66 KiB
I just had a great idea: I should try to draw something every day for 4 weeks! 28 days, because that's a nice number. It's not too dissimilar from when I wrote an album for the February Album Writing Month, and though that album turned out awful, I was happy to have produced an album of sorts at all.
Why start now, instead of at the start of the month? Because I just came up with the idea. Why not wait for the start of next week or even next month? Because why delay, that's why. Except I will delay by starting tomorrow, not today, as it is night time and I'm about to head off to bed.
I'm posting this to hold myself accountable and to actually pull through instead of discarding the idea tomorrow – let's hope it works! I will update this page with my drawings.
Day 01
2026-02-06, 18:47
It's the first day of the challenge and I already thought about quietly deleting this post and pretending there never was a challenge to begin with. By around 3 PM I did manage to start though, and I drew something I'm pretty happy with.
I started with the head shape, which I later corrected to be a bit taller, since that was something I criticised in my own earlier drawings. I'm actually quite happy about her head and her face – I think that something I, relatively speaking!, excel at. On the other hand, it feels like hair is something I struggle with the most. I wanted to avoid drawing yet another girl in quick succession with the same hair style, so I tried going for free-flowing hair, and it kind of worked out, but it also kind of looks odd. Definitely something I should go look at references for.
Similarly, I wanted to avoid drawing another girl with a sleeveless tank top, so I went for a slightly baggy cropped tee, and jeans just to have some extra detailing. I was quite happy about small details like the tee's sleeves wrapping around her arms, it made the drawing look just a little bit less flat.
Arms are troubling too, not because they're insanely difficult to draw, but because I never know where to place them just like mine irl. I eventually settled on putting her left arm on her hip, which ended up quite cool.
I was too afraid to colour the drawing, worried I'd ruin it, but if I had done so, I'd have given her purple eyes. Don't know why, but that's the one colour detail about this drawing that I was sure of.
Not sure what to draw next, but I think I'll either go for another person but from a different perspective, or an object.
Day 02: Struggle
2026-02-07, 20:52
Well... I persevered. That's probably the most positive thing I can say for today. Urge to delete the post and quit the challenge was strong.
I didn't really know what to draw, so I started copying a frame from the beginning of Bad Apple, which I first wanted to detail but then decided to fill black because the details looked bad.
Out of ideas, I looked up above my monitor and stared at the vinyl record sleeve for underscores' Fishmonger album, so I drew the water tower on the cover. Fittingly, I tried copying a tuna fish I found online, and then drew the can with no reference (can you tell?).
I was then slightly motivated after watching this video on drawing by pikat and drew first the head in the bottom left, then the one bottom centre. I kinda like the head shape of the bottom left one.
I think something that's definitely hindering me is a lack of direction, and possibly motivation too, just like with my other projects. I don't really know what to draw, how to draw, what to improve. I'll try watching some more videos, but I'm a bit afraid of falling into the tutorial trap and not being able to draw things without 1:1 reference. I do actually have a handful of ideas I'd like to draw, but I feel I'm not skilled enough to successfully draw them, so I'm kind of holding off on trying them.
Honestly: this felt super stressful to do today! I felt like I had to perform, but I kept postponing all day, just to feel the need to churn out something in the final hours of the day. Being done for the day feels like a relief, but tomorrow's attempt is already looming on the horizon.
Day 03
2026-02-08, 11:45
Last night, I remembered some screencaps I took of Neon Genesis Evangelion as reference material for 3D modelling and decided I could try to use it as reference for drawing as well. So I did! I tried to draw Asuka.
I started with the head shape and definitely immediately screwed up, as I made her chin way too long. The eyes didn't turn out too bad; definitely a little better than yesterday's attempt at perspective.
Tried to do shadows/shading as well, and it turned out kind of neat, though obviously without much thought as it's clearly just a carbon copy.
I'm wondering whether I should try to trace some art, just to get a feel for dimensions? Again though, I don't want to depend on tracing, so I'm a bit wary of trying it.
Day 05: An Uptick
2026-02-10, 18:55
Listening to some good music. Signing my work contract so I'll be out of unemployment from tomorrow (don't worry it was planned). I'm in a good fucking mood, here we go.
I didn't draw yesterday unfortunately, but I didn't do this to quit the challenge! I was just really busy – I was out and about from 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening, and considering how bad I felt after day 3 of drawing, I didn't exactly feel like picking up the pencil this late in the day either. I bought an IKEA Tertial lamp which gives way better lighting for drawing than my room lights do. Yay to setup improvements!
I drew a couple of faces again. It looks like this is the direction I'm heading in. Before I started drawing anything, I watched one of PewDiePie's videos on how he learned to draw – I don't usually watch his videos, but I remembered that he challenged himself to learn to draw as well, and that he was quite successful. It managed to spark some motivation in me, so the first thing I did was try to copy one of the girls he drew (she's on one of his thumbnails as well). I changed some small things like placing the ear a little higher. I don't like this type of style quite as much (see the note about the nose next to the drawing) but it still turned out quite cool and I like her.
I then experimented with some eyes, from open to closed. The big closed eye at the bottom was actually copied from a screenshot of Laura with her eyes closed! I then used this very screenshot as a reference to draw Laura as well!
It was pretty cool to draw my own character, I gotta say. I drew her head noticeably shorter than on the screenshot, which resulted in a more chibi-style look. It's cute, I think.
The third girl, in the bottom left, was half-freely drawn. I drew her eyes and then her head shape while trying to draw a smiling/happy girl. I then had no idea for the hair, so I used a reference I got from a pikat video for that. I specifically wanted to draw a girl with a different style of nose than the PewDiePie reference, and it worked out!
