Drawing this portrait of Sophie reminded me how much I love drawing machinery of any kind. I don’t draw enough of it. Reminder to self to draw more portraits involving machines 🙂.
I drew Sophie in my Laloran sketchbook with a Copic multiliner, painted the portrait with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils and a white Posca pen.
I’m having a difficult drawing week. Nothing is going right. I’ve made a conscious decision to take more time over my portraits, not rush them, try to work a little differently, and right now it’s a bit of a struggle. None of my drawings are working well. Perhaps this is inevitable when you change things and step outside your familiar work patterns. It wasn’t helped today by a crushing migraine.
Anyway, Avril ended up up with a slightly deformed body – I over exaggerated the foreshortening (not deliberately!) and really messed up that front leg and foot. But never mind. It’s all learning.
I drew Avril’s portrait in my Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I was intending to draw Michael with coloured pencil. But when I finished drawing an initial sketch with an HB pencil I moved without thinking into inking out a portrait with a fineliner, as I do when I’m making either a Copic or watercolour portrait. When I realised what I’d done it was too late – I’d inked out half his face! So I decided to make use of my error and try something different.
I knew that coloured pencil hatching alone wouldn’t be strong enough to match the ink lines. So I used my Derwent Inktense pencils, which I’ve hardly ever used in a portrait (not sure if I’ve ever used them if I’m honest), to create my basic colour layers and then finished off the portrait with some hatching with Prismacolor coloured pencils on top. I still think the ink lines are too strong for the pencil portrait but I can live with it, as an experiment. And I do like the combination of Inktense and regular coloured pencil, so I may use that again.
The portrait is drawn in my Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook.
This is Sktchy muse Lauren. I drew her in Procreate using Lisa Bardot’s wonderful gouache brushes. I’ve uploaded a short Procreate timelapse video of my drawing process on my YouTube channel – if you’re interested you can view it here.
Today’s portrait is of Jack, painted in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi watercolours and then finished with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
This portrait of Oriana reflects my new slower and more thoughtful approach to drawing faces. I focused less on capturing her likeness and more on representing something about her that felt true and honest to me. So while I can see that her face shape is not quite right in the portrait, I nevertheless think that I’ve captured the spirit of her in a beautiful way that makes me very happy.
I drew Oriana in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with Copic markers.
In the inspiration photo for Nicky’s portrait she has only one half of her face made up but I struggled to really show that with coloured pencils except on her lips. I really needed to add more depth of colour to her skin tones. Still much to learn about using coloured pencils!
I drew this in my Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook with Derwent Artists coloured pencils.
I want to spend more time on my portraits and, in particular, try to draw at least some portraits that include more than just a face. So here is a little more of Kaelin than just her face.
I painted this in my Laloran sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Back once again in my Copic comfort zone, Thiago has a little bit of everything I love. Beautiful skin tones, soulful eyes, a knitted hat, strong facial features, a few freckles and some stubble but no beard. Drawing heaven for me – his photo allowed me to have the simplest of line drawings and let my colour do the work, especially with the eyes and shadow, which are always the most important part for me. If you’re reading this Thiago, you’re the perfect male muse. Upload more Sktchy photos for me ASAP.
I drew Thiago in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook with a Copic multiliner and Copic markers.
I drew this portrait of Bailey on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app and Lisa Bardot’s pencil box brushes.
drawing faces 