There’s no question that drawing lines with a ballpoint pen is the most therapeutic kind of drawing for me. It’s just so simple and straightforward and I’m simply building up the image layer by layer with each colour. I’m still on sick leave at the moment and right now this is the kind of drawing that I find the most soothing.
The model is Kate from the Museum by Sktchy app and I used Bic 4 colour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain Notebook.
I generally rely on colour to bring my portraits to life but there is a simple pleasure in trying to capture a face through hatching with a ballpoint in just one colour . This is from a photo posted by Debie Evans on the Museum by Sktchy app, so I’ve decided to call him Evan.
I’ve gone back to Bics for my first portrait of 2022. This is Mahdiar from the Museum by Sktchy app (of course) drawn with my usual Bic 4-colour biros in a Life Noble Note Plain sketchbook. I’ve made him look a bit moodier than he is in the inspiration photo – he’s looking much happier in that but I lost his smile along the way.
I’d like to wish all my followers a very happy new year. I hope that 2022 brings you everything you would wish for yourself and your family, and I seriously hope it sees the beginning of the end of the Covid pandemic for all of us.
Today is Day 1 of Inktober 2021 when artists worldwide draw in ink for the entire month. Today’s Inktober prompt is Crystal and I chose to draw Sktchy muse Weston WIlliams with a Bic 4 colour pen.
I’m still struggling to draw at my desk due to lower back problems but it’s improving slowly with treatment. I’m managing a little bit of drawing most days so here’s a portrait of Vazha from the Museum by Sktchy app drawn with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens.
I’ve lost my pencil case with my drawing ballpoint pens in it. This is a major disaster. It’s taken me several days to replace my 4 colour Bics (especially the one with turquoise & light green) and I can’t find another golden yellow ballpoint anywhere. Paperchase don’t make the one I had any more. Aargh! I don’t know what happened to my pencil case but very afraid someone (not saying who) accidentally knocked it into a bin bag when emptying the rubbish bin under my desk… So making do while I rebuild my ballpoint pen collection. Moral of the story is to treasure your precious drawing supplies and guard the hard to replace ones jealously.
This is J from the Museum by Sktchy app, drawn with the three Bic 4 colour ballpoint pens I’ve replaced.
This is Luis from Sktchy drawn with Bic 4 colour ballpoint pens. I made a mess of his hair – a series of poor decisions about how I was going to tackle it… But I like how a lot of the face shading worked out. I’m getting better at representing the different planes of the face with just vertical lines and it worked well with this expression.
Scribbling away with my 4-colour Bics today for this portrait of Madgie from Sktchy.
I do like doing simple ballpoint pen hatching. There’s something so meditative about drawing all those lines going in one direction. This is so simple to do if you feel like having a go – just draw a simple outline of your main shapes and then fill them in building up the colour layer by layer. It’s easiest if you focus on your lightest and darkest areas first – I usually map them first with blue and then add other colours on top.
I’ve almost finished my Screen Queens themed sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project 2021 and of course I had to include the queen of all screen queens Miss Holly Golightly. I did dither a little bit and briefly consider including an alternative Audrey Hepburn character. I always knew I was going to include Audrey Hepburn but wasn’t 100% sure which character t draw, but the more I thought about it the more I knew it had to be Holly Golightly because she’s just so iconic. And she was a lot of fun to draw.
drawing faces 