I found that I tend to draw some things too big. Noses turn out too long, eyebrows turn out too wide or too high. It might also be because I keep drawing with dull pencils. I like that they're easily erasable, but the lines are never as sharply defined as I'd like them to be, so I keep redrawing lines which just makes them thicker. That's a problem I didn't have with my first drawing; maybe I should try to draw with different pens as well? I was even thinking of trying digital, I even installed Krita on my Surface tablet, but I haven't dabbled much with that yet.
All the girls I drew are also looking towards the left. I'm assuming this is because I'm right-handed and it's easier to draw the lines I need for a left-facing face than for a right-facing one. Nevertheless, I should definitely try to draw some right-facing characters as well. I think it'll help with symmetry (something I also struggle with).
Overall feeling very good about today's drawings – much better than two days ago!
Day 06
2026-02-11, 20:56
I didn't have any kind of clear goal for today, but I did enjoy the sketching. After watching Eddy Burback's video on how he locked away his phone and lived a largely more enjoyable life because of it, I chose to not listen to music or watch any video while drawing. It was quite a serene experience.
For the most part, I was just testing thing without sticking to just faces. Most importantly perhaps: no perfectionism! I didn't use my eraser once! The focus was on trying more rather than perfecting one single drawing. It did work to my benefit, in a way; I drew bodies, heads, even hands.
I talked to a friend of mine earlier today about drawing. Thing is, she's a pro at it. She's been donig it for ages, she's studying art too, and she does insanely cool paintings. She did give me quite a few tips when we talked, but I did notice that a bit of it was way above my level. At one point, she started sketching a realistic eye, telling me about minute details like the positioning of eyelashes, and while I didn't see a direct connection between her advice and my drawings, I listened and watched in awe as she drew a really good-looking eye from what I assume is just experience and possibly my eyes as a partial reference.
We also talked about perfectionism and how it can be beneficial to draw without erasing constantly – like how I drew my drawing from two weeks ago using a ballpoint pen instead of a pencil. No going back using that. I did intend to use a gel pen today, but I kind of shied away from it for now. Thinking about it now, a ballpoint pen may be better actually, because it draws finer and less bold lines.
She also encouraged me to take a sketchbook with me wherever I go. I mostly already do that, but today for example I didn't as I didn't bring my backpack with me. I should have a small notebook lying around somewhere – one that I intended to use for drawing years ago but never used – so I'll try and find that.
She also encouraged me to try figure drawing; using nude(ish) human bodies as drawing references to learn anatomy and things like body flow. I may try that soon, because I definitely find myself struggling to draw characters in poses.
To comment a bit on the drawings: the heads look weird, I think I'll practice them a little more tomorrow, maybe. The body went in a decent direction but the hips look like they're pointed in the opposite way than I intended. For the big hand, I used my own left hand as a reference, but with the details it started to look kind of witch-like. The smaller hand I drew right after looks a little cuter. The legs up top, which actually were the first thing I drew today, look okay. I like the curvature in the right foot.
Day 07: \__*
2026-02-12, 21:55
I found the small notebook and went for ballpoint pen sketches today.
Patrick was the first drawing today, completely separate from all the other stuff too. I kind of just drew him to show some people at university as an IRL reaction sticker. Still wanted to include him here.
I looked at some people on the bus today (shocker, I know) and one person on my way back home from uni made me realise that I had kind of fucked up ear placement, neck flow, and head shape for a while. From a 45-degree angle, the ear is fully visible but it's still mostly within the head silhouette. I then drew the drawing in the top left to try this out, and it did look more natural. I think the head turned out a little too narrow, but quite decent still.
Although I just looked at myself in the mirror and what I just wrote wasn't exactly what I'd seen so I'm not entirely sure.
As I was listening to LIGHTYEARS by Jaron, I stared at Jaron's face on the album cover when I decided I could try to draw him. HIM??
yeah i drew a guy for the first time. 7 days in.
The first try went pretty goblin with a massively oversized ear, so I tried again, and it's definitely recognisable, I'd say. I found it interesting how his head is drawn with way straighter lines than all the girls I had drawn up to now, where all shapes are much more curvy and wavy. Just look at his neck; it's so straight and thick compared to, say, the head in the top left.
I also tried drawing his right hand fully – as in, not obscured by his head – and it went eeeehhh
Lastly, I attempted to draw crossed legs from a front perspective. Turns out, I really didn't know what I was doing lol. Trying to figure out where the legs go, where and how they cross, and how they connect to the body is a challenge, and I was doing it with no reference! Probably a mistake.
Day 08: Bulbous Buttocks
2026-02-13, 21:30
Today felt quite forced again.
I waited with drawing until late in the day again unfortunately, which meant I felt this need to draw despite not really having the motivation to do so.
Actually, I did have one thing I wanted to try and draw; I saw a person standing at the tram stop earlier today, wearing a beanie, and I wanted to try and draw her. My version definitely doesn't look like her, but I mostly wanted to use the opportunity to try and draw a) a beanie, b) the hairstyle, and c) eyes from a side perspective.
I then tried copying another one of PewDiePie's sketches (I still had the tab open) and failed lol. I then messed up trying to copy another drawing. After that, I wanted to draw Captain Qwark but ended up drawing his rear end because it was the first picture of him I could find on my PC.
