I love drawing exaggerated facial expressions, the stronger the better, and this one of Olivia’s is just great. I had a ball drawing it.
I drew it with Copic markers and coloured pencils in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook.
I’m going to be away for the next few days speaking at a conference in the north of England for my day job so I’m probably not be going to be getting much portrait drawing in (but maybe doing a little on the train, who knows?). Hopefully posting here again by the weekend.
I’ve been working on this slowly for a few days and it was going so well and then I messed up the nose. And with ballpoint there’s no way of undoing the mess. So I just have to live with it and learn from it, and hopefully not make that mistake again.
I drew Ylenia in my tiny Moleskine sketchbook with Hema and Paperchase multicolour ballpoint pens.
I drew Lilly in my HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Jenell is the queen of Sktchy muses. She is probably the one female muse who every Sktchy artist has to draw as part of their rite of passage into the Sktchy community. I’ve drawn her once before, in my first year on Sktchy but I don’t think I’ve drawn her since then. So it was a joy to sit down and draw those very familiar eyes and cheekbones today! This was fun.
I drew Jenell in my Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I’m still a complete novice at ballpoint pen drawing but I love doing it and I’m improving very slowly. I love the richness of colour in really good ballpoint pen portraits and I’m a huge fan of great ballpoint artists like Robin Hilthouse and Nicolas Sanchez. And I know the only way to develop those kind of skills is to practice, practice, practice. So right now I’ve learned the basics and now I’m trying to find a drawing and hatching style that works for me. I feel like I’m getting a little closer in this portrait of Jade (in cosplay as Coraline).
I drew this in my tiny Moleskine with a range of multicolour ballpoints from the British brand Paperchase and the Dutch brand Hema.
I’m having a difficult drawing week. Nothing is going right. I’ve made a conscious decision to take more time over my portraits, not rush them, try to work a little differently, and right now it’s a bit of a struggle. None of my drawings are working well. Perhaps this is inevitable when you change things and step outside your familiar work patterns. It wasn’t helped today by a crushing migraine.
Anyway, Avril ended up up with a slightly deformed body – I over exaggerated the foreshortening (not deliberately!) and really messed up that front leg and foot. But never mind. It’s all learning.
I drew Avril’s portrait in my Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I was intending to draw Michael with coloured pencil. But when I finished drawing an initial sketch with an HB pencil I moved without thinking into inking out a portrait with a fineliner, as I do when I’m making either a Copic or watercolour portrait. When I realised what I’d done it was too late – I’d inked out half his face! So I decided to make use of my error and try something different.
I knew that coloured pencil hatching alone wouldn’t be strong enough to match the ink lines. So I used my Derwent Inktense pencils, which I’ve hardly ever used in a portrait (not sure if I’ve ever used them if I’m honest), to create my basic colour layers and then finished off the portrait with some hatching with Prismacolor coloured pencils on top. I still think the ink lines are too strong for the pencil portrait but I can live with it, as an experiment. And I do like the combination of Inktense and regular coloured pencil, so I may use that again.
The portrait is drawn in my HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook.
Today’s portrait is of Jack, painted in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi watercolours and then finished with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
This portrait of Oriana reflects my new slower and more thoughtful approach to drawing faces. I focused less on capturing her likeness and more on representing something about her that felt true and honest to me. So while I can see that her face shape is not quite right in the portrait, I nevertheless think that I’ve captured the spirit of her in a beautiful way that makes me very happy.
I drew Oriana in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with Copic markers.
In the inspiration photo for Nicky’s portrait she has only one half of her face made up but I struggled to really show that with coloured pencils except on her lips. I really needed to add more depth of colour to her skin tones. Still much to learn about using coloured pencils!
I drew this in my HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook with Derwent Artists coloured pencils.
drawing faces 