CirrusExBloom

Hello :)

This blog mainly serves as a personal Creative & Progress Diary, in learning to draw for a specific goal.

Expect WIPs, mood boards & personal notes. A lot of the things here are not meant to be taken as reference, as this page largely serves as a repository of my work and a way to 'rubber ducky' my mistakes. But that's not my only intent behind this page.

About me:

I'm 22, have AuDHD, and additionally come from an eclectic background which has made it difficult for me to fit into most groups of people.

I have way too many interests to list, I like to dabble in a little bit of everything,love to engage in any sort of interest/topic that's rich in content and worldbuilding depth, and really enjoy listening to people speak about anything they are passionate in.

If I had to describe myself with a single term I'd say I can be very sentimental; I'm moved a lot by scents, kindness and obsessed with experiences-- both by the colorful spectrum of sensations they are composed of, and their hypostatic nature metaphysically.

The other reason I created this page is because I'd really like to socialize and communicate with any new friends. Truth is I've been kind of isolated and closed off for years, having trouble finding people irl that I feel I can connect to (not from a lack of trying) and having kept to myself for too long, so while I don't really care for any online traction I figured this is better than just pouring my thoughts into a void.

Anyways thank you for reading and if you ever feel inclined to reach out for any reason, please don't feel shy or hesitate to do so:)

Project #2 Heads | 1.Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach 28/11/25 - 9/1/26

Following my decision to create a small reference pool of recreations of my favorite designs, first up the bat was Ichigo

Regarding the front profile, I was super super excited with how it came out (especially considering how uncanny the eyes looked in the draft layer). Even today I have little to no complaints with it-- the rendering is amazing and it really taught me tons about the shapes of shadows on and around the hair.

The Side Profile was a bit more of a hot mess, though I'm still happy with it, especially as a standalone design (kinda looks like a hybrid between Ichigo and Kaworu). I had obsessed over it for weeks trying to fix micro details on the final result compared to the sketch (and i think it shows) but it still looks like a bobble head. Initially I had suspected there was something messing up the size proportions with the hair volume, but now I realize that trying to transpose the head tilt from the reference needlessly complicated things like the nose, chin and ramus projection. Still, I think making the eye smaller and fixing the jaw would go a long way, but even though the hair doesn't seem off too much height wise, it feels like it's screwing up the eye and forehead height. It probably has to do with some sort of flattening of the face which is an issue that appears later on too.

Would appreciate any comment/contribution on what went wrong from a pair of fresh eyes .

I had decided that the best starting direction in my self-taught journey would be to learn basic character design, so I made the choice that my second project should be a small collection of Front and Side profiles of my favorite designs to be able to use as reference and practice actual applications of the standard face model proportions.

So the first step was to try and make digital versions of the old notes i had from my default facial proportion class and use another reference from the internet to humanise it a bit more. The notes on the front profile are merely just personal scribbles not meant to be taken seriously. With that, i had a base reference to use moving on.

Project #1 - November 4 2025 ~ November 16 2025

This was the first ever real learning project I attempted digitally, I was super proud about how it came out and still am today.

Basically I tried to use the basics of face symmetry/proportions and apply them not only digitally, but also to create something other than the simple androgynous reference values i had grinded out. The character is heavily inspired by Charlotte Pudding from the series One Piece, but the goal was always aiming for this to be my "own thing" too and not just a simple copy.

The different attempts are all me branching out on things that were new to me at the time-- Inking, Values, Line Weight, New Brushes, Incorporating Layers e.t.c

This was one of my most valuable projects learning-wise since I acquired a ton of new knowledge both software, hardware and drawing wise from actual experience rather than grueling theory and repetition. Still looking back I also recognize a lot of the growth I've made since then, for example the most rendered version of this has like 12(!!) layers that are all a hierarchical mess as i had no clue what I was doing.

Month 1 - 28/6/2025 ~ 8/8/2025

Hey, this is my first post here. This batch of drawings was mainly done as excited applied doodle practice with my first ever (and current) drawing tablet, a Wacom Intuos Medium Pro.

For context, my background before this was just Lesson 1 of the Draw A Box Course (That I dropped after finishing the grueling 250 boxes challenge), and 1.5 years at a local Drawing/Manga course (1 point Perspective, Proportions, Basic Anatomy, Paneling e.t.c).

Even though I hadn't embarked on any serious project at this point and mainly just kept grinding fundamentals on pencils & paper, I find it funny that I can learn new things by looking back in retrospect even on doodles like these. It has made me realize that i was much more bold and effective in tackling tasks that i found too ambitious at the time than I am now, and that i should stop focusing on perfectionism in my current works since all of this is to reach a goal-- so the end product/goal being polished should matter, not the training arbitrary pieces.