Art Explosion Week 26: Vintage Woman : Tandang Sora

Hello everyone!

I am back again in joining different art contests (and even poetry making contests) here on steemit. According to what typical Filipinos would say this is para sa bayan or for motherland in English. That means, I will be working on different artworks. I would also try to use different mediums when I have time. winks

By the way, here is my entry for @juliakponsford's Art Explosion Week 26 with the theme Vintage.

Why Woman?

A woman for years had been known to be very vulnerable to her surroundings. She has been subject to criticism even though she is not at fault. Throughout the history, she has been viewed week and very dependent. A woman is flawed but is still loved.

But not all women are like that. Some women in history stood out for fighting for what they believe. Take this Filipino woman as a general example.

In Philippine History, there had been women who fought in wars against Spanish, Americans, and even Japanese despite how short the period Philippines was colonized.

One remarkable woman that is dear to me is Tandang Sora. She was known to take custody of wounded Filipino soldiers and take care of them.

I have no details as to how she looked when she was younger so I assumed that her appearance is beautiful as her kindness radiates in her outward appearance.

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For you to appreciate more about this work, I will show you how I came up with it.

Materials

Drawing book
Colored pencils (Prismacolor and Colleen)
Colored Markers (Various Brands)

Process

The first thing I usually do is to draw the first. I started with make a somewhat circular shape and then add curves on it depending on the angle.

Since she is giving a sideview appearance, I made her shape like the shape of a piece of bread.

After coming up with a shape for the face, I divided the face into four parts. I added few strands of hair so that I could determine unto which direction it would be.

For the eyes, I would finalized it in awhile. The eyebrow is shaped into a diagonal line. I connected the left brow and the nose line making it look like a number seven. The lips will then be carefully shaped later with colored pencils.

After few minutes of deciding how she would look, I started sketching her face. I decided it to focus on the upper portion of torso so that she would look modest. Her features would also be strong to represent how willfull Tandang Sora is.

I added few more details on the clothes and face.

Colored pencils time!
I used various hues of flesh for the face. I used a darker shade of brown for the outline of the face. I tend to blend the colors so that it would look softer.

The important thing about portrait is that when you used colored pencils or even other mediums is that you try to use the lighter color first to easily avoid errors committed while working on your art piece.

Because I was satisfied with the portrait, I added few more details by using colored pens. I used the brush side of it because the pen side gives a bit hard or rough feeling.

Despite the horrors that occured during the Spanish colonization in the Philippines, I wanted our muse to bloom. I used bright colors for her clothes and added flowers on her head and dress. Since she is a Philippine hero, she deserves such recognition.

I added few more details at the back such as feather pen, letters, and a photograph to remind the old ways on how people communicate.

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If I could turn back the time, I want to return to this vintage era. I wanted to be strong, decisive, and willfull like Tandang Sora.

Do you have anyone in mind that is from the past that you wish to become in the future? Comment down below so that we could interact.

Thanks!

-Gail