RBG

I’m not an American but even here on the other side of the pond many of us, especially women, are deeply grateful for the life, work and inspiration of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court Justice and feminist icon who died yesterday. I am certainly feeling her loss today and she was the only person I could possibly draw.

I painted this in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours then warmed on it with Luminance coloured pencils. Then I scanned it in to my iPad Pro and worked on it some more in Procreate using Lisa Bardot’s Pencil Box brushes.

Taha

My daughter has just landed herself a great job, starting Monday, in a different part of the country. It’s fabulous news, especially for someone just starting out in a creative industry right now (she works in film) but trying to find somewhere for her to live with four days notice (two of which are the weekend), get her packed up and moved with partial regional lockdowns spreading (plus it’s her birthday tomorrow) is no joke. So drawing is being done in fits and starts when I have time in between the 101 other tasks… This portrait of Taha from Sktchy is what I’ve managed in the past 2 days.

I drew this with Bic ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.

Hannah

This is Hannah, who’s photo was posted on Sktchy by photographer Andy. As you may know by now if you’re a regular visitor to this blog, I’m not a huge fan of drawing hair so I’m always happy to draw models with very short hair like Hannah here. And it makes it so much easier to focus on bone structure when there’s no hair getting in the way. Having said all that, I totally lost the likeness in this portrait, though I still like the way it turned out.

I drew this in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Aleksandra

A short while ago I was posting this image on Sktchy and browsing my feed on the app. Over the past few months of lockdown Sktchy has been hosting a whole series of classes on digital portraiture, something I’ve been doing for years. Just all my artist friends are beginning to embrace the world of digital art, I find myself swimming once more against the stream and retreating from it back towards traditional media.

It’s not that I’m not interested any more in digital art, but I’m more interested in how I can apply the skills it has taught me to my use of watercolour and coloured pencils and pens – I see these skills as so interchangeable and inseparable. But I do sometimes feel as though I’m always destined to be in a very different place to most everyone else when it comes to art making. Do other artists who didn’t get here by traditional routes, who didn’t go to art school, feel the same way?

I painted portrait of Aleksandra with Sennelier watercolours in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook and then worked over it with Polychromos and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Laura

It’s been a tough week and hatch, hatch, hatching away has been one of the things that has been helping me keeping on keeping on, one day at a time. This portrait of Laura has taken me a couple of days, mostly in the evenings. I love drawing shadows and the Sktchy inspiration photo has such beautiful shadows that I love building up with a range of colours.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app and the ballpointy brush.

Sydney

This is Sydney from Sktchy. I’m really happy with this portrait. I think i did a good job of combining watercolour and coloured pencils. I can see mistakes, of course, but I’m enjoying the direction my work is going at the moment.

I drew Sydney in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with a Unipin grey brush fineliner, painted her with Sennelier watercolours and finished the portrait off with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Zoey

Totally lost the likeness with this portrait of Zoey from Sktchy but I’m enjoying pushing my practice with coloured pencils and learning as I go. They really aren’t in my comfort zone and I’m finding that everything I learn working on these portraits is proving really useful in my mixed media work.

I drew this in a Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook with Polychromos coloured pencils.

Sherry

This is Sherry from Sktchy. I spent a couple of hours just playing around with a few different pencil brushes in Procreate instead of just using my go-to brushes. It was fun and I like that the portrait looks different from my usual style yet still distinctively mine.