Tag: lockdown art

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.

Scottish Guy

I don’t know this man’s name – his photo was posted on Sktchy by Christine and she tagged it “Scotttishguy”. What an awesome face to draw though. I’m not sure I did him justice.

I drew this portrait in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Unipin fineliners, painted it with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Frida

Frida Kahlo

I’ve been taking part in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge. Today’s person to draw was Frida Kahlo but I decided that I didn’t want to draw the flower crowned iconic Frida that everyone knows. Instead I decided to draw the younger sterner Frida who wasn’t entirely sure yet who she wanted to be.

I decided to draw this portrait on my iPad Pro because I thought Procreate offered me the best tools for trying to recreate the vintage feel of the photo I was drawing from. I used most of my favourite brushes – the wet acrylic, the stucco, the Blackwing Pencil, and the Studio Pen.

Ali

Ali

This is Sktchy muse Ali. I’m generally pretty good at capturing a likeness these days but every so often I’ll have a run of missing it every day for a week or more. I’m having one of those runs right now. I’ve missed Ali’s likeness completely in this portrait. My last several portraits haven’t been so far off, but they haven’t been quite there either.

I don’t worry when I miss the likeness. The process of drawing is more important to me than the outcome. But I do think about what it says about me and what’s happening with my drawing at the time. Often it can mean that I’m not as focused as perhaps I should be, or I’m rushing my portraits because I don’t have as much time to work on them as I would like, or it can be a sign of personal stress.

Sometimes, it’s a sign of progress. It’s what I think of as the “one step forwards, two steps back” progress that comes with creative development, that means it feels like your work is getting much worse just before you make a breakthrough and step up a level. That might sound a little nonsensical but I hope some other artists recognise it. I’ve come to understand that that’s how my work progresses.

Right now I’m quite stressed so I think this loss of likeness is probably down to stress and a lack of focus but there’s a little bit of me that’s hoping I’m about to make an unexpected creative breakthrough. 🙂

I drew Ali in a Midori cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Eddy

Eddy

I drew Eddy in a Moleskine sketchbook with a variety of Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour ballpoint pens.

Diellza

Diellza

I’m always attracted by shadows. My portraits look flat until I start to paint in the shadows and it’s only when I begin to add those that faces come to life. So when I browse Sktchy for inspiration it’s always the photos with interesting light and shadows that jump out at me. Like the one I used for this portrait of the beautiful Diellza. You can’t see her hand but the shadow tells you very clearly that it’s there, shading part of her face from the sun.

I painted this portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

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.

Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher as General Leia

I’m participating in the Brooklyn Art Library’s 14 day portrait challenge, although it’s now Day 4 and this is the first day I’ve felt inspired to draw a portrait. Every day for 14 days they email a prompt for a portrait but the first three prompts didn’t excite me enough to make me want to draw the suggested portrait. But today’s prompt was to draw someone, living or dead, who I’d like to have a meal with.

And I came up with a very long list, but I would love, love, love to have a meal with Carrie Fisher. And not the young Carrie Fisher, but the older wiser Carrie Fisher. Because while I love the actor I adore the outspoken courageous sassy mental health campaigning Carrie Fisher most of all. That’s the woman I would love to sit down and share a meal with.

This is the third portrait of her I drew. The first two weren’t right. The likeness was fine but somehow they didn’t capture her. And suddenly I realised why. She needs to be among the stars – that’s where she belongs. So when I drew this third portrait I was imagining her as a constellation.

I drew this on my iPad Pro with the Procreate app.

Juliana

Juliana

I’ve been trying to access NHS talking therapy during the lockdown and it’s such hard work trying to navigate a system that makes no sense and I’m getting nowhere. The only other way I have of processing my emotions is to draw them out.

I drew Juliana in my Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Julie

Julie

This is Julie. I think it’s the first portrait I’ve ever drawn on black paper. I saw the photo of the plague mask and it made me think of the UK as the plague country of Europe, with the highest number of coronavirus deaths. So it seemed only right to draw on black paper and I changed the scarf to a Union Jack. The black mood, lightened by my drawing marks, seems appropriate.

I drew this on black Strathmore artist zentangle paper with Polychromos and Prismacolor coloured pencils.