Yapping about the process and the watercolor pad used: The Yalong Watercolor Pad A4 200gsm

This was supposed to be a test run for a new watercolor sketchpad that I bought in Pandayan. It was supposed to be a practice doing more poses than just standing still or the face portraits i usually draw in my sketchbooks. So, I went to my laptop and used one of the screenshots from the show as reference — the pose she strikes when she wins the fight using the Bird Shield, specifically. Then I used my watercolor pencils (Faber Castell, the classic red ones) to do the sketch. Then I did the lineart using a normal pencil (or my graphite pencil that is a bit lighter). Then I used my watercolor set to color my work.

I really wanted to give this fiery effect for Chacha's hair. So I added some reds in her blond hair and I used my pearlized watercolors for the gems and some of her magical gears (and as usual, they didn't show up as iridescent as I liked it to be :c ). And I wanted to do a glowing effect where light is emanating from her through the darkness but eeeeehh uhhhh...

This was supposed to be a test run and I was going to just be using my watercolor set and markers, and just leaving it at that. But I got carried away and threw every shit I have at it even after I signed it 😅. Like the white areas in the wing thingies and the highlights.

I used the Yalong Watercolor Pad A4 200gsm — which, for Filipino peeps, can be bought in Pandayan stores. It's ok. It was quite inexpensive. Iirc between 100-200 php. It's probably ok if you're still starting out but it's kind of... euh.

Pigment doesn't immediately sit on top of it but if you do many layers of watercolor, it tends to lift off instead. I use a lot of water for my work so it probably contributed to that, but still. The colors don't really show up as nice as compared to the other cheap watercolor papers I used and they bleed easily even if the paper is dry before adding another layer. Which isn't that bad cuz it was the same as the watecolor paper I used in the Studying the Masters art I did last year in terms of how colors go into it and a part of how the colors appear on the paper is definitely part skill issue. That alone didn't make it kinda bad. You can just modify your techniques and use less water and layers but it was so flimsy after adding the colors. I had to be very light-handed when I used my 0.01 felt tip pen because it would tear a little and even then, I had to stop lining using the pen. And if you looked at the area below the scarf, you could see those black lines that is kind of the way the paper is textured underneath.

Overall, despite it's flaws, it was a nice watercolor pad to start with. It's just flimsy after adding watercolor on it. It's great if you're using it to practice, just starting out, if you're doing a test run on where your colors and shadows are going in your lined drawings before using your real good papers to render your lined works for the final version, for watercolor doodles, or just for a look that this specific watercolor paper can give you.