Category: digital art

Angela

Angela

Something totally different today, a mermaid for Mermay. Mermay is a daily drawing challenge during the month of May, when the idea is quite simple to draw a mermaid every day, but I’ve never participated in it before. but then I saw Angela’s inspiration photo on Sktchy and decided that I would draw at least one mermaid this month.

It’s not my best work, I’m definitely having a few days when everything that can go wrong when I’m drawing does, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually a sign that I’ve either been working too much in a comfort zone (probably true) or I’m about to make a breakthrough (that would be nice..). Either way when I’m wrestling with my drawing it generally means I need to accept it and I will eventually move forward.

I painted this in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook and then work Ed on it initially with Prismacolor coloured pencils and then digitally in Procreate.

Klara: Just Keep Drawing

Klara

Some days you just feel like giving up. Today has been one of those days. In fact this week has been one of those weeks. Just keep drawing… going to get through coronavirus and whatever follows one portrait at a time.

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

Akeem: Finding Peace of Mind in a Pandemic

I’ve practiced mindfulness for many years. It’s been one of my most important coping strategies when it comes to looking after my mental health and managing my chronic pain. In the many years I’ve been using it there have been only two times when I’ve really struggled with it, finding it hard to focus well enough even to practice and/or finding myself avoiding practice because to do so was so difficult. The first time was after I developed Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and the second is now. Both times the enormity of the situation has just felt too huge to allow my mind to be calm.

And yet, in the past few days, I am finally finding calm when I pick up my pens and my sketchbook or iPad and draw. I am beginning to find that mindful attention to the present moment returning when I’m focused on drawing portraits, more so every day. It’s taken five weeks to get here and it really is baby steps but I’m counting it as progress. I still can’t find the focus to sit down with my Mindful or Headspace apps, that’s asking too much of my frazzled, panicked mind, but an hour or so of portrait drawing a day is something I’m deeply grateful for.

I drew Sktchy muse Akeem on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.

Anastasia and the joy of getting lost in a painting

Sktchy are hosting a Backward Portrait Party this weekend, challenging members to reverse their usual drawing or painting methods and works “backwards”. So I totally reversed my usual process to draw Anastasia’s portrait on my iPad. I usually paint hair last so I did it first, than I painted the face and features, and then added some colour for the sweater. I added some linework right at the end. You can see a short timelapse video of my drawing process on YouTube here.

The most interesting thing about this for me was that I was completely absorbed in my work while I was painting and drawing, more than at any time since the coronavirus lockdown began. For a whole hour or so I wasn’t anxious at all, I wasn’t thinking about anything else, I was just making art. It was so lovely to have some peace of mind.

Danny

This is Danny. I didn’t really know what I was doing or where I was going with this Procreate portrait, I just kept drawing and it got darker and dirtier and messier. I had his likeness, lost it totally, got it back a little, lost it again, and ended up with him looking liked he’d walked out of a coal mine rather than someone half in shadow.

Lol! That’s what this drawing thing is like some days. I still like elements of the portrait and I’m sharing it so you know that some days drawing comes easily and others it’s a real battle. Today I really enjoyed doing this but the outcome is a lot messier than I would have wished for!

Calysta: Things I Miss

This is Sktchy muse Calysta. While I was drawing her I was thinking of the things I miss.

I miss small talk in the margins of meetings.

I miss passing the time with neighbours in the street.

I miss the sound of children heading to and from school through my open window and the distant hubbub of the school playground at playtime.

I miss pub lunches and chip shop suppers.

I miss days at the farm.

I miss not feeling scared, anxious and sad all the time.

I miss feeling in control of my mental health, my agoraphobia and claustrophobia.

I miss being able to just leave the house and go somewhere, anywhere, when I want to, just to remind myself that I am able to do that these days. Will I be able to do that by the time the lockdown is over or will I be agoraphobic again?

I drew Calysta on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app.

Ariana

How many of you, like me, feel like you’re disappearing from the world in this lockdown? We have no material impact on it any more. The only presence I have in the world is the one I have here, in cyberspace, through my words and through my portraits. And I feel so inarticulate when I write, at least when I draw I feel as though I’m expressing a little of what I’m feeling.

At the moment I feel as though I’m gradually vanishing, so that if, in a few days time, I disappeared completely, no one would notice. This portrait of Ariana expresses that feeling very well indeed, that the outer edges of me are already gone, melted away into nothingness.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.

More Zoom virtual backgrounds

I’ve been making more Zoom virtual backgrounds. You can download these from my shared Dropbox folder here for free but please don’t sell or use commercially.

Flying sheep and licking cows – Virtual Backgrounds

I’m remote working during the COVID-19 lockdown which means that I’m spending a great deal of time in Zoom meetings. Last week I discovered that I could use my own virtual backgrounds in Zoom and so I immediately set to work creating some. I created one specifically for a prefect I’m working on but I also made a couple of others. Here are my first two farm-themed backgrounds.

I designed these to fit my large iPad Pro screen so the resolution should be OK for most laptops and tablets but probably not great on a large computer. If you’d like to use them you can download them from my shared Dropbox folder here. I’ll be adding more as I make them – you’re welcome to use them as virtual backgrounds for Zoom meetings but please don’t sell them or use them commercially in any way.

Olivia

I love the inspiration photo for this portrait of Olivia. There are lots of photos of people hugging on Sktchy (I know, I searched for them and found loads) but this is my favourite. It just feels so authentic. I can’t say the green lighting was easy to capture but I don’t have the confidence to change it to something different so I stuck with the colour in the original.

Anyway, the reason for choosing this is that today I want to send a virtual hug to everyone reading this who is, like me, living under a lockdown due to COVID-19. I hope you’re safe, have access to enough food and some outdoor space and someone to support you (online or over the phone if not in person) when you’re scared or anxious.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.