My childhood: a 3-piece series

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

Hi, everyone! I’ve been trying to spend my time wisely this holiday season and drawing as much as I can before my classes resume.

As I was doing my christmas illustration, I came up with the idea of drawing my childhood. My childhood probably isn’t as unique as others might have but it’s really special to me. And as I was creating my first illustration (seen below), I can’t help but get myself really immersed and very exicited. Perhaps it was nostalgia doing its thing. It took me lesser time to finish the piece compared to my previous works. I really wanted to make a 3-piece illustration series out of this. I wanted to paint my childhood joys and experiences growing up in a small rural town in the Philippines, playing in the mud and rain and all that fun stuff.

I’m posting it here in order to impose accountability on myself. If I didn’t, I might just chuck this project in the back burner. So... I hope you like the first installment. Two are still coming. Thank you so much.

[Alyssa Evans]

I love the personality in this piece! My mom grew up in the Philippines, so the rain in the picture just reminds me of all the times she talked about the rainy season growing up! Especially love the expressions of the characters and the big ol' leaf the girl in the middle is holding. I can't wait to see the next two installments!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@alyssa-evans thanks! I’m really happy you like it. I’ll try to make it as faithful to its source as I can remember. That leaf she’s holding is a Gabi leaf or Taro in english. We sometimes grad one of those when it starts to rain and we forgot our umbrellas at home. Sometimes, the weather in the Philippines is just so unpredictable. It can be sunny one second and rainy the next. LOL. I hope you can visit Philippines sometime.

[Miriam]

I like this piece, too. It might not seem unique to you, but it's interesting for people who grew up in another place and culture to see what it was like there.

You've also added excitement to the piece with the diagonal line of the path hurrying the characters along, and the exaggerated poses.

A couple of suggestions:
For the character on the right, you might want to add a little shadow or something under her shoe where it's touching the path to help "ground" her. The other two (& her other foot) look great mid-air.
Another little thing is--I'm seeing a tiny tangent with the rain falling on the middle of her head. It lines up with the corner of the roof behind her and makes it slightly confusing how far away the house is supposed to be & whether it's supposed to be dripping from the roof. You may also want to consider moving the Taro leaf over just a bit to keep it from touching the edge of the roof on the other side.

You did a great job creating a story with the different characters' expressions and reactions to the rain. I like how the focus is on the girl who is enjoying it.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@miriam hi! i’m really glad you like it. Thank you so much on the suggestions. I’m kinda hesitant in going back and changing it, seeing that i’m already working on a new piece. But I think I might just do what you said if I have time tonight. Thank you again!

[ThisKateCreates]

It's a beautiful piece! Can't wait to see the rest!

[demotlj]

I especially love the three kids’ different attitudes toward the rain. You’ve captured a lot of unique personality differences just in this simple scene and it makes me want to know the family more.

[Kristin Wauson]

This is fantastic! I love how the taller girl is enjoying the rain while the other two are trying to run from it. I get so excited too doing pieces inspired by childhood. And I think everyone thinks their childhood was not interesting because it is familiar to them. Everyone who had a different childhood will see it differently.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@kristin-wauson thank you!️

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

Hi, everyone! Per request, i found the timt to do the correstions on the piece. Thanks @Miriam! I hope you guys like this new piece

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

I’m currently working on this one but I’m not feeling it though. I think the colors are too vibrant and I really don’t care for the bacground. I’ll probably redo it all over.

[Aaron Pierce]

I really love it. The colors and designs are so much fun and easily readable. You're definitely doing a great job here.

The only thing that stood out was the background, like you mentioned, on the second picture. It just doesn't feel as refined and concrete as the first background. I do like the colors and lighting lower down. It makes it feel like the sun is reflecting off of the wet greenage and water. I like that a lot.

Can't wait to see everything finished up and clear. It's looking great.

-Aaron

[NessIllustration]

The house seems really big compared to the kids... I'm not sure you really need it there too, even if the kids are only 10-20 meters from the house it would be probable that the nature would hide it, or that it would be out of frame to the right. Love your characters and their expressions! This series is incredibly charming and rings true (probably because it is!)

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@nessillustration @Aaron-Pierce i’ll definitely change the house and the background. I just don’t like the over all color. Thanks for the input!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

Hi, everybody! I just finished a sketch for another installment. I really wasn’t feeling that previous piece so I decided instead to just move on to a new one. Perhaps, I’ll return to it when I have time in the future. Right now, we have this sketch. My brother and I when, we were younger, used to watch a lot of wrestling tv programs and as expected from any impressionable kid, we tried to copy them. We weren’t really that rough though. The worst injury we both got were cuts on our eyebrows (yes, both of us). Luckily, we had scotch tape when my brother cut his and my mother immediately taped the skin back together. Unfortunately for my turn, we ran out and up to this day I carry that scar on my eyebrow. True story Perhaps we can revisit that in the future LOL.

Anyway, please let me know if you have any suggestions on this piece guys. It’s still really rough but it’s great to receive input this early. Thank you