Minor looking through my Pinterest pins got me to try and draw a guy wearing a Mario hat and looking up at the sky, which went poorly, and then I also kind of messed up drawing the type of head I thought I could do kind of okay.
Not the best day, and I am once again questioning why I am doing this challenge, but I guess I gotta see this through to the end.
Day 09: Gaining Perspective
2026-02-14, 21:36
Today, I had some ideas for things I could try to copy (still abstaining from tracing!). Among those things were a picture of Anna (Anna_Chess) and Kevin (Call Me Kevin) as well as a random anime-style girl I probably screenshotted a few days ago for this specific purpose. The first one didn't work out AT ALL because of how little I knew about perspective, and the second one turned out... okay.
I then decided to look up tutorials, which was a very good idea.
I found someone recommending mikeymegamega's videos, so I checked out his channel. I found a lot of videos, most of them too advanced for me and also quite... horny... but nonetheless very interesting. I ended up watching this video on mapping characters' heads and faces. I think this video assumed knowledge of prior videos, which I obviously haven't watched yet, but it was still pretty simple to follow along.
You can notice the point at which I started following along with the tutorial because I switched back to my pencil and started using construction lines (see I'm learning terminology!!). I also switched to my A5 notebook because the pocket-sized one was too small; in fact, in retrospect I wish I had drawn much bigger, like almost page-filling, because these small drawings + using a somewhat dull pencil starkly inhibited my ability to draw details.
It was actually quite fun to follow along and see drawings come 'alive' through my own doing. 'Alive' is relative here as watching the whole tutorial reveals the skill level mikeymegamega's at, and the final results are insane. It's crazy what someone can do with just a pencil and some paper.
He talked about perspective, head shape, face proportions, and it stuck just a bit better since I was able to follow along at the exact spots where these things were relevant. My drawings are nowhere as good as his, but I'm still quite happy about how these went, and they kind of motivate me to keep going!
I'm not the type to watch tutorials very often, but this proved to me once again that it can be really helpful to do that sometimes; especially when you're struggling with motivation!
Oh and also, very important: this tutorial of his quite literally started with drawing a simple circle for the head, which I struggled with so much I almost got frustrated. While practicing it though, I discovered that it's way easier to draw a shape like a circle when I'm using my arm to draw instead of my wrist! Drawing big shapes with your wrists is difficult because they need to bend weirdly to stretch to the dimensions needed, whereas the arm allows for a much smoother motion with these sizeable shapes.
Day 10
2026-02-15, 22:02
For today's part of the challenge, I mostly tried to continue with mikeymegamega's approach I learned yesterday. It went okay!
I first did the head on the right. The head actually looks quite big, gives me Megamind vibes – maybe some hair would make it blend better. I think it turned out okay overall, though a bit boring. Perhaps the ear is a bit small.
The second drawing, on the left, looks more interesting, I think. I went back to the video and used a still image as a reference. I found myself erasing and re-tracing a lot. Since I had a bit more of a goal here than I did a few days ago, I wasn't quite as bothered by this though. The perspective isn't ideal (nose/mouth look a tiny bit off), but the pose makes me like the second one quite a bit more!
I was actually kind of bothered by my tools today more so than by my skills. I noticed that my eraser kept leaving red marks, and the paper of the notebook I'm using is pretty thin, so previous drawings shine through (more noticeable in-person than on the scan). Worse yet, when I try to finalise lines and draw them with more pressure, they press through to 2-3 pages after. I'll get a new eraser tomorrow probably, but we'll see about the notebook, I don't want to chuck away this one after only having used it for a couple of days.
I wonder what I should draw next. Maybe I'll try using a photo as a reference pic and draw the head of a person using this technique; learn how to evaluate and draw poses on my own, without the guidance of a tutorial.
That type of freedom is my end goal.
Day 11
2026-02-16, 21:45
Getting up to draw today was not easy. It's not that I dreaded drawing necessarily, but I feel it going the same way as my other hobbies: it's so hard to start. I don't know why I always struggle with motivation like this, but I haven't found a fix for it yet either.
Admittedly, I didn't draw quite as much today as I need to head to bed soon; I have to go to work early tomorrow. Still, I could have drawn earlier in the day, when I had time for it... I did plan to do exactly that, actually. For several days now, actually. I can never muster up the motivation to do it, unfortunately.
Anyway: I drew this head with no direct reference! I mostly drew it freely and only looked back at yesterday's drawings to confirm some positioning. I also used a fineliner to draw the final lines instead of using excessive force with my pencil. Created some nicer lines, though of course it makes them 100% final, so there's a big risk of fucking up.
I used a little test drawing (in the top left) to roughly sketch out the perspective, and it worked out decently.
Afterwards, I didn't really know what to do because I'm kind of getting bored of drawing the same heads with no changes really, and I don't know how to properly draw something else either. I watched another one of mikeymegamega's videos, this one on basic shapes, so I drew some forms. Of course the cube reminded me of a much more familiar cube.
mikeymegamega's "Beginner Drawing Tutorial" series continues with videos on shading and perspective; I'm not sure whether I'll watch them soon, because they don't feel right for me currently. Something something too advanced, also not the direction I want to head right now. They did remind me of school, however. I remember that in art class, we often had to do things like draw a scene in a vanishing point perspective, or try to copy our own eye or something. Retrospectively... I felt very underprepared for that. I hardly knew how to draw, so trying these things, while fun, wasn't exactly ideal. I do recall others struggling with the perspective in particular and finding the challenge frustrating rather than enjoyable. Who knows whether that influenced their perspective on creating art.
