migraine – drawing faces

Julie

This is turning into a very stressful week, mainly due to my father being unwell and in hospital. At times like these drawing and painting are the best therapy. These are the times when it is, of course, hardest to find the time to just stop, sit and draw. It can seem the least important thing to do when there are one hundred and one other demands on your time. But I know that, for me, it’s the most important thing to do.

I have chronic and persistent migraine, which means that I have migraines on between 15 and 25 days in any month. Of course I woke up with one today and have been nauseous and vomiting on and off all day. I know this is stress-related and the best couple of hours I’ve had all day have been those I spent drawing this portrait. I know that taking some time out to draw increases the chances that I will have a migraine-free day tomorrow.

Thank you to Julie from the Museum by Sktchy app for being the muse for my portrait today which was made with watercolour and coloured pencils in a Fabriano Venezia sketchbook.

Cuervo

I got to spend a couple of hours with my watercolours and coloured pencils drawing and painting Cuervo from the Museum by Sktchy app. I’ve got a migraine today but I find drawing for an hour or two helps me to focus and forget the pain, at least for a little while, so long as I have enough natural light to work by (I can’t cope with artificial light or too bright natural light).

Marta

Struggling with a very strange migraine at the moment and it made it very difficult to draw this portrait of Marta from Sktchy. I was having trouble seeing colours, tones, shapes and details. It was a very odd experience and in retrospect I’m amazed that I even finished the drawing but can see how off all those elements are. Maybe I’ll try again when my head doesn’t hurt. In the meantime this will have to do.

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

Ivanka

There is so much pain and anger in the world right now, I don’t really know how to respond to it all. My body responds with migraines, one after another. So my head still hurts but I’m still drawing as best I can. This is Ivanka, drawn from Sktchy,

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

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.