Tag: Sktchy

Alessa

I’m trying to be more confident in my use of watercolour and so in this portrait of Alessa I didn’t block in her hair with colour. Instead I just applied strokes of water, added colour, and let it flow where it wanted, adding some paint drops to break up the colour a little. I think I like the end result, although I did feel the need to add a few pencil strokes rather than just leaving it be. I’ll keep experimenting with this approach anyway.

I used Zecchi Toscana watercolours and Prismacolor coloured pencils in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Jojo

This is Jojo. In her inspiration image she’s at the hairdressers but as I was drawing her she began to look more and more like a character in an anime version of Star Wars 😊

I drew Jojo in my Midori Cotton sketchbook with Copic Markers and coloured pencils.

Maria

Sometimes drawings just don’t turn out as well as you hope. This portrait of Maria actually looked fine at the halfway stage. I should have stopped there. I started drawing it on a train a week ago. And then it has been completed in bits and pieces over a very frustrating day when I started out with no broadband and had to wait for it be restored, I’ve been working on and off in online meetings and drawing in between. The end result is an overworked portrait where I really haven’t taken the time to stop and think properly about what I’ve been doing. I thought it was OK when I finished it (and it does look better in the sketchbook than in the photo) but now I can see the many things that are wrong with it. Maybe I’ll come back to it and work on it some more another day – or will that just be overworking it more?

I drew Maria’s portrait in my tiny Moleskine sketchbook with Bic and Paperchase multicolour ballpoint pens.

Van

I love how huge Van’s hand looks in this portrait! It’s large in the inspiration image too but I have exaggerated it a little too. I think the extra size makes her look even more pensive.

I drew Van in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with a Micron fineliner, then painted her with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished the portrait with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Rocio

The inspiration photo for this portrait of Rocio is so fantastic – it just oozes warmth and happiness, I couldn’t resist drawing it for this week’s Old School Sktchy challenge which has the prompt “light”. I wasn’t able to capture the fantastic glow that the light from the rainbow emits in the photo but I did get some of the warmth

I drew this portrait on the first page of my new Midori Cotton sketchbook using Ca Micron fineliner, Copic markers and Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Jagonte

I didn’t start out drawing portraits with the intention of ever selling my portraits. I never really imagined I’d be good enough. But over the past year I’ve started to get asked to take commissions and now I have a steady stream of them coming in. At the moment I’m working on a few that need to completed fairly soon and I’m also going to be exhibiting in an Artists Open House in the Brighton Fringe Festival in May, so I’m not going to have as much time for my daily faces. But today it’s been lovely to just play around in my sketchbook and paint Jagonte, without any pressure!

I drew Jagonte with a Micron fineliner, painted the portrait with Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

Christiane

Today’s portrait of Christiane is the last portrait in my A4 Moleskine sketchbook. For some reason the paper, which has been fine throughout the book, reacted weirdly to my markers on this page, pilling and tearing around the nose and being generally difficult. I’m so glad this only happened on that back page!

I’ve shared a flip through of the whole book on my YouTube channel – you can watch it here.

Ahmed

This was a good inspiration photo to use for ballpoint pen practice. I got to use a good range of colours and to work on lights and darks, and there wasn’t too much to worry about in terms of actually drawing Ahmed’s face because the circle provided a frame and I just had to situate a few features. What I love about this ballpoint pen practice is that I do feel like I’m making progress with each drawing. It’s tiny steps forward, but it’s all in the right direction. I love that experience of learning something new!

I drew Ahmed’s portrait in my tiny pocket Moleskine with a range of Bic multicolour ballpoint pens.

Kiany

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

Berto

I totally messed up the mouth in Berto’s portrait, but apart from that this felt like a step forward in my watercolour technique. I felt like I had much better control of my brush and that there was a real connection between what my eyes saw and what my brush communicated on the page when I was painting.

I painted Berto’s portrait in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with my Zecchi Toscana watercolours and finished it was Prismacolor coloured pencils.