Day 12: Close Your Eyes
2026-02-17, 22:32
So I bought this book today.
I went to a flea market store (yes that's not a mistake; an indoor flea market-like business) with friends earlier today, and I discovered this book on drawing manga characters. It's issue 5 in its series and focusses on 'bishoujo' characters, which the book also refers to as 'beautiful girls'. I'll be honest – I felt a bit awkward picking up this book, especially since some of its contents are kind of... horny-coded. Not unlike mikeymegamega's videos, I suppose. But there are a lot of cool references and tips in this book, like on dimensions of body and face parts, positioning and its respective effects, etc. I initially put the book back down, but after like 10 minutes of thinking that I'd kinda like to take the book with me, I finally bought it. Finding this book, a guide for a style I personally want to go for, in the middle of a drawing challenge? It can't have been coincidence.
I had a look through more than half the book and found some drawings I wanted to try and copy. Of course, I used the technique (singular) I had previously learned to accomplish this, and it worked out quite decently.
I still struggle with perspective, that's for sure. The bottom one isn't quite looking in the direction I intended her to, though she still looks ok. I quite like the top left one. There's a bit of authenticity in the drawing with the construction lines, which I oddly like. I also drew the top right one just because it looked fun and I wanted to try it. I like the exaggerated emotions you can depict in this artstyle; not something I'm quite ready to experiment with yet – I am still lacking lots of basics – but I copied this one just to get a feel for it.
Honestly? I think the heads I draw look pretty alright. I think if I keep practicing just the heads, it'll get boring, so I may try to do bodies/torsos next, just to keep things interesting. Combine torsos and heads to match their sizing. I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of both drawing and finding resources for drawing.
Oh, and hair. Hair is a big challenge. mikeymegamega has a video on that; I may watch that tomorrow. I think hair can make the drawings look SO much more interesting, so I'm both afraid (due to its difficulty (I assume)) and excited for it.
On a related note, sometimes I look at the framed picture of Snatcher from A Hat in Time on my desk and I think to myself that I'd like to draw him. Now I'm thinking that I'd like to draw him in this manga style.
I would fucking love that.
Day 13: A New Hope
2026-02-18, 23:08
Had a small crisis. Still had a really good drawing day. Let's go.
So as I had written yesterday, I wanted to start to practice drawing bodies today. In order to learn how to do that, I first turned to mikeymegamega to find a video on the topic. This was already a pretty tough task.
Most of his videos are so... horny. Yeah I can't think of a better word. So many videos on drawing huge female features, when I just want to learn how to draw a body at all. Add to this the fact that the one video of his from 11 years ago I found where he mostly went over the basics of drawing a body, he still went with the 'now let's draw some huge boobs' shtick, plus he used some pretty derogatory language, and that evoked enough discomfort to make me find a different way to learn what I wanted to learn.
I then wanted to find another YouTube video on the topic, but I don't like going through random videos because they could be of dubious quality. That's something I can evaluate well when it's a topic I know a lot about, but with drawing I really need some good guidance.
Then I thought... I just bought that book on drawing manga characters. There's a section on drawing bodies. Might as well make the most of it. And so I did!
The book went with the approach of drawing a triangle between the shoulders and the crotch to represent the torso, and then adding curves for the shoulders and hips. It's pretty simple, actually, so I didn't really need more guidance than the few reference pictures on the page. I started off by copying one of the drawings (on the left), which had a girl sitting with her legs crossed, though I did not draw the other leg. I then tried two bodies of my own.
It's so important to just freely practice, because it allows you to identify areas you need to work on. I don't do it enough. Here I noticed that my first body drawn without reference (middle) looked too long for my liking, so I fixed it in the second one (right)!
After that, I wanted to combine my learned knowledge and draw a body with a head! But what exactly should I draw...?
And then I had an idea.
What if I try to re-draw one of my previous drawings?
And so I did!
I drew a fresh interpretation of the girl I drew on day 1, and – I gotta say – it turned out so good. I really really like it because this has given me the chance to compare my skill at the start of the challenge to my skill now. It honestly feels like a huge change already.
I think the biggest changes are dimensions and shape. Facial features and her overall body are just sized more appropriately than before. The rounded body shape, especially around her torso and hips, looks way more interesting. There's perspective too!! Her shirt flows more nicely. At the front of her trousers, there's a small curve that gives just a hint of depth. Her shoulders are tilted and it looks so cool. I'm actually really glad I re-drew the initial body triangle early on to give her that tilted pose.
I decided to omit the hands because I figured I'd screw them up (haven't learned them yet, after all), and I really didn't want to fuck up this drawing. I also didn't go over the sketch with a fineliner to trace the outlines, also because I was worried I'd fuck up the drawing.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just so hyped because this may just be one of the best things I have drawn so far, and it shows that I have genuinely made progress in this challenge.
This has me really excited for what's to come. Maybe this hasn't all been in vain? Maybe all of this effort might actually lead to an improvement in my drawing skill after all?? There's finally some method to my madness, and it's visibly starting to pay off. I'm now very motivated to learn more about drawing body parts (which I also wrote next to the sketch lol) to make my future drawings even better.
Also, just on a side note: I finally bought a new eraser, and it's way better than my previous one. Leaves way less residue after erasing too. I did also notice though that I've sketched more lightly than I did these past few days, which I think is a good thing.
Day 14
2026-02-19, 22:06
This is just a quick drawing to show that I did anything at all today. I considered skipping because I was, frustratingly, busy for longer than I'd have liked today, and I'm also not feeling super well. I figured though that it would be better to do any amount of drawing because it'll keep me in the rhythm.
