Author: hareinthemoon

I love drawing things. These days I am rarely found without a pen, pencil or stylus in my hands. In my working life I spend a lot of time in meetings and classrooms, reading papers and strategies, so my home life provides a creative antidote to all that! I also have chronic pain, lots of it. I have scoliosis, fibromyalgia and CRPS, so my life is a balancing act, trying to balance work, which make me feel part of the real world, with pain, which is ever present, and art, which soothes my pain.

George Floyd

George Floyd. Died 25 May 2020.

Today Sktchy has asked artists to draw George Floyd, who was killed last week by a police officer in the United States, and whose death has sparked both peaceful protests and riots across that country in the days since. Sktchy are donating $50 for every portrait drawn of him until Friday to Campaign Zero, a campaign to end police violence in America, so if you’re a Sktchy artist reading this please think about posting a portrait of George Floyd on Sktchy before the end of the week.

I’m taking the new Sktchy course Ink Naturally with Dylan Sara which started this week – learning to make ink out of natural products and draw with it. So I drew this portrait with a bamboo calligraphy pen and using coffee as my ink.

Scottish Guy

I don’t know this man’s name – his photo was posted on Sktchy by Christine and she tagged it “Scotttishguy”. What an awesome face to draw though. I’m not sure I did him justice.

I drew this portrait in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Unipin fineliners, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Frida

Frida Kahlo

I’ve been taking part in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge. Today’s person to draw was Frida Kahlo but I decided that I didn’t want to draw the flower crowned iconic Frida that everyone knows. Instead I decided to draw the younger sterner Frida who wasn’t entirely sure yet who she wanted to be.

I decided to draw this portrait on my iPad Pro because I thought Procreate offered me the best tools for trying to recreate the vintage feel of the photo I was drawing from. I used most of my favourite brushes – the wet acrylic, the stucco, the Blackwing Pencil, and the Studio Pen.

Ali

Ali

This is Sktchy muse Ali. I’m generally pretty good at capturing a likeness these days but every so often I’ll have a run of missing it every day for a week or more. I’m having one of those runs right now. I’ve missed Ali’s likeness completely in this portrait. My last several portraits haven’t been so far off, but they haven’t been quite there either.

I don’t worry when I miss the likeness. The process of drawing is more important to me than the outcome. But I do think about what it says about me and what’s happening with my drawing at the time. Often it can mean that I’m not as focused as perhaps I should be, or I’m rushing my portraits because I don’t have as much time to work on them as I would like, or it can be a sign of personal stress.

Sometimes, it’s a sign of progress. It’s what I think of as the “one step forwards, two steps back” progress that comes with creative development, that means it feels like your work is getting much worse just before you make a breakthrough and step up a level. That might sound a little nonsensical but I hope some other artists recognise it. I’ve come to understand that that’s how my work progresses.

Right now I’m quite stressed so I think this loss of likeness is probably down to stress and a lack of focus but there’s a little bit of me that’s hoping I’m about to make an unexpected creative breakthrough. 🙂

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

Eddy

Eddy

I drew Eddy in a Moleskine sketchbook with a variety of Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens.

Hannah Gadsby Returns as Fierce and Witty as Ever with Comedy Special ‘Douglas’

In the words of Hannah Gadsby herself, her first comedy special, Nanette, ‘was a particular show of a very particular flavour.’ What on earth are …

Hannah Gadsby Returns as Fierce and Witty as Ever with Comedy Special ‘Douglas’

If you follow me why not read something written by my immensely talented daughter for Screen Queens. I went with her to see Hannah Gadsby’s show Douglas and I love her review of it here on Screen Queens.

Diellza

Diellza

I’m always attracted by shadows. My portraits look flat until I start to paint in the shadows and it’s only when I begin to add those that faces come to life. So when I browse Sktchy for inspiration it’s always the photos with interesting light and shadows that jump out at me. Like the one I used for this portrait of the beautiful Diellza. You can’t see her hand but the shadow tells you very clearly that it’s there, shading part of her face from the sun.

I painted this portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

I’m doing the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge at the moment, though I’m being a bit laid back about it and only doing it on the days that the suggested portrait interests me. I’m running a day behind because, being in the UK, I receive the challenges mid-evening and only have time to draw them late afternoon the following day when I’m done with work. So this is the challenge for day 6, Amelia Earharts

The suggestion was to draw this portrait with a non-traditional art supply so I used my Bic ballpoints. I drew this on the first page of an Emilio Braga Portuguese notebook – it’s a really beautiful notebook that has been sitting on my shelf for a while waiting to be used. I’ve just finished my Moleskine sketchbook so I’ll be using this for my ballpoint sketches for a while.

Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher as General Leia

I’m participating in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge, although it’s now Day 4 and this is the first day I’ve felt inspired to draw a portrait. Every day for 14 days they email a prompt for a portrait but the first three prompts didn’t excite me enough to make me want to draw the suggested portrait. But today’s prompt was to draw someone, living or dead, who I’d like to have a meal with.

And I came up with a very long list, but I would love, love, love to have a meal with Carrie Fisher. And not the young Carrie Fisher, but the older wiser Carrie Fisher. Because while I love the actor I adore the outspoken courageous sassy mental health campaigning Carrie Fisher most of all. That’s the woman I would love to sit down and share a meal with.

This is the third portrait of her I drew. The first two weren’t right. The likeness was fine but somehow they didn’t capture her. And suddenly I realised why. She needs to be among the stars – that’s where she belongs. So when I drew this third portrait I was imagining her as a constellation.

I drew this on my iPad Pro with the Procreate app.

Juliana

Juliana

I’ve been trying to access NHS talking therapy during the lockdown and it’s such hard work trying to navigate a system that makes no sense and I’m getting nowhere. The only other way I have of processing my emotions is to draw them out.

I drew Juliana in my Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.