I’m planning on trying to keep up with Inktober 2020 and drawing a portrait a day with ballpoint pens. I’m not following the prompts – I’ve done that in the past but I just don’t have the time this year to spend hours looking for inspirations to fit the prompts. So I’m just going to draw portraits that appeal to me. So for Day 1 I’ve drawn Sktchy muse Chad.
For the last day of September I drew Hannah’s dog on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app again. Tomorrow Inktober begins and I’m going to try to draw with ballpoints every day. I’m not sure if I’ll manage a portrait a day for the whole of October but I’ll give it my best shot.
Today I made a digital stamp portrait of myself using a selfie photo as inspiration. I’m thinking of getting it turned into a real stamp to use for signing my artwork.
I made this image on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app and digital block printing techniques.
This is Amanda from Sktchy. I get such a kick out of drawing foreshortening, especially because it usually involves drawing extra large hands and feet! I drew Amanda on my iPad Pro using Procreate and Lisa Bardot’s gouache brushes.
It’s Inktober again in just a few days so before we get there I’ve decided to spend the last few days of September drawing in Procreate, in part because I feel like I’m neglecting my iPad a little at the moment and if I stick with inktober this year I won’t be using it all next month. So this is Sara from Sktchy drawn in Procreate with the ballpointy brush.
I’m finding that the only way to keep drawing when I’m really busy with work, as I am right now, is to draw in snatched pockets of time wherever I can find them. It’s hard with ballpoint pen drawings especially to keep a sense of continuity in drawings made this way – looking at this portrait of Ilkim from Sktchy I can see clearly where I stooped and restarted. But perhaps that isn’t so obvious to you? And coming back to a drawing a day later certainly has some advantages; I see values much better when I’ve stepped away from a portrait for several hours.
I drew Ilkim with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
I don’t know the name of this model but the inspiration photo was posted on Sktchy by Kristie. I used Sennelier watercolours and Polychromos coloured pencils in a Moleskine sketchbook.
This is Fary from Sktchy, drawn in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.
I’m not an American but even here on the other side of the pond many of us, especially women, are deeply grateful for the life, work and inspiration of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court Justice and feminist icon who died yesterday. I am certainly feeling her loss today and she was the only person I could possibly draw.
I painted this in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours then warmed on it with Luminance coloured pencils. Then I scanned it in to my iPad Pro and worked on it some more in Procreate using Lisa Bardot’s Pencil Box brushes.
My daughter has just landed herself a great job, starting Monday, in a different part of the country. It’s fabulous news, especially for someone just starting out in a creative industry right now (she works in film) but trying to find somewhere for her to live with four days notice (two of which are the weekend), get her packed up and moved with partial regional lockdowns spreading (plus it’s her birthday tomorrow) is no joke. So drawing is being done in fits and starts when I have time in between the 101 other tasks… This portrait of Taha from Sktchy is what I’ve managed in the past 2 days.
I drew this with Bic ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
drawing faces 