Getting Back to Sktchy and Exploring Different Media

After coming back home from the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago - which was hugely inspiring - I had recommitted myself to getting outside and sketching. But, now that I've been back home for over a month and the kids are back in school, I've decided to get back into sketching some portraits from Sktchy and trying some different styles and media.

Here are some recent pieces inspired by the Sktchy app using watercolor with no underdrawing (for the most part):

I've been enjoying going straight to watercolor with no underdrawing, but I wondered if I shouldn't abandon my older style of drawing first in ink and then adding watercolor. So, I decided to attempt the same portrait in my old style.

Which do you prefer? I've gotten mixed responses on Instagram - with a few more likes for this one with watercolor and ink.

Inspired by James Gurney, I decided to try out using the casein paint set that I picked up at the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago.

Casein in a milk based paint that used to be very popular with illustrators and designers in the 1930s. It is opaque, yet can also be used watered down like watercolors. It is similar to gouache, yet when it dries, it can be painted over without reactivating the older layers. James Gurney has almost single-handedly brought casein back into modern popularity, so when I saw this 12 color set offered in a wooden box on sale at USK Chicago (at a reduced price from when you can get it for on Amazon), I had to get it!

I struggled a lot with this portrait, but in the end, I quite like it. Another example of needing to quiet my inner critic (monkey).

Next, I tried a technique that James Gurney uses quite often - starting with a casein underpainting and using gouache on top.

I feel like I have so much to learn from all of these different types of media! I definitely love using watercolor, but it is nice to mix it up and use ink with watercolor, or an opaque media like gouache or casein.

What do you think? Do you stick with one primary media? If so, which one? If not, what do you like to use and when/why? I'd love to hear!

Christmas Portraits

I've been busy creating portraits for Christmas presents - like I'm sure most artists do at this time of the year. I finally finished a portrait one for some friends who recently took a trip to Japan. They sent me this photo from their trip.

I did these two tonal studies to try to identifying the lights and darks in the photo - apart from all those beautiful fall colors.

I thought about getting a closer view of the family in this next tonal study

To decide between the two versions, I decided to do some watercolor thumbnails to factor in the colorful background.

After taking an informal poll of my kids and husband, and based on these thumbnails, I decided to paint the portrait with the family further away and more of the Japanese scenery/background showing. Here's the final version.

I forgot to scan this before giving them the portrait framed (ignore the flash reflection)

And I also painted this portrait of my friend's dog, Tori, who passed away at a few days ago.

And, after many tonal studies, I completed this portrait of my girls for my mother-in-law.

And, finally, a portrait of my brother's dog, Butters, who passed away at Thanksgiving.

Have you also been busy creating artwork for Christmas presents?

New Craftsy Classes

Craftsy has been having a Black Friday sale - all of its classes are $17.99 or less through this Monday. I took the plunge and signed up for 2 more classes because I couldn't resist (again!). On Friday, I bought Matt Rota's Portraits in Watercolor class and watched through all the lessons over a couple of days while being holed up in Lake Tahoe with my family.

Matt's course is excellent. Very, very thorough. He starts with materials and goes on to explain how to do different watercolor washes. I learned so much. For example, he showed us how hot press watercolor paper allows for the watercolors to stay wet longer than cold press which allows for easier mixing of colors and washes. He also explained how different washes and techniques allow for hard or soft edges and when you might want to use either in your paintings.

He then shows us how to do a tonal study of a portrait using a single watercolor in different strengths to understand the light, middle, and darkest darks of your painting. I've been struggling to understand values so this was very helpful. Here is our reference photo and my tonal study.

Then, we moved onto working on the portrait for the class starting with a light underpainting in either raw or burnt sienna using accurate measurements with your paintbrush or by eyeing how he features line up with other features. Matt explained how using a warm color for the underpainting allows you to cool it down later and for the underpainting to disappear under the final painting. He also recommended doing an underpainting instead of using graphite to avoid fussing and erasing. I liked that!

Then, we went onto adding color. First, we made a background wash of ultramarine and sepia, if I remember correctly, and painted it in wet on wet to get a soft edge on at least one side of the portrait. After that, we mixed two washes of a warm red and a warm yellow - then wet the entire face and painted in the soft washes which will tint the highlights in the final painting.

Going on, Matt explained how cool washes will make those areas of the portrait recede in space while warm washes will bring those areas forward in space. This was so helpful! As well as the rest of the lessons which walked us through each step to get us to the final painting. I really appreciated this as so many instructors skip steps and just expect you to be able to fill in all the gaps on your own. Here is my final portrait. I'm pretty satisfied with it.

The second class I bought during the Black Friday sale was Painting Realistic Watercolors with Mario Robinson. I watched the lessons this morning, but haven't had a chance to work through any of it yet. I'll post after I do so.

