[What is the most difficult thing to draw?]
It’s a topic with many differing opinions.
In my view, people were the most difficult. This is because there is no entity as delicate and self-aware as humans.
The basic structure of a human being follows a formula.
206 bones of varying sizes form the skeleton.
On top of that, muscles, made of thousands or tens of thousands of fibers, twist and bind together. Organs fill the empty spaces. And through the path between the muscle fibers and bones, pulses beat along the blood vessels. Above that, a thin layer of skin and hair grow.
Even if some parts are missing, twisted, or slightly excessive,
it rarely deviates from this formula.
That’s why we respond sensitively to even the slightest differences in one another.
Just that small difference is enough to make the person in a portrait look like a different individual. Even those who have never learned to draw can recognize the 0.1% subtle difference in awkward portraits.
The slight thickness of a line.
A tiny change in position.
Even these small differences make us perceive someone as “similar to ourselves.”
This level of delicacy is unique to humans.
Because only humans distinguish themselves with a sense of self, we react to these tiny traits that set us apart.
For these reasons,
drawing people was the hardest for me.
The life of the subject I was drawing.
The emotions of the subject I was drawing.
The personality of the subject I was drawing.
I had to consider and express all of that.
It felt like an adventure with no signposts.
I couldn’t be sure if I was on the right path.
And yet,
paradoxically…
drawing people was the most enjoyable.
*
It’s been two weeks since I started visiting Mija’s house.
We were sitting in a corner of the department store café, drawing pictures. We were practicing quick sketches of passersby.
“Phew…”
Mija sighed and weakly put down her pencil. Her usually curly blonde hair seemed to hang limp as if it had lost its bounce.
“I can’t do it anymore, I’m tired~”
“We’ve only drawn 50 sketches so far?”
“When did we do that?! And we’ve been doing this for three hours!”
“Well, that’s not much…”
“My head hurts.”
Complaining like that, she drank her hot chocolate in one gulp, the soft sound of her pencil rolling across the paper mixed with the gentle jazz music filling the café.
With a soft gulp, the hot chocolate slid down her throat, while the mug was taken from her pink lips.
A sigh mixed with the sweet aroma escaped her.
“Phew…”
It looked like she was expressing the warmth of winter with her image.
Watching that, I made a reasonable observation.
“…That’s mine.”
“Oh, really? Yours tastes good too.”
“….”
‘Well, it’s obvious since it’s the same hot chocolate.’
Mija giggled and casually placed her mug in front of me, then took her own again and drank. Maybe because of the red lights of the department store café, she didn’t seem to change her expression at all.
‘When I first saw her, her face turned bright red to the point of steaming, but now, she’s so comfortable around me. Was she just acting out her middle school syndrome back then when she got caught?’
Was she free-spirited?
Or just shy?
I couldn’t tell.
Mija just drank her hot chocolate and gave a silly smile. Still, her signature blonde hair and blue eyes gave her a cute impression.
Honestly, admitting it made me feel a little embarrassed,
but somehow, she looked like an actress.
“It’s delicious~”
“…..”
What a brazen girl.
If this keeps up, I’m going to lose my share of the mug to that shameless golden friend. To prevent a second Shinmi Incident, I carefully held onto my mug like a guard.
Then, like Mija, I took a gulp.
The hot chocolate flowed into my mouth.
With the sweet and slightly bitter taste of chocolate, the warm aroma spread through my nose. If taste had a color, it would be a smooth sweetness expressed in golden and white hues.
Even though it was the second cup, I wasn’t bored of it.
I murmured absentmindedly.
“…It’s really good.”
“Right? If you make it with powder at home, it doesn’t taste like this.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re using good powder?”
“Is there such a thing as good cocoa powder?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know. Maybe there is, maybe not.”
Eventually, I also stopped drawing and joined in on the casual chat.
Mija giggled as she watched me.
“I’m drawing for the first time outside of art academy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, at the art academy, we always drew still life like apples and busts. But it feels strange drawing like this outside.”
