I’m still adjusting to the paper in my new sketchbook. I always forget what a difference paper makes to my drawings and that it will take me a week or two to adjust to working in a new book. I’ve worked in a Midori Cotton before, but it was a while ago, so I’m definitely having to readjust to the slickness of the paper again. But this is always a fun process!
I drew Yasmin with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils in an A5 Midori Cotton sketchbook.
All my portraits go through an ugly phase. That’s part of my process. When they’re looking ugly, I just have to have faith in my process, not worry about the ugliness, trust that if I just keep going it will end up looking ok. I’m sharing this because I think that beginner portrait artists think that my portraits look great as soon as I start drawing, and that’s just not the way it is. Here’s this portrait at its really ugly stage:
When I first started drawing with Copic markers and was experimenting with shadows and I added grey and my portrait looked like this I was horrified. But at that point I didn’t really have any choice but to carry on and see if I could improve it. So I did and that’s how I developed my portrait method. And I learned not be scared of the ugly phase But to work through it and experiment. It’s probably the most important thing I’ve learned.
I drew James in a Midori Cotton sketchbook with a Unipin dark grey fineliner and Copic markers.
This is Jojo. In her inspiration image she’s at the hairdressers but as I was drawing her she began to look more and more like a character in an anime version of Star Wars 😊
I drew Jojo in my Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic Markers and coloured pencils.
The inspiration photo for this portrait of Rocio is so fantastic – it just oozes warmth and happiness, I couldn’t resist drawing it for this week’s Old School Sktchy challenge which has the prompt “light”. I wasn’t able to capture the fantastic glow that the light from the rainbow emits in the photo but I did get some of the warmth
I drew this portrait on the first page of my new Midori Cotton sketchbook using Ca Micron fineliner, Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Today’s portrait of Christiane is the last portrait in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook. For some reason the paper, which has been fine throughout the book, reacted weirdly to my markers on this page, pilling and tearing around the nose and being generally difficult. I’m so glad this only happened on that back page!
I’ve shared a flip through of the whole book on my YouTube channel – you can watch it here.
I love drawing half faces. It takes away all the stress of drawing the second eye. Lots of other artists on Sktchy have talked at one time or another of the fear of drawing the second eye. In my case I tend to draw it slightly lower and bigger than the first eye. It doesn’t matter what I do to try to account for this (guidelines, careful measuring, etc), I still have a tendency to get it wrong and I almost always have to draw it two or three times before I’m just OK with how it looks. So drawing a half face (or a profile) every now gives me a day off from that particular worry. And I couldn’t resist Helena’s beautiful strawberry blonde hair!
I drew Helena’s portrait in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with a Micron fineliner and Copic markers.
This week’s Old School Sktchy weekly art extravaganza (wax) challenge theme is “historical”, and when choosing a photo I knew I only needed to visit Rick’s Sktchy photo collection to find an inspiration photo to draw from. Rick is probably the most well known Sktchy muse. He has a huge collection of more than a thousand inspiration photos, in a massive range of costumes and poses. He also very open to suggestions from artists if someone has an idea for an new costume he might pose in. So a quick hunt through Rick’s photos turned up the inspiration photo for this portrait, which wouldn’t look out of place on a miniature in the Victoria & Albert Museum.
I drew Rick in my Moleskine sketchbook with a Micron fineliner, Copic markers and coloured pencils.
This is Sktchy muse Avonlea. I love the way the light casts a shadow down the left side of her face and across her eyes in the inspiration photo for this portrait, and capturing that without darkening her eyes too much was my main focus when drawing. I’m so happy with the finished portrait; I really feel like it’s the best I could have done right now and that’s all I can ask of myself.
I drew Avonlea in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with a Micron fineliner, Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.
This is Sktchy muse Scott and this is the kind of Sktchy inspiration photo that is irresistible for me. I love these kind of ‘altered perspective through glasses’ photos and that pipe is fantastic. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to draw the pipe initially but I figured if I messed it up I could crop it out and just include the pipe stem in my portrait (these kinds of cheats are essential to my drawing practice 😂) but in the end I was happy enough with how it turned out. It’s a little large but I wasn’t going to worry too much about that.
I drew Scott in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with Copic markers and a white gel pen.
This is Bec, one of my oldest online drawing buddies. We’ve never met in person because I live in the UK and Bec lives in Australia, but we see each other most days on Instagram, Facebook and/or Sktchy and often chat about drawing, art communities and family. I’ve aged Bec a little in this portrait- she’s definitely younger than she looks here! But I know she’ll forgive me because she knows this is the kind of thing that sometimes happens when you’re drawing.
I drew Bec’s portrait in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with Copic markers, coloured pencils and metallic gel pens.
drawing faces 