Oh, god, it's October again. You all know what that means... My yearly October art challenge that I'm going to struggle to finish on time! 😂😭
This year, I've decided that I want to focus on properly understanding art fundamentals, honing my art skills, and learning some rendering techniques. I've been feeling stagnant in terms of my art skill lately, and I figured the best ways to overcome it are to just have a firmer grasp on the basics and to learn new things.
I've been working on a few requests for some people in my pursuit of these goals. A lot of my focus has been on drawing heads and faces from the front, noses, and more natural-looking hair.
As is custom with my art challenges, I have to start with a self-portrait:
This was a result of studying curls. I was looking at these tutorials for reference mostly. My hair is naturally curly, though I did have a period in my youth when I thought my hair looked terrible compared to straight hair. You can blame Filipino commercials spreading that propaganda. 😑
Honestly, I haven't felt as comfortable with a self-portrait up until this one. It best resonates with my actual everyday appearance compared to my previous ones. The self-portrait I made in 2024 was supposed to have a more realistic hairstyle. It did, but the hair wasn't curly enough to my liking; it felt like straight hair but bouncier.
In addition, sometime earlier this year (March or April, I think), I started to feel like my 2024 self-portrait didn't properly reflect my identity. This felt especially true when I further associated the look to my nameless, self-insert Wayfinder. She has her own personality and backstory in my headcanons, even if we do mirror in some aspects. I like to self-insert in OCs like my Wayfinder, but I also pride myself in being a separate individual to them. I want my OCs to be their own people, you know?
Later this year, I'm planning to make a proper full body portrait of my avatar, featuring this hairstyle. It should have been done earlier in September but I got caught up on the Tactics remaster hype. 😅
Anyway, this is my first entry for Studytober 2025. Will I be able to complete the challenge on time this year? I sure hell hope so! As always, you can find the tag for this year's art challenge under the Crossover Map on the right side of the website. 👉
