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.  :-)

 

Catching Up with a Few of My Latest Drawings

Been a busy few months and only now trying to catch up with my blog posts of drawings I've managed to accomplish.

My sister in law's granddaughter, Sophia - couldn't pass up drawing this expression.  This little angel is a year old.

 
And I worked this portrait drawing of my husband with one of his expressions I absolutely love.  

This is an invasive weed we have that we thought was under control but has started popping up all around our yard.

Waxed Amaryllis bulbs and tracking growth progress:

 

Graphite sketches of a few shells I have in a basket.  Was in the mood to grab a pencil and my S&B Alpha sketchbook.

Picking Back Up With Portraits

During the last few months of 2022, I worked several people and pet portraits.   We got busy doing other things and now trying to pick back up where I left off with my goal in drawing my family.

It was time for me to draw Neal and Travis.  I could spend hours fine tuning shading, etc. but decided to call these done.

 

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.

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.

September Challenge Between Friends

For September, the challenge between my friend in the UK and I is working with darks only.   To make it even more of a challenge, we were to do so with hatching rather than solid areas.

To practice, I first worked with solid inking with the buildings.  I found working these took even longer than if I were to just sketch what I saw lights and darks alike.

For the actual challenge, I chose to work this portrait.  To help with placement of facial features, I also used the grid method so this was a dual challenge.  And in hatching, I decided I wanted to use a single directional stroke.  I had no idea if it would work out or not but I'm actually pleased with the results.

My Mother After Last Year's Long Recovery

Last year on Easter Day, my mother ended up in the hospital for months.  I was there the first three weeks just waiting for first signs of life and then for her to be strong enough to sit up and be moved to a step up recovery facility.

She couldn't eat for many weeks and relied on tubes to feed her.  She had to go through physical therapy just to swallow first liquids on her own and then food.  Otherwise it went straight to her lungs.  She also had to go through physical therapy to walk again (with help).  Mom had absolutely no energy to lift an arm let alone do anything else for many weeks.  She suffered Sepsis, Kidney failure, Respiratory failure, and Congestive Heart failure.

Mom was in the hospital or care facility until June 30th.  My brother had taken a photo of her after all those weeks when a hair dresser went to the care facility and fixed her hair.  The photo Gary took is priceless to me as it represents the battle she went through and won and returning to normal ..... smiles and all.

Yesterday I tried my hand at capturing her in graphite.  Bristol 6x6 paper, 2B, 4B, and 8B pencils, rubber eraser for lifting, and tortillion for blending.

Personal Challenge - Portrait in Graphite

Normally I avoid portraits because of the need to get everything "just right" with facial features.  I was up all night and decided to give this a go.  This is my cousin's granddaughter Juliet.  And although there is much room for improvement, I was actually pleased it turned out as it did.

Strathmore Softcover journal and mechanical pencil.

The eyes are a bit on the large size but then Juliet has large beautiful eyes anyways.  And the hairline should be up further as her forehead should be a little larger.  But overall, I feel pretty good with this.

Unfortunately...........something I tend to goof on.............I misjudged size on paper.  I started with the eyes and worked from there giving this little angel a "hair cut" :-)

I used a stump to blend but didn't want to blend all my pencil lines out.