colors yellow green, yellow, and pink since applying flesh or variety of flesh does not add depth on the portrait.

To add highlight on her face, I used color white particularly the chin, near the eyes, nose, and forehead. Since the right side of the face is against the light, I tried to use darker tones on that portion of the face.

Since Ate Carms eyes is bright and I wanted to give a dainty look, I made her pupils bigger but the opening of the eyes is a bit smaller.

The moment I realized I was almost through, I decided to color the background with different tones of blue.

And since this has a quick-sketch-feel, I tried not to color all the areas of our drawing surface.

And after an hour, my work is good to go. I do hope I could master my skills in colored pencils so that someday I could make a living out of it.

I hope you enjoyed my quick art process or quick art tutorial.

Happy mother's day again! Love you all!

^{@gailbelga or Johanna Gail is a free-spirited freelance artist. She took up Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in one of the Ateneo universities in the Philippines. She is currently a candidate for Masters in Public Administrations. She volunteers in various non-profit/nongovernmental organization which aims for human rights through political education. She draws and writes about the country to provide awareness and promote the Philippines to foreign tourists.}