Tag: Emilio Braga notebook

Monika

Monika

I spent a lot of time on this portrait of Monika but eventually ran out of steam and really didn’t want to work on it any more. This is my problem with both ballpoint pen and coloured pencil drawings – they take a lot of work to finish well. Sometimes they look good at a half done stage but you really have judge well when to stop. I worked on this one too long, past that stage so it really needs a lot more work to look much more finished to look good again. But that is a useful lesson for me in itself.

I drew this in an Emilio Braga notebook with Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens.

Sassa

Sassa

I drew Sassa in my small Emilio Braga notebook with Bic ballpoint pens. It’s always a little strange seeing a scan of a small portrait write larger on my iPad or laptop screen – my pen strokes look so much larger and every error is magnified. Sassa’s ear, which isn’t right in my small drawing, is so much more obviously wrong here. But I remind myself that it doesn’t really matter – sharing is simply what keeps me accountable, what makes me keep drawing. It’s the process that really matters, not the outcome.

This is just the fourth drawing in my Emilio Braga notebook and already the notebook is starting to come apart at the seams. I love the paper – it’s a great surface for drawing on with ballpoints. But the notebooks are just that, notebooks designed for writing in, not drawing in. They are clearly not designed for the fairly heavy handling of my ballpoint pen drawing. It seems to be way that I keep turning the book when I’m hatching that is pulling on the stitching. I’m quite frustrated anyway that it doesn’t seem to be up to the job and I might have to abandon it.

Noppadol

Noppadol

Such a great name and such a great face – when I saw his photo on Sktchy Noppadol was an irresistible draw. Some I can browse Sktchy for hour’s trying to find a face I want to draw and other times one jumps right out and grabs me immediately and Noppadol’s was the grabbing kind – and I’m glad it’s a smiley face. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn a great smile so I’m guessing it’s a good sign that I wanted to draw one today.

I drew this in my Emilio Braga notebook with Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour pens.

Solaleh

Solaleh

I was up most of last night with a pounding migraine – I can’t lie down when they’re this bad because it feels like my head will explode if I do. Today the left side of my face is numb, I don’t have full vision in my left eye and I’m taking a lot of codeine. So I needed to come up with a quick draw. I’ve got a box of Faber-Castell Pitt artists pens on my desk that I’ve barely used because I don’t really know what to do with them, so I thought I’d have a go at using them the same way I use ballpoint pens for this portrait of Sktchy muse Solaleh. I quite like the result, especially the way it kind of reflects my migraine state of mind, with its washed out and jagged colour.

I drew Solaleh in my Emilio Braga notebook with Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

I’m doing the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge at the moment, though I’m being a bit laid back about it and only doing it on the days that the suggested portrait interests me. I’m running a day behind because, being in the UK, I receive the challenges mid-evening and only have time to draw them late afternoon the following day when I’m done with work. So this is the challenge for day 6, Amelia Earharts

The suggestion was to draw this portrait with a non-traditional art supply so I used my Bic ballpoints. I drew this on the first page of an Emilio Braga Portuguese notebook – it’s a really beautiful notebook that has been sitting on my shelf for a while waiting to be used. I’ve just finished my Moleskine sketchbook so I’ll be using this for my ballpoint sketches for a while.