I started following a mikeymegamega tutorial on hair (trying to pick out the tutorials that aren't horny af) and followed along with drawing the first head. It's interesting so far because I haven't really had a feeling for three-dimensionally mapping out hair yet. It feels like something that could be quite complicated, but I'm in for the ride.
Day 15: sick
2026-02-20, 20:50
No drawing today. I'm feeling unwell and I can't get myself to start drawing. It feels like I'm on the tail end of a sickness, but this only started yesterday, so I don't know where this is going, but I do trust my immune system to get me back up to speed soon.
I did go outside early-ish in the day today, partly to catch some fresh air (which did make me feel a little better), and also to get new art supplies! Nothing too fancy; I bought an art pad with higher-weight paper than what my current notebook has: 180g/m² instead of 80g/m². This'll most assuredly help with the sketches shining through pages. It also has a different paper texture. It's a little rougher. Actually, each sheet has a finer and a rougher side, which is pretty cool.
I bought this at an art supply store, which felt a bit odd to do. Last time I went there, I was there with a friend who's really into art (also studying art and painting her own paintings, really cool stuff). I never really had a reason to go to that store unfortunately, because my hobbies just didn't align with their inventory. Until now!
I wasn't, and still am not, sure whether a pad is better than a book, because it means I'll have loose sheets instead of a cohesive book. I can't carry this with me quite as easily. However, not having a book means I'll be less worried about fucking up a drawing and 'spoiling' the book (which is a silly concept anyway).
Anyway, I'll try to rest for the remainder of the day. I'll drink some tea and lie in bed. Hopefully be back with cool drawings tomorrow.
ok... you get a small doodle. just so i did something today.
Day 16
2026-02-21, 20:08
I'm back at it! Still kind of sickly, and occasionally a little light-headed too, but my body has been hard at work to get me back to my usual self. And I wanted to draw!
I used my new paper for today's drawings, which was very nice to sketch on. I also liked how complete it felt when I had filled out the page. I know the sketchbook also had individual pages, it's not like an endless paper sheet... but it still felt different.
I decided to not go for the hair tutorial today and mostly draw on my own accord. The two heads are based on drawings from the manga drawing book; one from a hair page, and the other from the cover. I think they both turned out alright, though I don't quite like the hair of the top one, and it feels to me that, after my brief absence, I needed a bit of warming-up to get back into it, and the second (bottom) one looks better as a result. I actually drew the bottom head without the construction line-based approach!
I definitely didn't copy the drawings exactly (not for a lack of trying), but it made me put the drawings kind of into my own style... am I allowed to say that already? Do I have my own style?
Aside from that, two tries at drawing a body. The left one ended up with spaghetti arms, and I don't know how accurate both of them are. I drew them without reference. I know I should look at more references to study, but I really want to be able to do my own thing, so my stubborn mind often refuses to look up reference images.
Also, the individual eyes on the right; I really like how the bottom one in particular turned out. I actually managed to sketch the kind of expression I had in mind, and the colour enhances it.
When I was at the art supply store yesterday, I bought a Faber-Castell 'Polychromos' colour pencil. I only bought one to try, in 'light phthalo green', and they're kind of expensive at 1.95€ a piece, but I really like the colour. You may have already seen it in the little sketch I posted yesterday.
The drawings today made me find a style of iris that I quite like; with the reflection spots and a half-dark, half-colour approach. I used this approach in the bottom head and the bottom individual eye. Think I'm gonna keep drawing eyes like that.
Day 17
2026-02-22, 20:24
I'm feeling pretty unwell today. Sickness has been taking a toll on me; sparing the details, light-headedness is probably the most impactful symptom. I am confident, though, that today'll be the 'worst' day and that I'll probably be fine come Tuesday.
In this perpetual state of light-headedness though, I have had enough windows of lucidity to not only cook for today and tomorrow, but also to draw. Here's what I did today!
I went with the less original route today and copied some drawings I found on Pinterest. Wanted to try some expressions, and it went pretty okay. Hair is still one of my biggest difficulties; I'm pretty much somewhere between freestyling it and copying it stroke-for-stroke from the references at the moment.
I do want to be able to do the types of expressions at the top as well – in addition to the more traditional manga-style, not instead of – because I think they look quite cool and are, theoretically, simpler and quicker to draw. They're also super expressive because they're so stylised.
I'm stating the obvious. My brain is fried. I'll go to bed now. I have a medium-sized project planned for next week (unrelated to drawing) that I'd love to get started on tomorrow!
Also: I want to try a bit more with colour soon. I know I'm not exactly perfect on the basics so far, but I think adding colour can add a lot to the drawings, and my motivation too – as seen in yesterday's drawings.
Day 18
2026-02-23, 22:22
I'm (almost) back to my regular energy! I got a lot better since yesterday and I was able to do things like go shopping, clean my flat, and even start another project which I may reveal soon if things go well... and of course, I drew again. And I'm really happy about today's attempt!!
I had a specific pose in mind for a character I wanted to draw today, and I ended up making her the sole focus of today. In fact, I spent close to two hours drawing her, but that also includes small (thinking) breaks and 'research'. I started with a sketch (top right) to preview my vision, and that did indeed help when drawing. In fact, I could even have referred back to it more than I ended up doing.
For this drawing, I referred to the manga drawing book a lot, though not because I copied a character from it (there's no character like this in the book). Rather, I tried to find references for positioning and stylistic inspiration (in other words, the outfit). It sort of helped. Although, I did mirror an approach to hair I saw in the book, and I gotta say: I really like how her hair turned out! Looking back on it, maybe some more thicker, outline-defining lines would have helped sell the vision of layers, but hey, it's all a learning experience.
