19 Bonus Chapter-Drawing a Perfect Circle
Nickson Park
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"Why the fuck am I even competing against that girl!" I push the unrelated gadgets away on the floor and tidy my desk. All I need in front of me is a drawing tablet and my pen to make something out of the hundred black and white borders.
I stare at the screen for the seventh time, yet I cannot seem to figure out what to draw inside the panels. My hands would not stroke the lines that I wanted to do despite trying for so long. It almost feels like something is wrong with me, and I don't know why.
Not that my drawings are terrible to look at, but I have a weakness.
I cannot seem to draw anything apart from romance with the "Zombis" that I am adapting as an exclusion. There is this unseeable force that lets me continue that gore of a novel.
But for this competition, I feel an abstract wall that I cannot pass.
"Wilson, I am going out for a bit," I yell out on the door, trying to call my butler from the other side of the room.
"You can always call me Chung-hee, sir Seo-jun" He gives me a reply and gets out of the bathroom, wearing only his bathrobe with his toothbrush inside his mouth.
Wilson was the one who shaped me into what I am now. He is also there for me when I need a piece of advice and storms his way whenever I need guidance of some sort.
I firmly nod in acknowledgement and head outdoors, leaving my glasses inside my house to catch sight of my surroundings.
I go outside and take a break to observe the night sky. The moon and the stars pave the road and lead me closer to the orphanage. Even the lamp posts from the sides are giving away the luminance that the busy city needs.
But it is already midnight, and I still have done nothing for the past few hours.
"Is Himari still awake?" I ponder to myself as I get close to the steel gates. Usually, someone is guarding the door. But for tonight, nobody is here to keep me company.
"You're late, Nickson." An old lady sees me through the window and waves her hand. She tells me to wait on my exact spot for her to fetch me outside.
"A pleasant evening,"
The woman answers and gives me a yasai jelly, "Likewise." It is a jelly drink made from 100% vegetable and fruit juices, packed in a container with a straw for easy use.
"Thank you." I accept her offer and immediately open its contents, unsure of what to expect once I gulp the sticky fluid off the package.
"Are you troubled?" The lady asks with a sincere smile on her face, collecting the missing piece of my puzzling face.
"No," I hesitantly answer, with my eyes wandering off from the obsidian stellar.
The old lady taps her fingers on the bench and offers me a seat.
I perch on the bench, with the kind lady beside me who even offered me a drink a while ago. After five minutes of noiselessly staring at the street, she then finally asks me the same question, but this time, showing me her more worried face.
"What is bothering you, Nickson?"
It is the first time that I hear a stranger calling out for my name. Even though there are countless events that people admire my work in the business world, I can feel a different vibe coming off from the caretaker beside me.
It is as if she is a mother calling out for me.
"I don't know what to draw, and I can't think of a story for the contest," I voice my thoughts and peer through the noiseless room inside the building.
The lady locks her eyes at my school before cracking the tranquillity of our conversation. "Do you know why you're doing the things you do right now?"
At first, I thought it is a rhetorical question that does not need a concrete answer. But as I skim through my mind, I remember something that pierces my heart.
"I want to fan the flame of my creativity," I blurt out, whilst watching the greyish clouds fluttering above.
She turns to me and examines my face before saying, "You can always try new things. We'll never know what lies ahead if we stick inside our cage."
That is the problem that I am bearing right now.
"But you can always stick on what you are good at, even without exploring new things," She adds and looks me in the eye. "And I know you can do just that. All you got to do is try."
The lady stands up from her seat and glances at her watch. She then suggests that the night has grown old, and it is about time for us to leave.
"Thank you for your wisdom and guidance." I express my gratitude to her before leaving the orphanage, bringing the lessons I have learned throughout the talk.
She slightly bows her head, and I also lower mine before going both of our separate ways.
I stride to the familiar road while dwelling on the words of the old lady. However, no matter hard I squeeze myself, I cannot seem to arrive at an answer.
"Something that I need to do and try something new," I repeat her words, hoping that I can get the gist of the context.
And then it hit me.
My door hits me as I slide it open while greeting the living room with Wilson sleeping on the couch. He even let out a snore booming throughout the enclosed bedroom.
I quietly sneak my way through the hall and close the door behind him. As soon as I enter my room, I take off my clothes and sit on the chair for the last time.
"Try something new," I mumble to myself and start drawing the things inside my mind.
I want to do a romance about two childhood sweethearts ending up together after their graduation. It will have a cliche and classic plotline that any other story has, but I think of a way to make it more interesting.
"But how, dammit?" I scratch my head using the stylus pen, hoping that the ideas will come swimming in my brain. Even by doing fifty sets of pushups to ease my wits, I still can't decide what to sketch for my manga.
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Just an added information and a side note, Nickson Park is both a manga artist and a Webtoon artist. But we will focus on Nickson Park making mangas instead of Webtoon. Both styles have their beauty in them, so please support the artists making those comics!
Webtoons and Mangas are unique works of art.
Most webtoons have colours, unlike mangas that have black and white ink on most pages. They paint only chosen illustrations with hues to promote the manga. Webtoons are in strips (arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humour or form a narrative), while mangas are in pages and read from left to right. Manga and Webtoons have different facial expressions. The art style varies from manga and Webtoon artists, creating a sense of reserve for the readers to choose from the libraries.
....
Manga artists prefer creating their manga traditionally rather than digitally made, and I know that. I can rarely take advantage of how digital drawing works. It is chiefly because of the black and white designs of mangas.
But I still want to do it since I am more accustomed to using my tablet than sketching it down with a pen and paper.
I first draw the panels of the story. Each of the panels represents the plot.
After setting up my panels, I draw the line art of my characters. I leave separate pages for their designs to use as my reference. The visual element of the line is the foundation of all drawings. I can use it that suggest the shape, pattern, form, depth, range of emotions, and more.
Tracing makes it a cleaner version of the manga which I always need to keep in mind.
I also need to check my tones-referring to the light and dark values to render a realistic object. Or scene. Mangas have these queer light forms around the environment. These are usually unappreciated by the reader's naked eye, but once you notice them, you'll feel amazed at how detailed the artists show it.
Cross-hatching is also a technique that I need to apply to create tonal or shading effects and add additional layers of lines.
"And for the last part are dialogues," I grumble to myself and remember the traumatising events that had happened in my life.
My readers would always comment on how dreadful and force the dialogues in my works. They always tell me that my art style is impeccable amongst famous artists on the platform.
But it has one tiniest mistake that I cannot seem to improve.
I don't know how to flirt with a girl.
