This is Hannah from Sktchy for day 8 of Inktober. I’m learning a lot from rushing through these daily ballpoint pen portraits for Inktober – mostly how to work faster and that I often like them better half done. But I do lose the likeness every time when I’m rushing.
Today has been crazy, crazy – I have some kind of a virus that’s aggravating my asthma (I’m getting tested tomorrow for Covid-19) so I’ve spent half the day in telephone consultations with various doctors & nurses plus trying to do my regular remote working. So it feels miraculous that I’ve produced any kind of a portrait for day 7 of Inktober but here it is. This is David from Sktchy drawn with a single blue Bic ballpoint pen.
This is Alex from Sktchy for day 6 of Inktober. I drew this with a single Bic 4-way multicolour pen – the rarer purple, orange, pink and yellow variety.
Today’s Sktchy inspiration is Ghazal for day 5 of Inktober. I wanted to see what I could do with a single 4-colour (red, blue, black & green) Bic pen. I love how the limited palette made me think and work a little differently.
This is Jon from Sktchy, my portrait for day 4 of Inktober. I often like my ballpoint pen drawings best at this stage, when I’ve just laid down a first layer of orange on the skin and blue for the shadows. So I stopped here today.
Drawn in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens.
I’ve run out of time to finish this and I’d rather post a half-finished portrait than start falling behind on Day 2 of Inktober! So this is what my ballpoint portraits look like at around the halfway point.
This is Sydney from Sktchy drawn with Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
I do love working with ballpoint pens these days. This portrait of Zel from Sktchy was drawn with a range of Bic 4-colour ballpoints in a Life Noble Note Plain notebook.
It’s been a tough week and hatch, hatch, hatching away has been one of the things that has been helping me keeping on keeping on, one day at a time. This portrait of Laura has taken me a couple of days, mostly in the evenings. I love drawing shadows and the Sktchy inspiration photo has such beautiful shadows that I love building up with a range of colours.
I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app and the ballpointy brush.
This is Ali from Sktchy drawn with Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens in a Life Noble Note Plain.
I’m struggling with my mental health again but now I find that, instead of not drawing at all, I’m drawing often. I need to keep my hands moving so when I’m not working my fingers are constantly hatching away, or crocheting or clicking on my Nintendo Switch.
I’m also finding that it helps to have several portraits on the go at any one time, so I can switch between them. With portraits built up through hatching I’m not always sure when they’re finished so it helps to step away from them, move on to another one, and then come back to them to the next day and take another look. That little break allows me to look at them afresh and I can see where they need more work – as they almost always do.
The hatching on this portrait of Emitis from Sktchy helped me through 2 evenings when I was struggling to focus on the television or anything at all. I drew it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app and the ballpointy brush by Georg.
