I totally messed up the mouth in Berto’s portrait, but apart from that this felt like a step forward in my watercolour technique. I felt like I had much better control of my brush and that there was a real connection between what my eyes saw and what my brush communicated on the page when I was painting.
I painted Berto’s portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with my Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it was Prismacolor coloured pencils.
When I first started drawing faces I was terrified of expressions and would only draw expressionless faces looking forward, mouth closed. Now, a few years and more than 1200 portraits later, I have much confidence in my portraiture skills and it’s all about expressions. When I’m looking through Sktchy for a face to draw the images that jump out at me are the ones with great lighting, interest skintones and/or wonderful expressions to draw. The inspiration photo for this portrait of Denyce has all three.
I drew Denyce in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with a Micron pen, painted her with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I’m starting 2020 with a little watercolour of Tina’s son. I don’t know his name but I loved the photo of him she posted on Sktchy. I love to try to capture different expressions in my portraits and this one is just great! It’s all in the eyes and the eyebrows.
I drew the portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with a Micron .01 fineliner, painted with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it off with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Santa brought me a set of Boko Undo E-Sumi Japanesque watercolours in “Almost Black” shades. This was my first use of them, trialling the purplish black for this portrait of Sktchy muse Tink. It was also only the second page of my new watercolour Moleskine sketchbook, so I was trying out new paint in a new sketchbook, so I’m pretty happy with how the portrait turned out, all things considered. I like both the paint and the sketchbook.
This is a portrait of Sktchy muse Ima and is the first page of my new Moleskine watercolour sketchbook. Lots of people talk about being nervous of drawing on the first page of a new sketchbook. I used to feel that way but once I started daily drawing I lost all first page nerves. The first page is no different to any other page – if anything, I’m excited to start a new sketchbook. That’s not so much about the drawing but about stickering the covers. I collect stickers purely for putting on the covers of my sketchbooks so I love to start new sketchbooks so I can put new stickers on them.
I painted Ima with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
This is the last portrait in my current watercolour portrait sketchbook. I messed up Mae’s hair and had to add some highlights in Procreate, which gave me a chance to experiment with some of the lovely new digital brushes. And because I have finished a sketchbook I’ve filmed a quick flip through of the whole sketchbook, which you can see on YouTube here if you’re interested.
I drew Mae’s portrait in my Laloran sketchbook with a Micron fineliner, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours, added some Prismacolor coloured pencils and then finished off with some digital editing in Procreate.
I’m still struggling to find my drawing/painting stride after weeks of work and political stress. I was woken up by a migraine at 3.30am this morning so I’m just happy to have completed this portrait of Alexis today.
I painted Alexis in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with coloured pencils.
Alexander’s face ended up a little wonky but never mind. I’m snowed under with work at the moment and really struggling to find drawing time, which I’m finding frustrating. I hate not having enough time to settle down and focus properly on drawing but everything I’m doing feels very rushed at the moment. I’m so looking forward to the Christmas break, when I’ll have two whole weeks with no work and plenty of time to draw!
I drew Alexander in my Laloran sketchbook with a Micron pen, painted him with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I love playing with light and shadows in my portraiture. I’m always drawn to Sktchy inspiration photos that have interesting light and shadows in them and the photo that inspired this portrait of AmĂ©lie is a good example. Her hair and the bottom part of her face was well lit but the top half of her face was in a great shadow cast by the bucket hat. Capturing that shadow, and the texture of the hat, without making everything too dark and overworking the portrait was a great challenge and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
I painted Amelie in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I had the time to sit at my desk and paint for the first time in a week today. Its hard to express how much I’ve missed it. I didn’t even have the patience to ink over my pencil lines!
I drew Trevor in my Laloran sketchbook with an HB pencil, painted him with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
drawing faces 