Ayshin

This is the lovely Ayshin from Sktchy. I totally messed up the headscarf in the portrait so I had to change the colour from a creamy yellow to purple to disguise my disaster which works OK, but isn’t quite what I had planned. I wish I had left the scarf alone as a line drawing and hadn’t attempted to add colour to it at all. There’s a lesson there for me in putting a little more thought into when to stop drawing.

I drew Ayshin in my Life Noble Note Plain with Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens.

Melek

I can’t resist a good mirror selfie, especially when there’s a little bit of distortion to make it a bit more fun! This is a portrait of Melek drawn from a really fabulous mirror selfie she posted on Sktchy.

I drew this portrait in my Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Dennis

I’ve been working on this portrait of Dennis from Sktchy very slowly for days, scratching away on my iPad Pro with the ballpointy brush. I’m finding building up layers of colour through slow hatching so very meditative.

James

Some days I’m tired and I want an easy draw. It’s so hot here on the south coast of England right now it’s hard to find the energy to do anything so I’m taking the path of least resistance. That means hanging out in my Copic comfort zone today for this portrait of James, drawn in my Midori cotton sketchbook.

Lucia

Sometimes an inspiration image is so great it tells a story all by itself. You don’t need to do nothing except draw or paint it. Once you’ve done that the story is there on the page for the viewer to see and interpret as they see fit. The inspiration photo for this portrait of Lucia from Sktchy is one of those images. It’s such a perfect photo of a young woman with her hair in big pink rollers, not the kind of image very often these days, yet something that speaks of a very familiar past to anyone born more than 30 or so years ago. I love it and I loved painting it.

I drew this with a Unipin dark grey brush pen, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Henry

There is always something very satisfying about drawing with that most humble of drawing materials, the Bic ballpoint pen. This is Henry from Sktchy, drawn in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook with Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens.

Heidi

This is Heidi, who is another Sktchy artist. Her photo, which was the inspiration for this portrait, is so joyful that I really felt the joy while I was painting this. It was fun to create!

I drew Heidi with a dark grey Unipin brush pen in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, painted her with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Cosmic

This is Cosmic from Sktchy. The inspiration photo has fantastic intense colour but I ran out of steam long before I got anywhere near those intense blues and reds. Maybe I’ll come back to it another day and finish it off.

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

Marta

Struggling with a very strange migraine at the moment and it made it very difficult to draw this portrait of Marta from Sktchy. I was having trouble seeing colours, tones, shapes and details. It was a very odd experience and in retrospect I’m amazed that I even finished the drawing but can see how off all those elements are. Maybe I’ll try again when my head doesn’t hurt. In the meantime this will have to do.

I drew this with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils in a Midori cotton sketchbook.

Hannah

I got some new stippling brushes for Procreate and played with them while drawing this portrait. I have an electric stippling pen that I used to love drawing with, though I haven’t used it for a while, so it was fun to play with dots again, although i think I’ll need lots more practice with these brushes before I’ll feel confident using them. But I’m happy enough with this first go at drawing Hannah from Sktchy.

I drew Hannah on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app and True Grit Texture Supply’s Stippling Brush Set for Procreate.