For some reason this portrait of Hannah has taken me days to complete. I was away on holiday for a week a couple of weeks ago and returned to technological mayhem with my email down for days, which disrupted my life hugely. And it feels like I’m only just getting now beginning to get back into my work, draw, rest rhythm of life. Anyway I finished it eventually, though I fear I aged Hannah by about 10 years 😂
I started drawing portraits with ballpoint pens in 2020 and I’ve drawn one every few weeks since then. Today I finished my first sketchbook of these drawings almost exactly three years after I started it with this portrait of Jodi from the Museum by Sktchy app. It’s a wonderful sketchbook because I can see how much progress I’ve made over these three years I developing both my skills and my style.
If you’d like to see a flip through of my completed sketchbook you can view it on YouTube here.
The inspiration photo for this portrait of Natascia just cried out for an iPad drawing exercise using the symmetry tool so, of course, I decided to draw it the hard way, in my sketchbook using Copic markers and pencils.
It was a fun drawing exercise, where I was checking both on the image and my drawing to try to get some sense of symmetry but trying not to be overexercised by it. I wanted the drawing to work on its own, rather than worrying too much about it being perfectly symmetrical. And it certainly isn’t the latter but I think it works nicely as a drawing so I’m happy with it.
This is Mussu from the Museum by Sktchy app. I drew her in a Sketchbook Skool Spark Drawing Faces class. The drawing didn’t work out – I ended up with large “watermarks” from the alcohol markers on her forehead and cheeks so I decided to use the drawing in a subsequent class on touching up drawings on the iPad.
So this is the portrait after those watermarks have been touched up a little on the iPad. I’ve also cleaned up other parts of the portrait digitally and added some highlights with a digital pencil brush. Loving how I was able to turn a disaster into a used learning opportunity 😊
I bought some new 4 colour ballpoint pens by Life & Pieces; one is the usual blue/red/black/green but the other two have different colours to my usual Bics. I used all three for this portrait of Jeff from the Museum by Ktchy app.
They’re a bit blobby as you can probably tell – far more blobs of ink on this drawing than the Bics ever give me. They’re also more like gel pens, it’s not easy to work light strokes with them. But it was still fun to switch it up & use something different and I love the overall colour effect I got from them.
I drew Ellie on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app and True Grit Texture Supply Chromograph brushes.
Another floral portrait for May.
Today’s face is a quick ballpoint pen portrait of Bia using Bic 4-colour pens.
We’re celebrating the month of May in my Drawing Faces class with a month of floral portraits. We’ve started with a couple of weeks working on Alyona and her flower crown. It’s been a lot of fun!
A little bit of Bank Holiday drawing resulted in this portrait of Courtney’s friend, wearing his beautiful flower crown.
drawing faces 