The entrance exam for Hanul’s art department was based on still-life watercolor. It seemed that the elite prep school for teaching children was also heavily focused on watercolor techniques.
‘Still-life watercolor is probably the foundation of art education… but…’
I thought real “art practice” was more like this.
I casually said,
“This is the original way.”
“Original?”
“Observing and drawing from life. If you’re going to be an artist… you can’t just paint still life inside, you have to boldly go outside and catch natural scenes to draw. The seniors at Hanul do it like that too.”
“Really?”
To be honest, only seniors like Oh Yujin and Mari at Hanul do it that way.
‘Well, Mari’s a senior in the upper class, so it’s okay.’
Mija looked embarrassed after hearing my words.
“Really? But drawing outside… unless I’m with a friend, I think it’d be a bit embarrassing.”
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Who’s even watching?”
“That lady in the suit just glanced at us. All the people passing by looked at us once…”
“Huh?”
I looked in that direction.
They’re really cute…
– Is this some kind of movie shoot?
– Is that hair dyed?
– They really look like foreigners.
– I should post this on my mini homepage…
Surprisingly,
including the middle-aged woman Mija had mentioned, several people sitting in the department store café made eye contact with us. They were smiling and watching us, but quickly averted their eyes. One even subtly tried to pull out a camera.
– Whispers
No…
Not the camera…
“….”
“….”
“….”
I glared at them with dissatisfaction, and eventually, they all avoided my gaze. The camera also disappeared back into the bag…
“…”
I nodded to that extent and turned my head again.
‘Well, it would look strange to see two little kids drawing for so long. Still, it’s a bit odd for my face to be shown on camera.’
Turning my gaze back to the table, Mija was awkwardly twirling her hair with her fingers. Her naturally curly hair sprang out like a spring.
“Yeah… I guess it would stand out.”
“What do you mean?”
“My hair. It doesn’t look Korean, right?”
“Is that so? Your English pronunciation still sounds like a kimchi man, no matter how I hear it.”
“…..”
Mija squinted and stuck her tongue out.
“…My Japanese pronunciation sounds like a sushi man~”
“Yeah, but you can’t read kanji.”
“I can, you know! I can read them!”
“Even if you’re reading those boy comic magazines with footnotes and pronunciation guides…”
“I’ll learn it from grandma, from now on.”
Mija awkwardly said this while gathering her sketchbook. Then, with a snort, she stretched and declared,
“After sitting for so long, my butt hurts~ Let’s go somewhere else now!”
“Should we? What time is it?”
“4 PM.”
“Then, do you want to stop by the bookstore over there?”
“Huh? Stand and read?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay!”
“Then it’s decided.”
She started packing her sketchbook and pencils into her bag, getting ready to go. Just then, Mija suddenly looked at the pencil I was picking up and said,
“By the way, your pencil is really unusual.”=
“What do you mean?”
“It’s different from the ones I used at the art academy… The side you write with has a different color handle, and it feels harder.”
The pencil I used was something I’d received during Hanul’s class. Of course, I had chosen the brand myself.
“Yours is a Japanese brand, the one I use is a German brand.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The Japanese one is a bit soft, and even if you compare it with the same graphite grade, it’s rougher and darker. The German one is harder, stiffer, and drier.”
Mija looked at her own pencil with a slightly disappointed expression.
“Really? So, is the Japanese brand bad?”
“No… It’s just a difference in writing feel. If we’re talking about price, the German one is more expensive. You can use whatever you like depending on the purpose. For exam purposes, you usually use a dark 4B and more affordable pencils.”
“I see. Right! Haha! A true craftsman doesn’t care about the tools!”
“…?!”
Wait a second…!
I quickly turned my head to look at Mija. She was still holding her pencil, laughing and making a silly smile.
“Mijang, your dream is to be a manga artist, right?”
“Yeah? Yeah!”
“Then, you shouldn’t believe that kind of thing.”
“A true craftsman doesn’t care about the tools?”
Hearing that, I felt tears welling up again.
