This is how all my Copic portraits start out. I draw a quick pencil portrait and then work over it with a fineliner before erasing the pencil. This time I liked my pencil sketch of Alena so much I decided to leave it as it is and not move on to pen and Copic markers.
I drew Alena with a Blackwing 602 pencil in a Midori Cotton sketchbook.
I painted Madi in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I thought I’d try something completely different for this portrait, which is my entry for this week’s Old School Sktchy weekly art extravaganza challenge on the theme “fairytale”.
I drew the portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.
At the moment my Copic markers are being very leaky. Every time I do a Copic portrait I seem to end up with a large pool of Copic ink on the page. Fortunately Midori sketchbook pages don’t feather ink very much, it just dries in a pool creating a watercolour-like effect which is accentuated by my recent switch from black to dark fineliner s for my linework. This is definitely the most watercolour like Copic portrait I’ve drawn so far. But it was all Copic markers in a Midori Cotton sketchbook with some coloured pencil over the top to finish it off.
Still struggling to really feel comfortable with ballpoint pens. There were times when I was drawing this whe I was getting a light touch and then I just lost it completely again. I’m hoping that eventually, with more and more practice, I’ll get there and it will begin to come naturally.
I drew Nande in a Moleskine sketchbook with Bic Cristal ballpoint pens.
This was so much fun to draw. I used to hate drawing hair, I was always overwhelmed by it, and curly hair still sometimes terrifies me but Andrea’s hair was fabulous to draw.
I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.
I think my coloured pencil sketching is improving slowly. I drew Bailey in a HannehmĂĽhle Nostalgie sketchbook with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
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 portrait of Vez was a fun draw but the most remarkable thing about it for me is that I’ve somehow rejuvenated Vez, by around 10-20 years! If anything I usually make my subjects look a little older than their actual age and this is certainly the first time I’ve made someone look so much younger! I wish I knew how I’d done it because I suspect this would be guaranteed to keep the commissions flooding in.
I drew Vez on my iPad Pro with a 2nd Generation Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.
drawing faces 