Cherry Returns!!
It’s officially been TWO whole years since my last drawing of my character Cherry, who I finally decided to make a proper digital illustration of again. I actually gave her a redesign in my sketchbook a long time ago now, and I was waiting till the day I finally drew her digitally with the changes! Mostly, it was just her haircut that changed, which is such an upgrade from her last one honestly.
This drawing was inspired by this awesome picture of Judy from Cyberpunk 2077 that I found on Pinterest. Something about this picture, specifically the moody club vibes, definitely reminded me of Cherry. So finally after two whole years of neglect, I drew her again and used the picture as my main reference and inspiration! Cherry honestly looks like she matured a lot in this new drawing. To me, she seems stronger, happier, but just as fun as ever. Which was unintentional, but now looking at the drawing again, I think it definitely shows growth in her character. After going through so much, Cherry is finally figuring herself out and healing from the past. One thing I always loved about her was that she never let the crazy shit going on in her life stop her from having fun. As you can probably tell, Cherry loves to party, go out with her gals, and dress up to the occasion. She’s definitely the epitome of “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga.
As for the actual quality of my illustration, honestly, for being a pretty rushed and messy drawing, I really like it! One thing I really prioritized was the lighting of the environment. I wanted Cherry to look illuminated by that bright bar counter she’s leaning on, which is where the Judy reference came in handy. I used it to study how the lighting shaped every plane of Cherry’s face and body. I found it to be good practice. I also wanted to capture that club environment vibe. I photo-bashed some club and crowds photos into the background to add some liveliness to the scene. Although since the angle of this composition is extremely tilted, you can’t really tell what’s going on too much, which maybe works out for the better, cause who ever really knows whats going on in the middle of a busy club. Speaking of which, the name of this piece, “The Dark Red,” is the name of Neeko’s night club. (Neeko is Cherry’s boyfriend.) Anyway, besides lighting, I also paid extra attention to adding nice color variation and saturation to the piece to make it look more energetic. The one thing I don’t really like is that some of the details, particularly on Cherry’s dress, I really didn’t spend too much time on. They ended up looking a little too messy for my taste, but honestly it’s okay. The dress isn’t the main focal point anyway, so I decided to save my energy for details for mostly Cherry’s face.
Overall, I am very happy with this drawing. Especially since I finally got the chance to give my girl Cherry some spotlight. <3
Dang, I really love the design, she’s so cool looking!
Very nice work!
LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!! :D
how i’ve been trying my best to live honestly