This is Hannah from Sktchy for day 8 of Inktober. I’m learning a lot from rushing through these daily ballpoint pen portraits for Inktober – mostly how to work faster and that I often like them better half done. But I do lose the likeness every time when I’m rushing.
Today has been crazy, crazy – I have some kind of a virus that’s aggravating my asthma (I’m getting tested tomorrow for Covid-19) so I’ve spent half the day in telephone consultations with various doctors & nurses plus trying to do my regular remote working. So it feels miraculous that I’ve produced any kind of a portrait for day 7 of Inktober but here it is. This is David from Sktchy drawn with a single blue Bic ballpoint pen.
This is Alex from Sktchy for day 6 of Inktober. I drew this with a single Bic 4-way multicolour pen – the rarer purple, orange, pink and yellow variety.
Today’s Sktchy inspiration is Ghazal for day 5 of Inktober. I wanted to see what I could do with a single 4-colour (red, blue, black & green) Bic pen. I love how the limited palette made me think and work a little differently.
This is Jon from Sktchy, my portrait for day 4 of Inktober. I often like my ballpoint pen drawings best at this stage, when I’ve just laid down a first layer of orange on the skin and blue for the shadows. So I stopped here today.
Drawn in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens.
This is Mussu from Sktchy for Inktober Day 3.
I’ve run out of time to finish this and I’d rather post a half-finished portrait than start falling behind on Day 2 of Inktober! So this is what my ballpoint portraits look like at around the halfway point.
This is Sydney from Sktchy drawn with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
I’m planning on trying to keep up with Inktober 2020 and drawing a portrait a day with ballpoint pens. I’m not following the prompts – I’ve done that in the past but I just don’t have the time this year to spend hours looking for inspirations to fit the prompts. So I’m just going to draw portraits that appeal to me. So for Day 1 I’ve drawn Sktchy muse Chad.
I’m finding that the only way to keep drawing when I’m really busy with work, as I am right now, is to draw in snatched pockets of time wherever I can find them. It’s hard with ballpoint pen drawings especially to keep a sense of continuity in drawings made this way – looking at this portrait of Ilkim from Sktchy I can see clearly where I stooped and restarted. But perhaps that isn’t so obvious to you? And coming back to a drawing a day later certainly has some advantages; I see values much better when I’ve stepped away from a portrait for several hours.
I drew Ilkim with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
My daughter has just landed herself a great job, starting Monday, in a different part of the country. It’s fabulous news, especially for someone just starting out in a creative industry right now (she works in film) but trying to find somewhere for her to live with four days notice (two of which are the weekend), get her packed up and moved with partial regional lockdowns spreading (plus it’s her birthday tomorrow) is no joke. So drawing is being done in fits and starts when I have time in between the 101 other tasks… This portrait of Taha from Sktchy is what I’ve managed in the past 2 days.
I drew this with Bic ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
drawing faces 