Tag: drawing faces

Nazli

This is Nazli from Sktchy. I was playing with texture in Procreate for this portrait, using Lisa Bardot’s fabulous Pencil Box brushes.

Copic Marker Sketchbook

I’ve just realised that I completed my Copic marker sketchbook a few days ago – I didn’t notice that I was on the last page when I was drawing in it. So I’ve filmed a flip through of it and posted it on my YouTube channel.

I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made looking through it since I began it in January 2020. If you’d like to take a look at it you can view it here.

Juan

Ballpoint pen sketching is by far the most meditative for me – I think it’s the repetitive hatching in one direction that makes it feel so relaxing. And I have another big week on my hospital neuromodulation course this week so I needed a calming day today so I decided to use ballpoint pens for this portrait of Juan from Sktchy.

Amber

I’m in the middle of a 2-week hospital course prior to hopefully getting a spinal cord stimulator to help with my chronic neuropathic pain, so I’ve had no time at all to draw this week. So it’s been nice to get some time with my sketchbook today. This is Amber from Sktchy and I used both watercolours and coloured pencils for this portrait in my Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.

Julieta

This is the lovely Julieta from Sktchy. I used to work only in Copic markers but I think it’s fair to say that I couldn’t imagine working only with markers these days. I always work over them with coloured pencils to add more subtlety and sheen to the skintones and highlights in the hair. They are also great for working over smalll errors in my linework!

Álfrún

Álfrún was one of my first Sktchy draws and every so often I return to her gallery to find another photo to draw. She has a wonderful collection of inspiration photos to choose from and such a beautiful face to draw. Capturing such fair skintones and light hair effectively is also a challenging exercise for me to return to. I used Lisa Bardot’s new upadted Pencil Box brush collection for Procreate to draw this portrait on my iPad Pro.

Bennett

This is Bennett from Sktchy. This portrait ended up looking rather stylised, more than I’d intended, and I’m not sure if I like it. I don’t think it’s any one element, it’s more a combination of the quite blocky hair, the overly lidded eyes and the too small mouth. I unintentionally exaggerated all these features just a little too much. Every portrait is a lesson.

General Leia Organa – Star Wars Day 2021

May the Fourth be with you! Happy Star Wars Day 2021.

Jacob

I love it when people upload photos of themselves pulling faces onto Sktchy. It’s so much more interesting to draw unusual facial expressions than the regular “straight to camera” smile.

If you’re a Sktchy muse reading this and wondering what kind of photos you need to post to get drawn, this is something Sktchy artists are always talking about off-site. Personally I like clear crisp photos with great eyes, interesting skin tones, good shadows, freckles, lots of reflected light, hands… no photo will have everything I want but those are things that catch my eye. Photos I avoid are ones that are too blurry, anything that has been touched up to create clear smooth skin (it might look great in beauty photos but it’s totally uninteresting to paint), and lots of teeth (teeth are most artists’ nightmare and I struggle to make them look good), and ones with Snapchat filters of any kind.

But at the end of the day everyone has their own personal preference and what I don’t like might well appeal to someone else – so don’t be put off from posting your favourite photos. Most importantly, as with all social media, interact with people and comment on their work. I always check out the photos of everyone who comments on my work to see if they have photos I might want to draw.

Yuka

It’s been a very busy week at with little time for drawing so this portrait of Yuka from Sktchy drawn in Procreate on my iPad Pro is all I’ve managed to finish.