Son's Girlfriend

Still in the mood to draw people and one I hadn't done yet as far as family portraits, I worked on this one yesterday and the night before.

Gouache brush

My favorite part was working the hair.  She has black hair with the ends colored in a light blue.

As I post this, I see areas I could adjust but for now will leave as is.  The family loves the results but of course the critic inside me can always find things I could improve on.  :-)

 

Madison's Friend, Brooke

One of my granddaughter's closest friends just had surgery and the idea hit me to do up a portrait drawing.  I wasn't quite in the mindset for color so I worked her in pencil only.  I may return at a later time and do this again but in color.

BJD Pencil #2B and Gouache

Darlene's Pap

Darlene is here with us (my "sissy" through marriage) visiting for 10 days.  Her first trip to Florida since we moved here.  She is a first time grandmother and weeks ago I finished a drawing of her granddaughter she absolutely loved.

While here she asked if I would consider working a portrait of her Pap who means the absolute world to her.  Although I avoid requests like the plague, I made an exception knowing what it would mean to her.  Usually when asked to do something, I get too nervous and fearful I'll not meet that person's expectations so I avoid it.

Anyways...........I told her no promises but would at least give it a try not knowing if I'd be able to follow through with the portrait.

His hair was a challenge due to white on white background plus the white stubble and eyebrows but I managed to work through it (lots of trial and error).

Ending results ... she absolutely loved as did other family who know her and her Pap.

 

Son's Portrait

Now I have a complete set of portraits of my eldest son and his family.

This one was quite the challenge due to facial hair.   At one point I felt a bit overwhelmed tempting me to give up but I chose not to do that.  After various trial and error attempts, I finally found a way to depict the facial hair and hair stubble I was happy with.

Although I find myself missing pen / ink and watercolor, I am still drawn to working with digital.  There is so much yet to learn, which keeps me interested in using an "electronic sketchbook" versus traditional.  I love the challenges!  I love the fact I can experiment and play without wasting paper and without having to start from scratch each time.  Because I work in multiple layers, it makes it easier to do so.  I am able to keep notes and color swatches on hidden layers I can always refer back to and review a video as reference....all in one file.  And as a bonus, I can create step by steps much easier than trying to remember to scan along the way like I had to with traditional art work.  

Catching Up With Latest Drawings Plus Other

A lot has been going on the last few months but I have still managed to get some artwork done...two of which were therapeutic in nature.  

Have also been busy with completing several diamond art kits and playing with Legos.

Birth of a new family member....Miss Sophia (nephew's first born):

Personal Challenge...to illustrate the first things that come to mind living in Florida that differs from living up north and that I have seen/experienced:

Birthday gift - recording the growth of lily buds that were in the arrangement Travis sent to me:

From a section of one of my diamond art kits.  Madison loves bees and I thought of her as I did this:

Learning a new technique called Dispersion and as a therapeutic means to unload some emotional/mental turmoil I've chosen not to bog me down:

Portrait of daughter-in-law:

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Darlene, I learned about botanical Legos.  

Birthday set from hubby:

My husband and I, as old as we are, still love building with Legos.

Paige's Hibiscus plus a Bonus Drawing

I was going through past drawings and paintings when I came across some of the portraits I had worked.  I felt this desire to practice skin again but hadn't decided what I wanted to do yet............not until Paige sent me photos of a hibiscus her mother bought for her recently.

In one of her photos, this caught my attention right off and was perfect for what I was wanting to practice.

After I worked her foot, I proceeded to draw her hibiscus from one of the photos...

One Use Found for Stickers

After posting about the stickers I am making and asking myself what I might use them for, I found one use.........Gift Nametag Stickers.  Instead of writing the name of recipients, I have created stickers using sketches I've done of various family members.  Something different :-)

 

Catching Up Sharing Sketches

Think I'm heading into another possible "recharge period" I evidently need after being so productive the last few months.   Although it's been a push to do anything of late, I did manage these using Procreate.  I just haven't felt like messing with paper, ink, and paint so instead if the mood strikes me, I just grab my Ipad.

This is from what I could make out on hubby's favorite T-shirt.  With him being part Indian, things like this mean a lot to him.  I wanted to sketch the design before it completely faded away.

Peppermint brush tool and cloud brush tool.

I saw a post on Facebook where brother-in-law shared a moment back years ago when I sketched him a giraffe.  Giraffes are his favorite animal and when I saw the post, I went to my photos from 2009 when family went to Busch Gardens Safari.  Decided to work this as I love the expression!!

Several different brush tools as I was trying to find the right one for the effect I was hoping for.  I ended up using the water brush tool and 4B pencil tool plus some smudging.  Cloud brush tool for background and BJD's spatter brush tool with adjustments I made to it for a touch of texture.

This I worked through the night.  It represents Terry's first haircut after the pandemic hit March 2020.  His hair was long when I met him 20 plus years ago.  Upon a return trip from overseas, he surprised me with a hair cut and his pony tail saved to give me.  I kept it for years until Neal's cat got ahold of it.  He's kept his hair short from that point on until last year when the pandemic hit.

