Today is one of my favourite days of the year – even lockdown isn’t going to burst my Star Wars bubble and stop me drawing my annual May the Fourth Star Wars portrait. This awesome Yoda cosplay portrait is inspired by a photo posted by Beth on Sktchy.
I drew this in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers.
I think this portrait of Abi sums up perfectly how the first six weeks of lockdown have been for me.
I drew it with Bic ballpoint pens in a Moleskine sketchbook.
Something totally different today, a mermaid for Mermay. Mermay is a daily drawing challenge during the month of May, when the idea is quite simple to draw a mermaid every day, but I’ve never participated in it before. but then I saw Angela’s inspiration photo on Sktchy and decided that I would draw at least one mermaid this month.
It’s not my best work, I’m definitely having a few days when everything that can go wrong when I’m drawing does, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually a sign that I’ve either been working too much in a comfort zone (probably true) or I’m about to make a breakthrough (that would be nice..). Either way when I’m wrestling with my drawing it generally means I need to accept it and I will eventually move forward.
I painted this in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook and then work Ed on it initially with Prismacolor coloured pencils and then digitally in Procreate.
Some days you just feel like giving up. Today has been one of those days. In fact this week has been one of those weeks. Just keep drawing… going to get through coronavirus and whatever follows one portrait at a time.
I drew this on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app.
I drew this in a Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Today’s portrait is of a photo posted on Sktchy by Laya of someone she describes as her love. I’m not making any assumptions about whether that’s a partner, husband, best friend or family member! What I do know is that I’m still obsessing about whether or not to cover my face when I go outside – most people still aren’t, and while I know it’s a sensible thing to do I hate feeling conspicuous. I want to be invisible.
I painted this portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Japan is very high on my list of places I’d love to visit, though for a whole host of practical and health reasons I’m not sure I’ll ever get there. So I loved every minute of drawing Sktchy muse Cola’s Portrait, drawn from a photo taken in Yukata. I was very nearly transported away from lockdown Britain to a tearoom in Japan for the couple of hours I spent drawing this – it was possibly my favourite drawing session ever.
I’m so glad I learned to draw, especially now. Anything that can give me an escape from the anxiety of lockdown is precious indeed.
I drew Cola in my Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Posca pens.
I’ve practiced mindfulness for many years. It’s been one of my most important coping strategies when it comes to looking after my mental health and managing my chronic pain. In the many years I’ve been using it there have been only two times when I’ve really struggled with it, finding it hard to focus well enough even to practice and/or finding myself avoiding practice because to do so was so difficult. The first time was after I developed Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and the second is now. Both times the enormity of the situation has just felt too huge to allow my mind to be calm.
And yet, in the past few days, I am finally finding calm when I pick up my pens and my sketchbook or iPad and draw. I am beginning to find that mindful attention to the present moment returning when I’m focused on drawing portraits, more so every day. It’s taken five weeks to get here and it really is baby steps but I’m counting it as progress. I still can’t find the focus to sit down with my Mindful or Headspace apps, that’s asking too much of my frazzled, panicked mind, but an hour or so of portrait drawing a day is something I’m deeply grateful for.
I drew Sktchy muse Akeem on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.
Sktchy are hosting a Backward Portrait Party this weekend, challenging members to reverse their usual drawing or painting methods and works “backwards”. So I totally reversed my usual process to draw Anastasia’s portrait on my iPad. I usually paint hair last so I did it first, than I painted the face and features, and then added some colour for the sweater. I added some linework right at the end. You can see a short timelapse video of my drawing process on YouTube here.
The most interesting thing about this for me was that I was completely absorbed in my work while I was painting and drawing, more than at any time since the coronavirus lockdown began. For a whole hour or so I wasn’t anxious at all, I wasn’t thinking about anything else, I was just making art. It was so lovely to have some peace of mind.
The Financial Times has analysed figures released by the Office of National Statistics and estimates that the real figure for COVID-19 related deaths in the UK as of yesterday was in the region of 41,000, more than double the government’s official figure (https://www.ft.com/content/67e6a4ee-3d05-43bc-ba03-e239799fa6ab).
41,000 people dead, and I’ve seen today’s figure put at 43,000. I have no words to adequately express my feelings. I can barely breathe when I try to imagine that number of people grieving for their loved ones. How many more…
I painted Jackie’s portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
drawing faces 