Tag: 14 day portrait challenge

Frida

Frida Kahlo

I’ve been taking part in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge. Today’s person to draw was Frida Kahlo but I decided that I didn’t want to draw the flower crowned iconic Frida that everyone knows. Instead I decided to draw the younger sterner Frida who wasn’t entirely sure yet who she wanted to be.

I decided to draw this portrait on my iPad Pro because I thought Procreate offered me the best tools for trying to recreate the vintage feel of the photo I was drawing from. I used most of my favourite brushes – the wet acrylic, the stucco, the Blackwing Pencil, and the Studio Pen.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

I’m doing the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge at the moment, though I’m being a bit laid back about it and only doing it on the days that the suggested portrait interests me. I’m running a day behind because, being in the UK, I receive the challenges mid-evening and only have time to draw them late afternoon the following day when I’m done with work. So this is the challenge for day 6, Amelia Earharts

The suggestion was to draw this portrait with a non-traditional art supply so I used my Bic ballpoints. I drew this on the first page of an Emilio Braga Portuguese notebook – it’s a really beautiful notebook that has been sitting on my shelf for a while waiting to be used. I’ve just finished my Moleskine sketchbook so I’ll be using this for my ballpoint sketches for a while.

Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher as General Leia

I’m participating in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge, although it’s now Day 4 and this is the first day I’ve felt inspired to draw a portrait. Every day for 14 days they email a prompt for a portrait but the first three prompts didn’t excite me enough to make me want to draw the suggested portrait. But today’s prompt was to draw someone, living or dead, who I’d like to have a meal with.

And I came up with a very long list, but I would love, love, love to have a meal with Carrie Fisher. And not the young Carrie Fisher, but the older wiser Carrie Fisher. Because while I love the actor I adore the outspoken courageous sassy mental health campaigning Carrie Fisher most of all. That’s the woman I would love to sit down and share a meal with.

This is the third portrait of her I drew. The first two weren’t right. The likeness was fine but somehow they didn’t capture her. And suddenly I realised why. She needs to be among the stars – that’s where she belongs. So when I drew this third portrait I was imagining her as a constellation.

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