Just on Friday (5 Jul), I read a simple but amazing book called Momo by Michael Ende.

It’s about an orphaned girl named Momo, who is blessed with an extraordinary gift for listening standing up against the time thieves who are also taking away the joy and happiness of the town.

Inspired by some of the beautiful descriptions, I decided to draw some of them myself.

[Though I had noted that the book has all rights reserved, meaning that whatever that is related to must have permission from the author/artist/translator. They can have my interpretation of the book if they want.]

So first, I gather information on Momo’s appearance and listed them down so that I can refer to them at any time.

Then on the right, I decided to search up a normal 10 years old body proportion as a reference

In the middle, I drew two variations of Momo, each with a slight change.

At the bottom, I tried out different angles for her head and torso, giving myself a better understanding and consolidate my interpretation of the character

At the next page, I drew a mini overall image of the scene I’ve imagined while enlarging the body posture to get a better sense of how it would look like and whether it would work.

In the end, I chose to draw the scene in Page 165, because…

• It is a scene right in the middle of the book, which means it captures the essence of the storyline which is related to time
• Cassiopeia, undoubtedly an important character in the book is in the scene
• Momo is shown in a full-body pose, allowing all the details to be properly shown, thus showing my understanding of the character

After choosing the scene, I drew it onto an A4 while adding the other details like the numerous clocks described in the book.

I used a blue colour pencil instead of a regular lead pencil because not only does lead pencil smudges, it also dirties the paint while in contact with water. I had to refer to multiple references at times to grasp the different clocks I plan to include.

After getting a rough layout of the drawing, I used my drawing pens to outline the objects. I used different pen widths to differentiate the distance between the object, to set the objects apart from each other as well as highlight important features of the drawing. For the thinnest pen, I used it for light shading to create depth within the drawing.

I then erased the colour pencils and set up the workspace to get started with watercolour.

I started with the background first with a light yellow/orange colour to fill up the white space before moving onto the back of the grandfather clock on the left. I then did the rest of the clocks. After adding the wooden grains on some of the clocks, I decided to add some blue to the painting to indicate glass storage. I finally moved onto the main characters of the drawing. As I felt that Momo was not popping up enough so I outline her with purple watercolour (as it is the complementary colour of yellow/orange)

Overall, I am very satisfied with the drawing, though if possible, I would like to redo the inking of the circular clocks as they are a little wonky.

My favourite part of the drawing is definitely Momo and Cassiopeia as I felt that they really managed to stand out within the drawing (though this is probably because I left them the last and managed to improve/brush up my painting skills)

It has been so long since I’ve last drawn/posted my drawings!

As it’s now summer break, and there isn’t anything major/holiday away trips going on, I can finally find the time to draw!

So Jun 30, I was reorganising my drawers and shelves (something long overdue..) when I found my old folio of drawings!

Looking back at my artworks, I decided to redo some of them, especially those that contain a human figure.

At the top right, I drew a small overall image of how I would like the character to look like, just vague enough to plan out her personality and looks.

Then around the small drawing, I begin sketching out different poses which the character may take.

As I personally like the one on the bottom right, especially the feet, I decided to draw on a separate piece of paper to enlarge and ink it.

While doing so, I made some changes from the original draft

• I decided to ditch the wings and go for curving lines (IDK what it’s called) as I felt that the top part of the drawing would be too heavy.
• I changed the pose of the right hand from saluting to combing through her hair as I felt that the previous one is inappropriate for the stance she is in
• I had the left side of the drawing cut out using both scissors (for the overall shape) and a crafting knife (for finer details and the white spaces). I thought it’d be cooler to have text featured as half of the background to make the character stand out more.

What I would like to improve:

• I find that the waist part was looking too small, perhaps widen it more?
• The composition of the work – The character should be placed further to the right as there is a lot of unnecessary white space.