Time to catch up on posting portraits from the past couple months. It’s my way of archiving and maybe getting ideas for new directions or more practice on old. All of these portrait subjects are from the Sktchy Museum free access archives. Many thanks to the folks who offered these great poses!
Here we go! This fellow above has the kind of face just made for portrait artists! Life experience chiseled into every dip and turn of the physiognomy.
I’m beefing it up here with lots of watercolor texture, splatters, wet crawl-backs and the stuff watercolor loves to do, if you let it.
As always though, bouncing back and forth between the quick-and-simple to “clear the palette” after getting so detailed.
Started this one with a fine liner pen, adding w/c textures in layers.
Can you tell that my main interest here became this fellow’s black hair and beard, the texture and color – blues and indigos. I never got back to finishing the rest in similar detail. Best to stop while ahead.
It’s really about the hard working hands here. What is she doing with this lapful of herbs? I imagine the simple hard working life of my ancestors. Rising before dawn, in bed by nightfall, and all those hours with no screens to lure the mind away from the tasks of the moment. . .like sorting herbs.
I wanted to try out my the new colored inks I bought for my fountain pen sketching, and ended up using them in dilutions as paint as well, and even mixing them with white gouache for pastels.
If you got this far, thanks for coming! Questions and comments welcomed.
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I love every one of these, and your skin tones are great!
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Great portrait work. I particularly like the way you use blue in the first portrait. With the Museum app do you have to ask the models permission, or by them putting up their image those rights are waived. I’ve never been sure. Thanks.
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No, the models submit their pictures for use in drawing. They often like to see what artists have done and you can use the + button above the picture they submitted (called Inspiration) to post your work if you like.
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I thought that was the case but wanted to check. It’s a
pretty amazing resource for portrait artists.
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Are your inks waterproof? How do you keep your pens from clogging if they are?
Love your portraits and glad to see you doing them. Enjoying your new studio I’ll bet.
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Yes, for drawing I mostly use waterproof inks that are safe in fountain pens – like. the deAtramentis document inks. India inks and others will clog the pen with sediment so i only use those with dip pens that I can easily clean. Good luck!
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