Category: digital art

Zoe

This is Zoe from Sktchy drawn in Procreate. Today is the Day of the Dead or Dia de Los Muertos to give its Hispanic name. I’ve always been attracted to the colourful sugar skulls that are traditional symbols of this Mexican festival but I also love the idea of celebrating the lives of deceased relatives so the festival resonates with me on a number of levels.

I draw a portrait of someone in sugar skull costume and make up most years but this year I’ve also been crocheting along with a Day of the Dead crochet-along (or CAL) created by @theguywiththehook. You can see my finished mandala below and you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Hannah’s dog

For the last day of September I drew Hannah’s dog on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app again. Tomorrow Inktober begins and I’m going to try to draw with ballpoints every day. I’m not sure if I’ll manage a portrait a day for the whole of October but I’ll give it my best shot.

Selfie

Today I made a digital stamp portrait of myself using a selfie photo as inspiration. I’m thinking of getting it turned into a real stamp to use for signing my artwork.

I made this image on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app and digital block printing techniques.

Sara

It’s Inktober again in just a few days so before we get there I’ve decided to spend the last few days of September drawing in Procreate, in part because I feel like I’m neglecting my iPad a little at the moment and if I stick with inktober this year I won’t be using it all next month. So this is Sara from Sktchy drawn in Procreate with the ballpointy brush.

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.

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.

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.

Emitis

I’m struggling with my mental health again but now I find that, instead of not drawing at all, I’m drawing often. I need to keep my hands moving so when I’m not working my fingers are constantly hatching away, or crocheting or clicking on my Nintendo Switch.

I’m also finding that it helps to have several portraits on the go at any one time, so I can switch between them. With portraits built up through hatching I’m not always sure when they’re finished so it helps to step away from them, move on to another one, and then come back to them to the next day and take another look. That little break allows me to look at them afresh and I can see where they need more work – as they almost always do.

The hatching on this portrait of Emitis from Sktchy helped me through 2 evenings when I was struggling to focus on the television or anything at all. I drew it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app and the ballpointy brush by Georg.

Atlas

This portrait of Atlas from Sktchy needs more work but I’ve run out of steam. Hatching takes time and effort and right now I’m having a pain and fatigue flare and I don’t have the energy to keep going on it. So I’m leaving it here. Maybe I’ll come back to it another day. Or maybe I won’t…

Drawn on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.