Oh, Gogh…
I grabbed Mija’s shoulder and desperately tried to convince her.
“Yeah, it’s good to try out various high-quality materials as much as possible. Especially when you’re doing detailed drawings or manga, where you need to use one material a lot…”
“I see…”
“If you don’t have money and buy a bunch of cheap pencils on installment, then after a night, the graphite will crumble and break if you sharpen them too much, and you’ll end up crying, saying, ‘I should’ve bought a better one with the same amount of money!’ Whether it’s a ballpoint pen, paper, or paint, it’s all the same.”
“That’s… really specific.”
“Anyway, just understand it like that.”
“Hana, sometimes you talk so fast it’s scary.”
“Do you think you’re worse than Mijang, who talks about Chuunibyou manga?”
Mijang’s eyes widened in surprise.
Do you know what that means? It’s a term you usually see on Japanese websites. It’s funny, but sometimes you seem more like an otaku than I do when you act Chuunibyou.
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re an ‘art otaku.'”
“….”
Is that… good?
I don’t feel bad about it, but it’s a bit confusing.
As I was pondering the title of ‘art otaku,’ Mijang had already packed her things and was rushing toward the front door of the café, her footsteps quick.
“Hey, Mijang! Wait for me!”
“Uwahaha!”
Since we finished a bit earlier than usual today, a special event occurred: I was going to have dinner at Mijang’s house.
At the table, only Mijang and I were sitting.
“I think one of your older brothers is in the military and the other is a college student… You all have such a big age gap.”
And instead of her busy parents, Mijang’s grandmother, who looked very much like a Korean, placed a pork cutlet in front of me. (I heard Mijang’s mom works as a government official and is doing rotational duties.)
Mijang’s grandmother smiled warmly at me and said,
“Hana-chan, Hana-chan… What a nostalgic name. It’s the same as my childhood friend’s name. It means ‘flower’ in Japanese, and it really suits you because you’re such a beautiful girl.”
“Ahaha, thank you. I often hear people say my name sounds like a Japanese name.”
“Hehe, really? I wonder if the meaning of your name is similar.”
“No, my name is just from the numbers one, two, three…”
“How cute~”
She gently ruffled my hair, then looked at Mijang and said,
“Mijang, if you leave the vegetables again, you’re going to get in trouble~”
“Ugh?!”
Mijang subtly pushed the bowl of vegetables away from her, flinching slightly.
“Oh, I’m not doing that.”
“You need to eat everything evenly, not like your friend who’s picky.”
“Yes…”
“Then both of you children can eat comfortably.”
“Grandma, I’m going to be in middle school soon. There’s only one child here.”
“To me, you all look like children.”
Grandma laughed warmly and went to her room.
Mijang quietly pushed the bowl of vegetables toward me and said,
“By the way, Hana.”
“Yeah?”
“How do you draw people so well?”
“Really?”
“Whenever I try to draw someone, it never looks like them, but when you draw, it looks exactly like the person. Plus, when you practice croquis, it takes you less than five minutes per drawing. You just draw so fast.”
I answered while chewing a piece of pork cutlet.
“You need to capture the features well.”
“Features?”
“Observe the features on a person’s face carefully, and then draw them in right away. Then, most of the elements can be slightly imagined and added. Exaggeration and distortion are techniques that are essential even in comics.”
“R-really?!”
“Yeah, that’s why I brought you along and showed you how to draw people.”
“I didn’t know…?!”
“Now you know, so congratulations.”
“Uh, uhahaha…! It’s amazing! I was unknowingly learning how to become a cartoonist!”
Mija shouted excitedly and slowly handed me the dish of greens.
Didn’t grandma say not to be picky…?
*
I received a message from Mari.
「Mari: Let’s hang out on Christmas!」
I received a message from Juri.
「Juri: I’m going to Seoul this Christmas.」
I received a message from Mija.
「Mija: What time are you coming on Christmas?」
“…”
I tilted my head.
Why are all three of them making plans without even hearing my answer…?