I had surgery to implant both a spinal cord stimulator and dorsal root stimulator in my spine a week ago today. It’s been a rough first week of recovery and today is the first day I’ve felt able to art, but I’ve managed a whole portrait.
This is Lina from the Museum by Sktchy app painted in watercolour and finished with coloured pencils,
I’m a long way away from my practice of daily portrait drawing at the moment – distracted by work, health issues and a gentle flow of commissions. In a few weeks time I’m hoping to have some surgery which might help a little with the health issues, we’ll see. My goal is to try to get back to a more or less daily practice of portrait drawing within a couple of months of the surgery. Watch this space to see if that happens.
In the meantime. I drew Ethan from the Museum by Sktchy app with Copic markers and coloured pencils in my Midori cotton sketchbook over a few days. The lack of daily practice is showing but I can only do what I can do right now. I’m glad to still be able to do some drawing right now.
Just when I think I’ve finally got to grips with drawing hair a portrait shows me that I really haven’t. This portrait of Alondra from the Museum by Sktchy app was one of those. How I struggled to capture her beautiful hair and I’m a million miles away from where I want to be. I really can’t find any good online courses on drawing/painting hair either so if anyone reading this knows of any please let me know!
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.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know that every so often I lose my drawing mojo, usually because I’m struggling with my chronic pain problems, and I have to find a way of boosting myself out of a drawing block. One of the ways I do that is by taking a drawing course in Skillshare or Domestika, which are very inexpensive online drawing schools.
This week I took a background illustration class using Photoshop on Domestika to try to get myself back into drawing. I don’t actually have Photoshop and have never used it but Procreate does much of the same things at a more basic level so I was able to follow the course and learn a lot from it. Of course I don’t draw backgrounds, I draw portraits, so I was keen to translate what I learned to my portrait drawing.
This is a portrait of Isabel from the Museum by Sktchy app drawn in Procreate on my iPad Pro using the new technique I learned on that course. I love how it turned out. I wasn’t sure it was going to turn out well at all – but suddenly about two-thirds of the way through I could see that it was beginning to look good. I’m hoping that my technique will improve with practice too.
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.
This is the lovely Amina from the Museum by Sktchy app, painted with watercolour and then finished off with coloured pencils in my Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.
I’m not getting much drawing done right now. I’ve had a post-durapuncture headache since I had my trial spinal cord stimulator removed, which is causing nausea, dizziness and various other problems, all of which make drawing difficult. But I finished a portrait today, yay!
I did another portrait! This is Naomi’s son, from the Museum by Sktchy app of course, and drawn on my iPad Pro using the TextureTown brushes that I love so much but haven’t used in a while.
I’ve drawn a portrait! It’s the first one in several weeks and it’s taken a few days. This is the wonderful Janie from Museum by Sktchy.
Apologies for my absence but I had some surgery a few weeks ago to trial a partially implanted spinal cord stimulator (SCS) for the pain I get from Chronic Regional Pin Syndrome (CRPS) in my right foot. For the 2 weeks the electrodes were in my spine I couldn’t bend or twist my back in case I pulled them out so it was too difficult to draw – because I tend to hunch over my desk when drawing.
I’ve had the SCS removed now but the good news is that the trial was a great success so I should get a full implant next year. But I can draw again – although my pain is back now the SCS is gone. But I can look forward to a time when I have a permanent SCS so my pain is reduced and, once I’ve healed after the surgery, I can draw with much less pain!
drawing faces 