She didn't turn out exactly the way I had first envisioned; I first wanted to draw her wearing a skirt, for instance, but I hadn't practiced that before, so I went with jeans instead. I wasn't entirely sure about the top either. Not wanting to copy the drawing from a few days ago verbatim, I went with a long-sleeve shirt instead of a tee. Creative, I know! But it did allow me to try my hand at cloth folds. I had the idea that, on her left arm, the sleeve should fall down because her arm was lifted up. I quite like the way the folds look. Though writing this now, I realise why the right arm looks so odd. It looks like the right arm is nude, but that might be because the folds on the left arm don't look like a long sleeve (there's not enough excess material), so my mind expects a shorter sleeve on the right arm too, which I didn't draw in, thinking it would go all the way up to the right hand because it's supposed to be a long sleeve. Oh well, something to keep in mind for next time.
The winking was actually not intended at all, either. It's just that while erasing and re-drawing, I noticed that the upper eyelid looked nice on its own – like a winking eye, in fact. So I made it a feature.
Also: while I do have other coloured pencils, I only have the one fancy green colour pencil, so that's the only colour I'm currently using. I would like to use more colour to spice up these drawings. However, I do like the side effect of all my characters having bright green eyes. Kinda neat.
Can I just say... it's so cool that, two and a half weeks into this challenge, I can already draw characters like this. Never in my life did I expect I would be able to draw like this. I never really was able to go beyond stick figures and unshapely humanoid-ish characters, although I guess I didn't try very hard. Seeing what I am able to produce now is insane.
Day 19
2026-02-24, 21:40
Today's drawing is halfway between original and derivative. I also didn't really 'finish' it? It's derivative because I pretty much ended up drawing yesterday's girl again, but it's original because I put her in a completely different pose and did that without a direct reference!
I'm pretty happy with this. It's a bit odd that her trousers look so detailed compared to her shirt, but I think that's kind of in the nature of that type of clothing. The shirt is basic, but jeans are inherently more complex, given their stitching. I took a photo of the trousers I'm wearing right now to use as reference for those details, and I think it turned out not half bad.
Also, hands. They're so difficult to pose. I initally wanted her to sort of wrap her left hand around her thigh, but after a couple of tries, I gave up completely because I could not draw a shapely hand for the life of me. In fact, I ended up skipping the hands entirely today. Definitely something I'll have to revisit.
I also realise now that her head looks pretty much exactly 90 degrees turned around, which is unnatural. In retrospect, I should have erased some of the jaw line at the very least. Oh well!
To be honest, half the reason I didn't finish this today was because I still have other stuff to do, and it's getting late, lol. But there's also no point obsessing over details, especially when I barely know how to draw these details. In the coming days, I should try to do more to learn those. Hands, for example...
Day 20: those weird things at the ends of my arms
2026-02-25, 21:51
I dared tackle the big topic today that I've been avoiding for weeks. Hands.
I followed this mikeymegamega tutorial on drawing hands and just followed along trying to draw all of the hands he drew. They didn't turn out perfectly and that, naturally, did feel a little discouraging. However, just like with the heads, it gave me pretty good baseline for how to view hands as a drawing subject (like what to pay attention to and whatnot), and I feel better prepared for drawing hands now than I did before. Very cool!
In the beginning of the video, he said "You probably hit a stage where you're hiding the hands behind the back of your character" and OOF... that hit hard tbh
Hand 1 has pretty thick fingers, but it was my first try so whatever. Hand 4's fingers might be a little short? I definitely fucked up hand 5, but that was mostly due to not leaving enough space on the A5 sheet, so I had to squish it into the top right corner, and I ended up drawing the fingers too short as a result. I think hand 3 is my favourite, especially after drawing in thicker 'final' lines (which I only did for hands 3 and 4).
Went pretty well! No idea what I'll do tomorrow, but it's going well. If I'm really daring, I'll do another character (that'll hopefully take less time...) and try to add some cool hands. Jazz hands would be funny ngl
Oh a bit of a tangent: I do have to say that I felt a little down today. There were a lot of good things today: I'm virtually sickness-free, I wore a cool new outfit and felt very gen-Z-internety in it so I listened to I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi on the bus and felt even more in my element, and the weather was super nice today as well. I even met up with friends!
But I wanted to show one of my friends, the artsy one, my drawings today. I don't see her super often so I wanted to use the chance. I was actually really excited to do so because obviously I've put quite a lot of time into these drawings and I'm quite proud of especially what I've managed to accomplish in this short time, and I like sharing that. But she wanted me to show them off while we were busy doing something else entirely, to which I told her something along the lines of "I'll show you when we have the time for it" because I wanted to take my time with that rather than rush through the sketches. I ended up not being able to show her my drawings, but she still gave me the advice to study anatomy.
That felt pretty discouraging. She hadn't even seen my drawings, doesn't know what or how I am drawing, and gave me pretty boilerplate advice as a result. I guess it's not too dramatic, but it still didn't feel great.
But I'm fine now. In fact, I just looked at my drawing from two days ago again, and that made me feel really good. I'm so happy about that drawing in particular and my progress in general. I created these drawings!! How cool is that?? AI images could never evoke the joy in me that I am feeling when I look at my sketches.
Day 21: we'll see creation come undone
2026-02-26, 22:21
I tried my new hand drawing technique today, and I used a very prominent hand for reference: the hand on the cover of Porter Robinson's Worlds!
