Tag: Procreate

Anastasia and the joy of getting lost in a painting

Sktchy are hosting a Backward Portrait Party this weekend, challenging members to reverse their usual drawing or painting methods and works “backwards”. So I totally reversed my usual process to draw Anastasia’s portrait on my iPad. I usually paint hair last so I did it first, than I painted the face and features, and then added some colour for the sweater. I added some linework right at the end. You can see a short timelapse video of my drawing process on YouTube here.

The most interesting thing about this for me was that I was completely absorbed in my work while I was painting and drawing, more than at any time since the coronavirus lockdown began. For a whole hour or so I wasn’t anxious at all, I wasn’t thinking about anything else, I was just making art. It was so lovely to have some peace of mind.

Kseniya

Getting in some ballpoint pen practice today on this portrait of Kseniya. I still have no real idea what I’m doing when I draw with ballpoint pens. It’s a very different feeling to drawing with Copic markers or painting with watercolours, I’m way outside my comfort zone and I’ve got no real method or way of approaching a drawing. I’m very much feeling my way in the dark. But I like to do this at least once every week or so, I think I learn so much more when I work outside that comfort zone. And ballpoints are so unforgiving- this is a very uncomfortable discomfort zone so it teaches me a lot.

I drew Kseniya’s portrait in a Moleskine sketchbook with Bic Cristal and Bic 4-colour ballpoint pens.

Danny

This is Danny. I didn’t really know what I was doing or where I was going with this Procreate portrait, I just kept drawing and it got darker and dirtier and messier. I had his likeness, lost it totally, got it back a little, lost it again, and ended up with him looking liked he’d walked out of a coal mine rather than someone half in shadow.

Lol! That’s what this drawing thing is like some days. I still like elements of the portrait and I’m sharing it so you know that some days drawing comes easily and others it’s a real battle. Today I really enjoyed doing this but the outcome is a lot messier than I would have wished for!

Calysta: Things I Miss

This is Sktchy muse Calysta. While I was drawing her I was thinking of the things I miss.

I miss small talk in the margins of meetings.

I miss passing the time with neighbours in the street.

I miss the sound of children heading to and from school through my open window and the distant hubbub of the school playground at playtime.

I miss pub lunches and chip shop suppers.

I miss days at the farm.

I miss not feeling scared, anxious and sad all the time.

I miss feeling in control of my mental health, my agoraphobia and claustrophobia.

I miss being able to just leave the house and go somewhere, anywhere, when I want to, just to remind myself that I am able to do that these days. Will I be able to do that by the time the lockdown is over or will I be agoraphobic again?

I drew Calysta on my iPad Pro using the Procreate app.

More Zoom virtual backgrounds

I’ve been making more Zoom virtual backgrounds. You can download these from my shared Dropbox folder here for free but please don’t sell or use commercially.

Flying sheep and licking cows – Virtual Backgrounds

I’m remote working during the COVID-19 lockdown which means that I’m spending a great deal of time in Zoom meetings. Last week I discovered that I could use my own virtual backgrounds in Zoom and so I immediately set to work creating some. I created one specifically for a prefect I’m working on but I also made a couple of others. Here are my first two farm-themed backgrounds.

I designed these to fit my large iPad Pro screen so the resolution should be OK for most laptops and tablets but probably not great on a large computer. If you’d like to use them you can download them from my shared Dropbox folder here. I’ll be adding more as I make them – you’re welcome to use them as virtual backgrounds for Zoom meetings but please don’t sell them or use them commercially in any way.

Olivia

I love the inspiration photo for this portrait of Olivia. There are lots of photos of people hugging on Sktchy (I know, I searched for them and found loads) but this is my favourite. It just feels so authentic. I can’t say the green lighting was easy to capture but I don’t have the confidence to change it to something different so I stuck with the colour in the original.

Anyway, the reason for choosing this is that today I want to send a virtual hug to everyone reading this who is, like me, living under a lockdown due to COVID-19. I hope you’re safe, have access to enough food and some outdoor space and someone to support you (online or over the phone if not in person) when you’re scared or anxious.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.

Anna – PPE Protest Poster

It seems that the best (only?) way I can process my emotions at the moment is through my art. My response to anxiety is to just keep drawing…. Anyway my husband is an NHS resuscitation practitioner (and has asthma) and so it should be no surprise that the lack of sufficient adequate personal protective equipment in the NHS to deal with the Covid-19 crisis is causing me some anxiety.

So my response today has been to turn a Sktchy inspiration photo I found of Anna in surgical scrubs into a protest poster. I made a number of protest poster style portraits a year or so ago so it was great to revisit this style for a day.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.

Christina

I’m feeling very anxious at the moment. Who isn’t, right? But I have a long history of mental illness and I’ve been trying really hard to ignore my rising anxiety these past few days but it’s refusing to be ignored. It’s waking me up,in the early hours and affecting me physiologically now. So I’m having to pay it some attention.

I’ve become very good at managing my day-to-day anxiety over the past few years but it’s obvious that those management techniques aren’t going to be enough in this new lockdown world, I have to adapt and find something more rigorous to help me through this. So I’ve started by simply admitting that, not only to myself but publicly, I think he way I know best, drawing. And I’m sharing this with #MadCovidDiaries, a project for people with mental health issues to share diaries of their experiences of the lockdown in the UK.

I drew this portrait on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and the Procreate app.

Lucrezia

This is a portrait of Sktchy muse Lucrezia for Sktchy’s Dark Portrait Party. I drew it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Procreate app.