Back in my Copic comfort zone I enjoyed drawing Sktchy muse Riley so much. For what I think is the first time ever I also remembered to take photos of my work in progress so I’ve added a collage photo of those below, so you can see how I build up my layers of colour as I’m drawing. I worked with Copic multiliners and markers in an A4 Moleskine sketchbook.
A fun sketch of Lorë on my iPad Pro today. Her inspiration photo was in full colour but the pink and gold stood out for me so I decided to highlight those and leave everything else in black and white (well, grey).
I love drawing on toned paper so I thought I’d try a coloured pencil drawing in a Strathmore toned paper sketchbook that I’ve been working in just occasionally for several years now. But I’m a little disappointed with the results. I had to work pretty hard to get my pencils to show up at all in this portrait of Van. I expected them to be much more vibrant on this paper. So I think I’ll be sticking with my HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook. If anyone has had better results with a different toned paper sketchbook I’d be interested to know about it.
Another patterned portrait, this time with watercolour and coloured pencils. In Klara’s Sktchy photo she was posing in front of some fabulous rhododendron bushes so I took my inspiration for the floral background pattern from those flowers.
I drew this portrait in a Laloran sketchbook with a Copic multiliner, painted it with Zecchi watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Sid was Sktchy’s chosen daily inspiration photo yesterday. I’m a day late drawing him but here he is. I started out with a green and white striped background but it was nightmare – it totally drew the eye away from the portrait- so I filled in the stripes and it looks much better!
I drew this in a Moleskine sketchbook with Copic multiliners and Copic markers.
I’m still finding my way with coloured pencils – I’m never entirely sure whether to hatch or to colour in the way children do. For this portrait of a Sktchy muse Jeandor I decided to stick with hatching all the way.
I drew this in a HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
A few weeks ago I rarely added backgrounds to my portraits, and certainly not patterned backgrounds. Now, after taking a Sktchy course by Charlotte Hamilton on patterned portraits my portraits don’t seem complete without one!
This portrait of Sktchy muse Anna was drawn in a Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
This was a tough draw and Sktchy muse Austin’s portrait is full of mistakes. It’s too wide (his face in the inspiration photo is much longer and narrower), the mouth isn’t open wide enough and I struggled to capture the shadows and lines well with coloured pencils. But it’s all learning and I’m very much still learning when it comes to coloured pencils.
I drew this in a HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook with a range of coloured pencils, including Prismacolor, Derwent Artist and Bruynzeel Design.
I find it hard now to believe I used to be scared of watercolour. These days it’s almost as much a comfort zone for me as Copic markers and yet I can look back even in the last sketchbook I used and find plenty of examples of horrible overworking. But right now I feel like I’m in a good place where I understand where to stop so that I don’t overwork – and I think perhaps that’s because I took Sketchbook Skool’s Coloured Pencil course and now feel much happier finishing paintings with coloured pencils instead of adding those extra layers of watercolour.
I drew this in a Laloran sketchbook with a Copic multiliner, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with coloured pencils.
Lana was wearing fake elf ears in the Sktchy inspiration photo for this portrait. Making them seem real was so much fun. And lthough they felt very unnatural to me at first I’m now beginning to enjoy adding these patterned backgrounds, although I still forget to include them until after I’ve done the portrait.
I drew this portrait in an A4 Moleskine Sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
drawing faces 