So yesterday Terry gets his hair cut and brought this home for me.

Procreate 4B pencil brush tool.

Side note:  Blogger is doing strange things........for some reason these won't open like normal when clicking on the images.

Another Portrait - Oldest Granddaughter

After working my youngest granddaughter's portrait, I jumped in to work one of my eldest granddaughter.  Both worked in Procreate but using different methods.  Same brush tools were used, however, for line and color application that were used with my youngest granddaughter's portrait.

This one didn't take as long as I decided to use the grid method, which I find to be easier and less time consuming.  I didn't struggle as much with adjusting and re-adjusting proportions like I did with the youngest's portrait.

I also chose to be more conservative in skin tone and shading.  I feel how I worked each helps to portray their individual personalities.  One is more outgoing whereas the other can be rather quiet and shy (at least how they come across to us....their parents may not necessarily agree with this.......lol).

Portrait of Youngest Granddaughter

After sharing the portrait of my husband's grandson with my eldest son, he sent me a photo of Morgan, his youngest daughter.  He never asked if I would work a portrait of her but I saw it as a subtle hint..........ha ha.  

After receiving the photo, I got to work on it.  I sat up all last night and throughout the day today working with this portrait starting with the initial sketch.  Then I played a bit with color blending before taking on the task of a full color portrait.  Some of that time was taking breaks to rest my eyes, stopping and creating these step sheets along the way as well as taking snap shots of my progress once I started the full color painting.

Brushes I used in Procreate were the HB pencil for the line sketch / Painting-Gouache brush tool for the color application / Gouache and/or Soft Air Brush for blending / Flowing Hair brush tool to help with texture in the hair / BJD's Denim brush tool / A special stamp brush I created to stamp on the background.

Initial Line Sketch:

Playing with different Layer Blend Modes adding a touch of color:

Full Color Portrait:

Comparing Line Sketch with Full Color Portrait

Screen Captures of Progress:

  

Portraits for Procreate Course through Sktchy

This month I am taking a course on creating portraits in Procreate called Portraits for Procreate.  With the fourth lesson in the first part of the course, there was a demonstration we could follow using a reference photo they provided.  The instructor is Lisa Filion and I love how she teaches.  I've learned so much already and I'm only maybe a third of the way through the course.

This is the results of my first attempt with a serious full color portrait using the app on the Ipad.  First my initial sketch and then using that as my reference, I produced the full color version with background.

Hubbie's Grandson, Zander

Wednesday I started a course through Sktchy called, "Portraits in Procreate," with Lisa Filion.  It's a 25 hour course that includes extensive instruction using Procreate along with portrait drawing and painting lessons that include animals.

After going through Lessons 1-4 and working the portrait exercise from provided reference photo, I decided to try one of a family member using some of the methods learned in these lessons but with my own way of doing things with laying down color.  Lisa works with heavy application of color creating opaque layers whereas I work with transparent layers.  Plus I really like monochrome as in graphite drawings versus "painting" with color.

While I was working this, I would not allow my husband to view what I was doing.  I wanted it to be a surprise and surprise it was!  When finished, he was in his room and I sent the results via text.  His reaction was priceless.  He was so excited that he immediately forwarded the picture to his son and daughter-in-law.

For a change I feel really proud of the results and I can't say that for everything I produce.  The likeness is spot on.

This is worked with BeeJayDel's Pencil 4B brush tool and instead of using the smudge tool for blending, I used the eraser to blend and soften edges.  The background is using the Painting / Turpentine brush tool (part of Procreate's brush library) as a "stamping" tool.  

More Color Blending Play

After working the color blend mode on my brother's pencil sketch, I decided to play a bit with the family grouping I posted about Sunday.  Using the same method as I did in the previous post.

 

Learning More About Procreate - Layers Color Blending Mode

 It is amazing what a $10 app can do and continues to advance with updates.  Procreate is by far my favorite drawing and painting app for the Ipad.  There is so much this app can do and I have only scratched the surface.

Today I have been learning about Gradient Map under Adjustments as well as the Blend Mode - Color.

Not sure when I might use the Gradient Map but the blending mode is another story with regards to my pencil sketches and adding color later if I choose.

This is an example using my brother's sketch I did a few years back in black and white only.  Then creating a layer of color and changing from Normal to Color blending mode.

The pencil sketch is on the bottom layer and then I add another layer over top with a skin color by dropping in the color covering the entire layer.  

Changing the blending mode from Normal to Color gives me a new look

Steps I took:

Heart Warming and Sweet

I couldn't pass up working this one in my journal. 

These are my favorite cousin's grandchildren from her two daughters.  The young man in the middle was diagnosed with Leukemia as a toddler, while at the same time my cousin was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  Both faced extremely low odds of surviving; however, both beat those odds against them.  The Leukemia survivor is now around 10 or 11 years old 😀💖

Journal w/Fabriano Hotpress / Lamy w/Document Brown ink / DS watercolors

My Three Sons

It was late through the night I started this and then finished this morning.  Taking two of the figurines (out of 9), I sketched this grouping. 

