girlfringe diaries #6 ★ october art diary, day 6: life’s too short not to let ur bestie cut your fringe <3

TODAY’S MIXTAPE:

TODAY’S PROMPT: FRINGE

IDEA & (LOTS OF) SKETCHES

Welcome to what might just be the most unserious illustration I’ve made for my October Art Diary so far. When I saw the prompt word, I instantly knew I wanted to draw a girl cutting her fringe, so that idea was locked in pretty quickly. I also remembered I had a stash of old, unfinished sketches and drafts that had never seen the light of day, so this prompt became the perfect excuse to dust them off.

Below are the four composition ideas pieced together. Fun fact: these sketches were drawn months apart (in my experimenting era), that’s why the style is so inconsistent, lol.

The first and third one are the oldest, packed with intricate details, lots of decor objects and the doodly style I used to lean into in my old works.

The second one is my secret favorite and I still hope to finish it someday, because I just know it would look amazing in color. The concept of a girl snipping her fringe in front of a mirror in her bedroom, dressed like she’s rushing out for a date feels very relatable (literally me on most days). So yeah, fingers crossed that she gets the love it deserves sometime soon.

THE FINAL SKETCH (& THE WINNER): BESTIES DUO YET AGAIN

The forth and final illustration I went with (obviously) features two besties — one cutting the other’s fringe.

Since I already made my debut with the besties duo in a previous illo, there was no stopping me now. I chose the simplest composition which shows them up close, because I wanted to really focus on their facial expressions. One of them is absolutely panicking, already second-guessing the whole thing, while the other is just way too confident and having the time of her life. That chaotic energy between them was the main thing I wanted to capture.

For the decor and accessories I kept things pretty minimal, with just the hand mirror and a couple of houseplants to give it that cozy, homey vibe. It felt like the right choice to keep the spotlight on the girls and their very questionable decision-making moment.

COLOR PALETTE(S)

I wanted this illustration to feel girly, vibrant, fun and poppy, like a page straight out of a comic book.

At first I played around with some candy-like tones which I think turned out great, but in the end I stuck with a palette similar to my previous illo. When I realized how much these two characters resembled the ones from my ‘cosy movie night’ piece, it hit me: why not make it a sequel? The idea that after watching a movie, they changed into comfier clothes and decided cutting their fringe came very natural for me, as it’s something I actually did once with my bestie, haha.

I loved tying it back to my previous illustration (like a continuation of their friendship), but if I hadn’t chosen the color palette based on that, I think I would’ve gone with the third option: the red and pink combo. I love that one because it has such a cute, girly vibe and totally reminds me of the Powerpuff Girls, so I’ll definitely keep it in mind for a future illo.

GIRLFRINGE NAME CAMEO & HEART SHAPED SPEECH BUBBLES

This was hands down my favorite part of this illo. While polishing up the final draft, I remembered a funny conversation I had with my bestie while she was cutting my fringe. She said something like, “if it ends up looking silly, we’ll just name it after us and make it a trend.” So considering the name of my page “girlfringe”, it was too funny not to include it the illo. It just fits perfectly.

As for the stylistic side, I thought it would be cute to make the chat bubbles heart-shaped, to give it an extra girly touch. I might turn this idea into a personal signature for future one-page comics, hehe. Also, confession: I’ve actually wanted to create comic-like illustrations for years, but I always felt like I wasn’t great with text, so I kept putting the idea off. Now that I had so much fun with this style approach, I feel like there’s no turning back (& I already have a ton of ideas lined up) <3

TEXTURES

For this illo I decided to keep things pretty simple with the shading, highlights and textures. I even considered leaving it as-is, with just the base colors and a few subtle shadows here and there, but in the end I still added the usual grain effect.

Even tho I think it looks polished and cohesive, I feel like I should switch things up and try new things for future one-page comics. I think a new "recipe" for these kinds of illos would look very fresh, so I’m excited to experiment with some matte textures instead of the deeply layered ones.

AND THERE SHE GOES <3

FINAL PIECE & CLOSEUPS