I’ve been far too busy with work these past few days to do any drawing so today was the first opportunity I had to get back to it. And then I struggled to find a rhythm and a focus. I made a pencil drawing in a sketchbook which I’m not sharing with anyone, it really was that bad. And then I pulled out my iPad and made this portrait of Calysta from Sktchy using Georg’s ballpointy brush.
I’m having some problems with my hands at the moment and I’m having to adapt my drawing style a little. My drawings are becoming looser as a result, especially today’s portrait of Eira from Sktchy. I really like how this one has turned out.
I drew this with a dark grey Unipin fineliner in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
More scribbling with Bic ballpoints for today’s portrait of Jasmine from Sktchy in a Life Noble Note Plain.
This is Gabriela from Sktchy, drawn with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils in a Midori cotton sketchbook.
I’m finding making these hatched ballpoint pen drawings very therapeutic. It’s something about gradually building a face out of parallel lines, well not entirely parallel but the best that my painful hands can make! This is Kelmy from Sktchy and I drew him with Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
This is Don from Sktchy painted in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi watercolours and finished with Prismacolor coloured pencils.
My drawing therapy is working. I’m finding easier each day to get lost in the process of just drawing, of finding the lines and playing with colour and gradually I’m making my peace with the world again. I know it will be some time before I’m back where I was a year ago, but that’s OK. I’m going in the right direction and I know what I need to do. And this portrait of Janet from Sktchy was today’s step in that direction.
I drew Janet on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app. I’ve uploaded a Procreate timelapse video to YouTube. If you’d like to see it you can watch it here.
I had a lot of fun playing around with colour in my Copic comfort zone for today’s portrait of Sktchy muse Scott.
I drew this in my Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.
Sometimes a portrait just works and almost seems to draw itself and this was one of those times. This is drawn from a photo posted by Giang on Sktchy. Once I started drawing I realised that both the hair and the jacket were quite complex but I found ways of simplifying them both that added to the portrait rather than taking anything away. I should also say that she really does have hands and fingers that long – they’re beautiful!
I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app.
I’ve abandoned the Emilio Braga notebook that I was using for my ballpoint pen drawings. After just five drawings it started to fall apart and there was no way it was going to cope with many more of these sketches. To be fair, it’s a notebook, not a sketchbook, and ballpoint pen drawing requires a lot of moving a lot of the page around and some layering of pen work so it does need a book that will take some rough treatment. The Emilio Braga notebook is a beautiful notebook, it’s just not made for this kind of work.
So for this portrait of Nadia from Sktchy I started a new sketchbook that I bought recently, a Life Noble Notebook with plain paper. This is another Japanese notebook that I saw in an online shop that was relatively inexpensive and irresistible to a Japanese paper addict like me. And the paper is beautiful for ballpoints! It’s a dream for drawing and would be great for writing or calligraphy too.
I used my usual Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoints for this portrait in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
drawing faces 