Digital Painting of Maria Clara

Maria Clara

Today, I want to share to you my digital painting of "Maria Clara". Maria Clara is a character of Jose Rizal's Novel titled "Noli Me Tangere". Currently, GMA 7, a big Television Network in the Philippines is airing there hit TV series adopted from the said novel. It is entitled, "Maria Clara at Ibarra."

This work is absolutely a fan art because the characters of the historical novel are portrayed very well by the actors of this program. Maria Clara is played by no less than the Asias Limitless Star, Julie Anne San Jose! Her craft in singing is already applaudable, and her acting prowess is also vividly shown in this series. So, yes I am a fan!

What I Use

In creating this artwork, I use my 6th Generation iPAD that I got last 2019, it is very ancient but it still manages to do the work in creating digital artworks. With this iPad is my 1st generation Apple Pencil.

By the way, I used procreate. An IOS exclusive drawing program which I fell in love with after the first few uses. It is very user-friendly and it helps you create beautiful digital works.

My Painting Process

I will walk you through with my own digital process which works for me. I do not know if this also works with other artists but I think we have our own technique and styles in creating our masterpieces!

The first few parts will always be unpredictable. Here I just make an oval shape using peach and then use white to have a draft of the eyes. Then on the next process, I drafted the location of the nose, mouth and eye brows. I also started the hair here.

Here, I added the base color for the lips, the ears and earrings and roughly painted the hair. I also added the neck and did some shading and smudging there.

After that I worked on the visible parts of the shoulders. Well, I do not know how to describe it because the outfit of traditional people in the Philippines before were super big that it covers their whole body. Then I also added here her necklaces and inner white clothes. Then I finished the base of the whole Filipiana costume of Maria Clara.

Then, I went back to the face to work on the eyes. I started adding details of the right side eye such as the color of the eyes, eyelashes, and eyelids. I also added shades under the eyebrows. After that, I worked on the eyebrows. I find this part hard because I do not have the appropriate brush for hairs.

Next, I fixed the lips of Maria Clara. I used dark red for the line created from the meeting of the upper and lower lips. I also added a darker red to shape more the lips and then added some highlights to make it more realistic. After working with the lips, I then proceeded to the nose. It may look very easy to do but I spent a couple of minutes here.

Then, I worked on the other eye. What is good about drawing digitally is that you can adjust or move the location of everything with the use of lasso tool without going over with the whole process. That feature would save you a lot of time. On the next picture, I started working with shading, highlighting, and detailing of the hair. I just used the free brush of the application to make it look like a real strand of the hair.

When I was satisfied how the face and hair turned out, I proceeded to add the necklace. I would say that I need to keep practicing to be able to make it more convincing. I also started to add more details on the costume. Detailing is fun to do to others but I am different - you know, I haven't mastered patience yet.

I went back to add small details of the earings but it was very hard but I really like how the medallion turned out in Maria Clara's necklace. I also added more details on the dress. Finally, I added some touches in the background.

The Whole Process

I uploaded an audioless video timelapse of the whole process. It took me three hours and more to finish this fan art. I hope you would have time to watch it.

The Reference

The photo on the left is the reference of this digital painting in Pinterest. I know I have not copied it perfectly but I am really happy that I was able to do this because as what I have said in my previous art blog, I have been idle for a while.

The Author

Christian Yocte is a public school teacher in the Philippines who also loves other interesting things like making digital and traditional art, exploring new places and destinations, writing journals and musings, and a lot more. He currently resides in Cebu, Philippines. Join him as he ventures different places, shares his masterpieces, and makes his life meaningful.
If you like this post please give it an upvote, a nice comment, and a reblog. It would also be great if you follow him to keep posted on his next post like this.