This was actually surprisingly fun and easy to draw, now that I had a rough guide for how to draw hands. I started with a circle, drew in the small circles for the finger positions, drew a guide line for the max finger length (about the same as the palm's length), and then tried to follow the finger shapes from the reference. Outer finger edges (where the bone is) are straighter, inner edges (where the skin is softer) are rounder. It was surprisingly trivial. I am aware I picked a fairly simple pose to draw, and that was definitely on purpose, but I can't imagine other poses to be much more difficult if you have a reference.
Just the hand wasn't really enough for an entire day's worth of drawing, so I had the idea to draw Po-Uta (Porter's Vocaloid mascot)! I stuck to their face (and not their hand lol), and it turned out quite nice! I gave them bright green eyes, of course, because that's the one colour pencil I currently have, and it actually kind of serves as a signature detail for my drawings, in a way.
I fucked up the hair lol. It's not that bad, but I clearly had no idea what I was doing, and just freestyled the curls. I think tracing over some major lines with the fineliner helped a bit because it visually marked off hair sections, and it doesn't look that bad.
Oh yeah, and I dared trace over the drawings with a fineliner this time! I did it for the hand primarily because having the final traces in looks way better than leaving the sketch in its construction stage, and then I just figured I'd do the same for Po-Uta. Filling in their irises half-black may not have been the smartest move, but from a slight distance, it actually looks pretty good.
I also want to note that I was happily drawing this when a realisation suddenly dawned on me: I was drawing fan art. Me! Fan art! That's something I've only ever seen skilled people do on the internet!
...it's kinda cool that I can do this now too.
And if you're wondering: Nurture is my favourite Porter Robinson album, but I do like all eras. I used to listen to Unison (and the Knife Party Remix) a lot back in the day, and Particle Arts (the Virtual Self song) used to be my most-played song on Spotify for a long time. Porter is also the only artist I've seen live (plus his support acts)! I went to his Nurture show in Berlin (with support from James Ivy) and his SMILE! :D tour stop in Hamburg (with support from underscores!!!). The crowd didn't seem to feel underscores' tracks as much as I did, which was a big shame, and I felt a bit awkward going hard just on my own, but I still really enjoyed being able to see her live as well.
Day 22
2026-02-27, 23:03
Today was another one of those days where I found it super difficult to get started and even lightly considered skipping, but once I did get started, I had immense fun and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I don't know why this is so common with me...
Most days, I come up with my drawing idea only shortly before I actually draw, which has pretty much exclusively been in the evening. Today was no exception. I had the idea of drawing a girl looking at her right cyborg arm with a somewhat shocked and not necessarily cheery expression like a lot of the previous ones I drew. The implication should be that she lost her organic arm and had it replaced with a mechanical part without her knowledge. No, that doesn't sound familiar at all...
I didn't quite nail the perspective/orientation I had aimed for, but I think it actually still turned out super cool. Again, I drew this with no direct reference! I looked up some inspirations for the hair, right arm, and track pants (which are clearly Adidas-lookalikes).
I think her outfit is cool. I didn't want to do the same long-sleeve-jeans combo again, and I ultimately wanted to draw this girl to look like a distinctly different person from the previous ones. I picked a sporty outfit, the idea for which I somewhat took from a drawing of mine I drew before I begun my drawing challenge, but after the sketch that kicked off my drawing arc. I didn't exactly re-draw her, like I did with my day 1 drawing, but let's just say I did because that's kinda cool.
The lines marking the collarbones are a very late addition to the drawing, but I really like them as a small extra detail. Kind of shows to me that I'm trying to apply my existing knowledge while also still adding new things, in small steps. She also got an earring, for instance. A simple one, but it adds character.
I also used this drawing to try drawing a hand on a person! And it kind of worked out. It looks a little wonky still, but better than the ones before. I'm also partially blaming the small size at which I drew the hand, so small mistakes have a bigger impact than on a larger hand.
Some other noteworthy things include the hair, where I picked a hairstyle that exposes the forehead. I was inspired by yesterday's Po-Uta, who also had a hairstyle that didn't cover up the forehead. I also added an eyelid line beneath her left eye, which ended up a little too thick, but still does its job of portraying the shock in her face. Kind of like she woke up from a coma or hibernation. Wait...
This girl's not meant to be Laura, just so we're clear. I think. I might change my mind on this. In fact, I should give names to the characters I draw. That would be a cute detail.
Oh! I just realised that my manga drawing book has a page on cyborgs! that would have come in handy...
Day 23
2026-02-28, 22:14
Today, I decided I want to finally learn to draw skirts. I wanted to do this because it allows me to bring more variety into my characters' outfits, as opposed to having them all wear jeans or something. I picked out a video for this, though at that time I was listening to Safety! by acloudyskye, a 10-minute song. I didn't want to pause in the middle of it, so I found a hand on Pinterest and practiced drawing that first. Turned out alright!
I watched another mikeymegamega video for the skirts, though I pretty much only stayed for the first skirt and then bailed. I also took notice of a comment that said that the first skirt was drawn too low, so I took this into consideration for my drawings. I started with skirts only, though for the third one (in the bottom left), I drew a body and then attempted to make it wear a skirt. I had some issues with the perspective, and although it looks quite nice now (I'd say), it looks like it's facing towards the right, when I initially tried to make it face left. No big deal though.
I really like how the third skirt turned out! So floaty, just how I had hoped it would turn out.
