Images

Noppadol

Noppadol

Such a great name and such a great face – when I saw his photo on Sktchy Noppadol was an irresistible draw. Some I can browse Sktchy for hour’s trying to find a face I want to draw and other times one jumps right out and grabs me immediately and Noppadol’s was the grabbing kind – and I’m glad it’s a smiley face. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn a great smile so I’m guessing it’s a good sign that I wanted to draw one today.

I drew this in my Emilio Braga notebook with Bic Cristal and Bic 4-way multicolour pens.

Angela

Angela

I’ve been having fun today making ink from poppy petals. Once I had some ink I drew this portrait of Sktchy member Angela with my hand whittled pens. Then I squeezed lemon juice on the portrait to turn the ink pink on the hood, cheeks, eyes, and nose and I brushed a little of the juice onto the eyes too. I love how pink it became! I’m really enjoying playing with these natural inks – I sourced some gum arabic today and I’m hoping I can get hold of some baking soda in the next day or two, all of which will help me experiment more.

I used poppy ink made from foraged poppy petals, freshly squeezed lemon juice, pens whittled from a branch picked up on a dog walk and a Seawhites sketchbook.

Delphine

Delphine

I retreated to my comfort zone for a couple of hours to draw today’s Sktchy muse Delphine, because I could and I wanted to. This was drawn with Copic markers in a Midori cotton sketchbook.

Lois

Lois

This is a portrait of Lois for Lesson 2 of the Sktchy course Ink Naturally with Dylan Sara. Dylan showed us how to draw a portrait with 2 contrasting home-made inks and a hand made calligraphy pen. He used ink made with turmeric and walnuts.

I didn’t have any turmeric or walnuts so I made ink from paprika (I just added hot water and that’s the yellow ink) and tea – that’s the brown ink. I added a drop of India ink to my brown tea ink to darken it because it wasn’t dark enough. I drew the portrait using a pen I made from a whittled stick a year or so ago. It has a fat rounded nib rather than a more blunt calligraphy nib. I’m pretty happy with this given I was just using what I could find in my house. I’ll be buying some turmeric and walnuts this week and making some ink for further experimentation…

Madusa

Madusa

This is a very quick and gentle portrait of the lovely Madusa , drawn in my Hannehmühle Nostalgie sketchbook with Polychromos coloured pencils.

Paul

Paul

I’m still not feeling great – so much so that I haven’t managed to get out of bed today. So I drew Paul on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil and the Procreate app. I love the strength I see in his expression here.

Ivanka

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

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.

George Floyd

George Floyd. Died 25 May 2020.

Today Sktchy has asked artists to draw George Floyd, who was killed last week by a police officer in the United States, and whose death has sparked both peaceful protests and riots across that country in the days since. Sktchy are donating $50 for every portrait drawn of him until Friday to Campaign Zero, a campaign to end police violence in America, so if you’re a Sktchy artist reading this please think about posting a portrait of George Floyd on Sktchy before the end of the week.

I’m taking the new Sktchy course Ink Naturally with Dylan Sara which started this week – learning to make ink out of natural products and draw with it. So I drew this portrait with a bamboo calligraphy pen and using coffee as my ink.

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.