drawing of a profile

drawing with an ink roller

This was one of the portraits I did in a student led portrait group at college during the last few months.

The face was mostly drawn with one of those ink rollers you can use to blank out your address on letters so that you can throw them away without anyone seeing your details and stealing your data. Its quite hard to use because you have to sort of turn and twist your hand and press firmly to sketch curves. AfterId done that I added colour using pastels and the thick black lines were done with black calligraphy pen (most of these have run out so I need some more).

I quite like the strong feel to this. I am trying to find my illustrational voice. I have been told to look for illustrators that my work resembles, but I think mine is different? Is this a good or bad thing? I’m definitley developing my analogue skills. Digital work is more difficult for me.

Using monoprint

Ten minute sketch using cut out monoprint

The monoprint was made by rubbing paper onto black paint brushed onto silver foil and then scratched through a bit. I then cut out a shape to fit to the shape of the woman body and arm, side of the face and hair, (basically the shaded side of her face and body). This was a bit nerve wracking as I only had ten minutes to do the cutting out, sticking, and drawing the rest of the portrait. I used the monoprint from a stock of them I’d made already.

The other side of the studio.

Looking in through the door to the left side of the studio. I’ve got a lot of work that has been exhibited, I just need to sell some of it! I woukd like to find a good art site to sell my work for a reasonable amount (not an on line auction, or on the other hand, an expensive and exclusive site). I just want these to go to good homes.

Have been offered a space in an exhibition for local artists in June. That will be fun! It’s been a whole year since I’ve dealt with the public face to face. I feel quite nervous about it.

Mona wip

I managed to do a bit more on this work in progress today. It feels a bit closer to the original. Getting the colours to blend into each other is hard and although I’m using thin glazes the acrylic paint goes off very quickly. The eyes are a little better, but the mouth might be slightly too smiley. I just need to scumble the paint a bit more to soften the tones into one another.

Mona

Tonight I painted Mona for the Penkhull Mystery play, Mystery May Madness event which was a Zoom meeting with an audience watching flower arrangement, songs, memoirs, jokes, me painting this live, plus a raffle… All in 1hr 40mins! Acrylic on canvas, after Leonardo DaVinci. Needs a bit more work. X

Painting with light.

You don’t have to add colour to all of a painting or watercolour sketch. With these two portraits I made marks where the shadows were and left other areas blank. The result still gave shape to the image but allows you to do something quickly (ten minutes). Using a limited palette also makes it easier. If you are not mixing a lot of colours you can create some interesting effects in a fast way.

This is college work, made for a daily sketchbook of observational drawings and paintings.

Tonights sketch

One of tonights choir group, each week I’ve been drawing a participant as they sing. It’s good practice as they are moving and the shadows move with them. If you notice the image is slightly distorted. That’s because I had the sketchpad flat on my desk and it’s caused a slightly elongated drawing that is tipped slightly to the right…

It’s something to check on when you are drawing, sometimes it can cause a lot of distortion if you are not careful.