I also tried drawing Jaron again, but kind of in the style that I've been going for lately. It turned out fairly okay. I think the back of his head really changed his appearance and cute-ified him. I also drew the hands too low compared to the cover photo I used as reference. Still, I think this looks cool. I was also able to make some use of my new hand drawing techniques to make these ones look like actual hands. The right hand (on the left of the drawing) still proved a bit challenging, but it looks way better than my previous try.
Although I have to say that my previous attempt almost looked more like the guy... I guess it makes sense because I tried copying him exactly back then, whereas this time I mostly went on my own and only checked the reference for posing and some minor details, like the ear shape.
On another note, I actually have a really cool idea for a drawing that I want to do soon, but for that I need some more supplies – namely, larger paper. It'll be a bigger thing, so I'm saving it up, though that means I need to fill the time until then with other drawings. Drawings that won't require me to expand the scope of the big drawing... you'll see soon, I hope.
Day 24: the rest of the damn body
2026-03-01, 22:33
So I played Ratchet & Clank 3 earlier, and on Qwark's Hideout, you're prompted to "Send Clank to the Underground Caverns". I thought this sounded really funny, so I tried sketching a sad-looking Clank walking away. For this, I used a still from the final cutscene of Ratchet & Clank (2002) where he walks away with a broken arm. I ended up drawing his torso way too long, but oh well.
I also noticed that Insomniac gave Clank a unique walking animation that really shows that he's a mechanical robot and not a squishie. He pretty much lifts one foot at a time while keeping them level to the ground, not rolling his feet as there is no flexible part to roll. In theory that kind of animation is to be expected, especially of Insomniac, but I had just never noticed that before, and I thought that was pretty neat.
Something I wanted to practice today was lower bodies! I have put a lot of focus on the head (face especially) and torso lately, and I do want to be able to draw complete bodies. I started with the two pairs of legs in the top left, which I drew with no tutorial watched prior. I picked a random image on Pinterest as reference for this, though that image only really covered the feet, so I improvised on the legs and hips.
Then, I followed up by watching this mikeymegamega tutorial on drawing legs. I didn't watch it all the way through; he does some speed sketches at the end – I may watch these tomorrow, as I am interested in the perspectives he is drawing there. Still, I followed along for the first two pairs of legs, and I think they turned out pretty neat. Even gave the first one a green pair of socks. That one is REALLY V-tuber-like, which he also admitted to in the video, but I figured I should just follow along as practice. Can't hurt, after all.
While the technique is very much appreciated and I think it'll help me immensely going forward, I'm quite glad to see that I evidently wasn't too far off with my sketches before watching the tutorial. I kind of already knew where I had to put curves and how the legs should look. Still, the ones I drew post-tutorial look quite a lot better.
I definitely need more practice, but: in theory I have now practiced all parts of the body, and I am now able to draw a complete human being! And I will! Soon.
Day 25
2026-03-02, 22:36
Today, I had some fun shopping and got myself some art supplies. I bought an A4 pad for larger sketches (all my sketches have been on A5 and sometimes A6 thus far), a few more of those cool coloured pencils, a new sharpener (my previous one doesn't work properly anymore), and I also bought a folder to put all my sketches into! They've kind of just been floating around my desk so far, and I wanted to give them a proper spot to keep them safe, so now I have that sorted too.
Today, I did as I said yesterday (for a change) and drew the remaining legs from mikeymegamega's video. It was quite fun and I could notice myself already realising how to draw the curves more or less appropriately, though I don't yet have a proper understanding for how legs should look from different perspectives – hence the practice. I also kept drawing the knees too slim, which resulted in some odd dimensions. I tried fixing that, but they still look a bit odd.
I also deviated from mikeymegamega in that I chose to draw my legs wearing socks instead of high heels. I figured I should practice that, since I'll probably draw flat feet more frequently than feet in high heels. This is probably most noticeable in the pair of legs on the right, where the feet are much more rounded off compared to how mikeymegamega drew them.
I also wanted to practice drawing the upper half of a character again, just so I don't forget. Plus, I wanted to use my new coloured pencils. In order to do both, I had the idea of drawing a character with a tie, so that I'd have a good use for red.
I drew this character while referencing one from the manga drawing book, but I again wasn't following the reference too closely! I tried to do my own thing as much as I could. For instance, I pretty much did the eyes all by myself, I added the ear (with the signature hook I have for some reason grown accustomed to drawing), and the tie wasn't part of the reference at all, so I added that loosely based on random reference images on Pinterest of characters wearing ties.
The colours really pop, I gotta say. Those pencils have, if I understand it correctly, oil-based leads which give a really vibrant and consistent finish. They look superb. I also do like giving my drawings only little colour to have it really stand out, though I may try to do more colour eventually. I got a brown pencil for hair too, so we'll see.
I 100% only drew a tie to use the red pencil, though I did stick with green for the eyes. I like that consistent detail. On the other hand, I would like some change too, so I'll probably draw future characters with other eye colours. I bought a vibrant blue pencil too which I look forward to using.
Also: after tracing all the lines with a fineliner, I for once erased the construction lines, and I was honestly kind of surprised by how nice the drawing looked once I did that. I've left them in all my drawings so far because I thought it looked cool to see how I got to the finished drawing and whatnot, but the clean look of the fineliner traces and the colour makes me reconsider that choice.
I really gotta give my characters names. I've been thinking about that for a while now, and I feel that day 18 girl is definitely Emilia, and day 13 girl may be Elizabeth.
I'm still struggling with whether or not day 22 girl is Laura or not.