Hand Sewn Journal with Fabriano Artistico WC paper / Holbein watercolors plus Daniel Smith Buff Titanium / Lamy Safari with DeAtramentis Brown Document Ink.

The boy standing actually is holding a gold heart but I chose to have one hand on "his brother's" head and the other peaking out from "Mom's" shoulder.  One of the boys' hair I chose to use black since the coloring I chose truly represents my sons' hair color.  My middle son had the most beautiful black hair with blue highlights (as did my mother and his dad had brownish black hair) whereas the other two ended up with my hair coloring....lighter when younger and turned darker as they got older.  In fact, I was a blonde as a little girl as was my eldest son until around age 5 or so.

Collection is Willow Tree I started many years ago.  Can't remember where I purchased these except it was via mail order over the course of a couple of years.  A few gifted to me at Christmas.

Scanned version - Although I scan all my work, I do find the results are not exactly true to color or tones.  My scanner struggles with light blues as well as buff or light tan colors.  Plus scanning loses the slight off white color of most papers as well as the texture.  However, my photography skills leave a great deal to be desired so I choose to go with the scanner even with its short-comings.

Photo taken showing the figurines.

This Past Week

It's been a busy week with Terry and I bringing things over from storage to finally close it out.....after four days of non-stop moving and going through boxes and totes, we are half way there.  I think what's left now are empty boxes, odds and ends furnishings, suitcases, and camping gear.

As we go through everything, we're making the hard decision whether to keep or donate contents of these boxes/totes.  We meant to do this when the boys moved out 3 years ago but kept putting it off due to not wanting to face the task we're now involved in.

And while doing this, I'm also rearranging three rooms in the house for better organization as well as taking an inventory of my arts and crafts I've acquired over the years.  Some I will keep and the rest I plan to gift or donate to other people.

In all this chaos, I did manage a little sketching to include yesterday when our sketching group met up at the Library for quick sketching of people.

Pencil sketch of amaryllis bulb

Procreate sketch of amaryllis flowers cut and sent over to me by our neighbor, Jan

Quick Sketching (timed) at Library 4/16/19

And last night I started a 75 Ink Only challenge.  I'll post that separately.  I've decided instead of the 75 DAY Ink Only challenge, I'm making it a 75 sketch challenge using ink only. 

Water Oak Removed

From the time we purchased the house we're in, we've had to clean up the lot (which is about 1/2 acre) where the house sits by removing MANY trees and shrubs just stuck growing all over front, back, and sides.  You couldn't see the house from the street, mowing was a true pain in the backside,  and was a real eye sore to the neighbors.

The house was a rental for many years so it's no wonder the property ended up so unsightly.  And many of the trees were planted too close to the house causing issues with roots and branches with roof, windows, etc.

We lost count after 30 the first year after we purchased the house.  And we've continued little by little shaping what's left and having more removed if considered unhealthy or a risk during hurricane season.

This week we had a huge water oak removed at the front corner of our house/driveway.  A large camphor tree near our garage right up against the concrete driveway, and heavy trimming of another camphor in the back that was top heavy on one side leaning in towards the house.

Next week we will have another type oak trimmed of two very large branches that grows over the driveway and house and a bowl depression at a fork that could rot from water and bacteria filled in with concrete.  The tree is in a healthy state so we don't want to have it totally removed.  Plus it provides us a great deal of shade we appreciate.

We love our trees but due to the risks we face each year, we had to do something.  And we still have plenty still standing.  Looks like a totally different place and our neighbors love us for what we've done.

Anyways, as the guys worked, I sat and watched as the oak was being taken down.  Amazing how they do it and safely without damaging anything around the trees or harm to those working below.  We were willing to move our pontoon and cars but they said not to worry about it.  And the orange tree and lemon under the oak was left untouched by falling debris.  The lemon tree was suffering from lack of sunlight so we should now see a major improvement.

Sketch With Me - Self Portrait

I don't mind working portraits (when I'm in the right frame of mind) but I am NOT crazy about doing self portraits.  Just feels super weird!!!

For the 6th Sketch With Me event by Cathy Johnson, this is the topic set for us to do.  The event is for today and tomorrow.........which I started wee hours of the morning and finished after I got some sleep. 

Worked from a photograph.

This is one of those subjects I could go on and on indefinitely with adjustments but doubt I would ever be satisfied.  It's amazing how a single line or shading can make such a huge difference in how close you get to likeness.  I finally had to have my husband take a look and he said it looked like me so I called it done.....flaws and all.

Some People Practice

Next month is the yearly 100 people in five days challenge set by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steele.  I attempted that last year and after about 50 said forget it!!!  That was following day to day practice I had already started on my own with people and figure gestures and I was so sick of people, I didn't even want to think about them much less actually sketch them.

But it's been awhile so I decided to work a few timed exercises with ink only allowing 2 minutes to work each of these figures.

Handmade African Journal received as a gift back in 2008 / Pen and Ink as stated on pages.