Hope you had a great Thanksgivng break! I'll post the artwork I made while in Tahoe soon!

Portraits 86 - 92 for the 100 Day Project

It's been too long since I've posted my portraits for the 100 Day Project. Here are portraits 86-92 in reverse order.

Which is your favorite of the bunch?

Portraits 84 & 85

Sktchy has been running occasional art challenges on Instagram featuring a particular person who has inspired lots of artists and one particular photo to draw. Portrait 84 was done for Sktchy's latest art challenge.

For portrait 85, I drew a Sktchy inspiration photo of the coolest kid. I love her sunglasses, hat, Mother Teresa tank, and frog!

This is her brother, whom I've drawn previously. They look like such a fun family!

Portraits 40 - 49 for The 100 Day Project

I managed to keep up my work on the 100 day project during our vacation. Here are the portraits I did on our trip and one when I got back.

Portraits for the 100 Day Project

Here are some recent portraits of my 100 day project.

Drawing inspiring artists

One thing I definitely love about the Sktchy app is being able to pay tribute to artist who inspire or support you by drawing them! I did that with varying degrees of success over the last few days.

Vin Ganapathy is a huge inspiration for me. He has been one of my teachers at Sketchbook Skool and is one of the first artists from whom I've bought original artwork! I love his portraits done primarily in Tombow brush pens. They are so expressive! I used my watercolors, Kuretake brush pen, and some of Marc Taro Holmes's watercolor techniques to draw Vin here. I loved the shadows in this inspiration photo.

Jane Royal is a beautiful water colorist who I've met on Sktchy. She paints people with the minimum of graphite lines and really lets the watercolors do their magic. She has been very supportive of my art. I wish I had captured her likeness better here. Nut, it's the thought hat counts, right?

Who are your favorite artists? Have you drawn or painted them?

Latest Portraits for the 100 Day Project

I haven't posted my latest portraits in some time! Though you can always click on the link above to see my entire 100 day portrait.

And finally, yesterday's portrait.

Thanks for following along!

To ink or not with watercolors?

This weekend, I talked this portrait of my friend's nephew.

In tackling this portrait, I decided to start with my pencil and then use watercolor. I didn't start with my normal fountain pen with Platinum carbon black ink.

This was a departure from my normal style, but I kind of liked it. So, I posted it on Sktchy and asked for feedback. The majority of the feedback was that I should leave the portrait as is - and the hardest thing with watercolor is knowing when to stop!

So, I thought I would tackle this next portrait of Kiana - in my usual style with fountain pen and ink first and watercolor next.

What do you think? Which do you prefer - watercolor & pencil or ink & watercolor?

Sktchy's WAXHandy Challenge

Sktchy is a fun and inspiring app for artists and people who want to inspire artists. Each weekend, Sktchy has a themed Weekend Art Extravaganza (#WAX). This past weekend, it was #WAXhandy and the challenge was to make art featuring hands. Here are my contributions.

The funny thing is that I was recently explaining my 100 day portrait project to someone in my figure drawing group and how I undertook it to improve a weakness I felt I had with portraits. I was saying that I have such trouble with drawing hands that I was telling her that I should do a 100 day project with hands and feet! I don't know if I can do 100 of those, but drawing hands for this weekend was challenging and fun!

What is your experience with drawing hands and feet? Do you relish the challenge or find it easy?

Progress on Athena Mixed Media Illustration

Juliana Coles's Sketchbook Skool Polishing klass has really inspired me. In working on illustrating a Greek mythology book with my friend, Steve Seinberg, I've found that using mixed media will allow me to incorporate all of the symbols and information Steve wants to convey about the goddess, Athena, visually.

I love Juliana's method of layering and adding to the piece over time as well as letting the art speak to you and become what it wants. Here are the first three phases of my Athena illustration.

What do you think? Any ideas for further phases/changes?

Playing with Koh-I-Noor Magic Pencils

I was inspired by Sktchy's weekend crosshatch challenge to pull out the Koh-I-Noor Magic multi-color pencils to do these drawings. It was fun!

Have you tried them? What do you think?

Trip to Monterey

This weekend, I took a trip to Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove with my friends, Julie and Sharon. I had a lot of fun introducing them to the Sktchy app and drawing them!

I drew this at lunch at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had an awesome table with this lovely view.

Possible Athena? (16/100)

I'm exited to start working on illustrating a book about Greek mythology with my good friend, Steve. We are starting with Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. All I know physically about Ahena is that she has gray eyes.

So, in doing my 16th portrait for the 100 day project, I thought I would look for an inspiration for Athena. I love Marissa Poetzl's light eyes in the inspiration photo for this drawing.

What do you think - does she look like a good Athena?