first drawing of 2026!!

Instructions

₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚ i can't believe it. we survived another year yippe btw here is my first artwork of 2026! a drawing of our beloved pure vanilla cookie (from crk lol) ₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚ ✧ now allaow me to walk you through my process ✧ 1. here we can see a super rough sketch 2. now this is another sketch but cleaner 3. here is the complete sketch 4. ah yes line art 5. personally my least favorite part, flat colors (he looks so pale smh) 6. my eyes are red, cacti are prickly, good gravy woah that escalated quickly (all jokes aside here's the thing after half rendering, it took the longest time smh) (he's not pale anymor :DD) 7. hair rendering that was somehow done in a different layer 8. background sketch with a poorly drawn sun to illustrate the poorly drawn source of light 9. actual background with some bounce light 10. here are some highlights to make it more sunlier somehow (subsurface scattering too yesyes) 11. me forgetting to render some parts (adding further details) 12. even more bounce light for the sunliness (is that a word? i think its a word) 13. now these.. things.. are they light? are they dust? are they these rain droplets that showed up out of nowhere? i dunno you decide. i think they look cool 14. AHAH EVEN MORE DETAILS (including sparkles, sparkles, a couple tears for experimentation, and even more hair details) 15. overlay layer to make it more sunny and cohesive 16. adding noise, chromatic aberration, some blur and i guess you could call it overexposure to make it look.. nostalgic somehow and that's it! i'm finished took around eight hours, using my beloved kleki ₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚ aight i'm gonna eat something tags: #art #artwork #drawing #2026 #cool #? . 's