I’ve been playing around with both real and digital coloured pencils for this portrait of Athenas today. I started off drawing her in my Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook with an HB pencil and Prismacolor coloured pencils. Then I imported that sketch into Procreate on my iPad Pro abundance worked on it some more with a Blackwing Pencil brush.
I drew Jason in a bit of a hurry, in a squeezed hour and a half between household chores and rushing out to a work meeting. Somehow that rush worked. I had to use the chisel tips on my Copic markers to cover space quickly and the time pressure focused my mind and attention on picking up the main colours and not worrying too much about lesser ones. I love the immediacy of the finished portrait. It lacks the polish of some of my Copic portraits but I think that’s more than made up for by interest and freshness.
I drew Jason in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I had the time to sit at my desk and paint for the first time in a week today. Its hard to express how much I’ve missed it. I didn’t even have the patience to ink over my pencil lines!
I drew Trevor in my Laloran sketchbook with an HB pencil, painted him with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I love how this portrait of Izabelle captures the sense of her without being a realistic drawing of her. That wasn’t intentional. I’m always seeking likeness when I’m drawing portraits but in this case I lost it far more than usual but ended up with what I feel is a great representation of her nevertheless (much more so than many of my portraits that capture a good likeness!).
I drew Izabelle on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.
I love drawing exaggerated facial expressions, the stronger the better, and this one of Olivia’s is just great. I had a ball drawing it.
I drew it with Copic markers and coloured pencils in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook.
I’m going to be away for the next few days speaking at a conference in the north of England for my day job so I’m probably not be going to be getting much portrait drawing in (but maybe doing a little on the train, who knows?). Hopefully posting here again by the weekend.
I’ve been working on this slowly for a few days and it was going so well and then I messed up the nose. And with ballpoint there’s no way of undoing the mess. So I just have to live with it and learn from it, and hopefully not make that mistake again.
I drew Ylenia in my tiny Moleskine sketchbook with Hema and Paperchase multicolour ballpoint pens.
Today’s portrait of Lala is also my submission for this week’s Sktchy Wonderland challenge, to draw a portrait inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which also happens to be one of my favourites books (and Tenniel’s original illustrations remain my favourite, although there have been many fine revisionings).
I painted Lala in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with my Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I drew Lilly in my Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Jenell is the queen of Sktchy muses. She is probably the one female muse who every Sktchy artist has to draw as part of their rite of passage into the Sktchy community. I’ve drawn her once before, in my first year on Sktchy but I don’t think I’ve drawn her since then. So it was a joy to sit down and draw those very familiar eyes and cheekbones today! This was fun.
I drew Jenell in my Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I’m still a complete novice at ballpoint pen drawing but I love doing it and I’m improving very slowly. I love the richness of colour in really good ballpoint pen portraits and I’m a huge fan of great ballpoint artists like Robin Hilthouse and Nicolas Sanchez. And I know the only way to develop those kind of skills is to practice, practice, practice. So right now I’ve learned the basics and now I’m trying to find a drawing and hatching style that works for me. I feel like I’m getting a little closer in this portrait of Jade (in cosplay as Coraline).
I drew this in my tiny Moleskine with a range of multicolour ballpoints from the British brand Paperchase and the Dutch brand Hema.
drawing faces 