I’m really happy with this sketch of Ron McA from Sktchy. I tried to just keep it simple and it worked. I like the mood and the pencil work. If you’d like to see the original photo reference, you can click and swipe on Sktchy here.
Category: Sktchy
I’m continuing to work with the Loomis Method, which is really helping me. As you can see below, I got a little closer and her nose and jaw got little smaller each time I tried to draw her.
You can see the model I was working from on Sktchy here. I’ve been working on this project since August but got sidetracked by the election and now that I can concentrate again I’ll be catching up on posting my work over the next week or two.
I recently finished a 4-week class on Sktchy’s Art School, “Drawing the Human Head with Mike Creighton” based on the Loomis method. I highly recommend Mike’s class if you struggle with making people look like actual human people, let alone looking like very specific people.
I’ve had so much fun painting and sketching the lovely Dayris from Sktchy in oil (above), and before that, in pencil and then doing a digital sketch in Procreate (below). Also below you’ll find a slide show of the work in progress. Doing the two initial drawings really helped me quickly get a pretty accurate drawing for the oil painting. You can see her reference photo on Sktchy here.
Below are the steps in the process of making the portrait.
Initial pencil drawing of Dayris, 12×9″ 
Digital Sketch of Dayris in Procreate 
Umber underpainting 
Some background and shirt 
Some paint on face 
Icky background in with palette knife 
More work on background, still icky 
Background better but not happy with shirt or hair 
Almost done 
Scraped off shirt and some hair to redo Portrait of Dayris, Oil on Arches Oil Paper, 10″x8.5″
After working on this portrait for two months, trying over and over to capture this lovely woman in paint, I have to admit I never truly succeeded. I learned from all the struggles and attempts but it’s about to be a new year and time to start something new so I’m moving on. You can see her reference photo on Sktchy by clicking on the image of my painting here.
Below are two digital sketches in Procreate from Sktchy, done this month while waiting for the paint to dry on the portrait to try once again on a new layer of oil paint to get it right.
You can see the reference photo for the sketch above here and the one below here on Sktchy. Just click my drawing there to see the reference photo beneath it.
Learning to paint (well) for me means a constant but gradual process of 1) learning from my mistakes and 2) having “layers of the onion” lifted from my eyes until I at last can see something that was previously mysteriously hidden from me. (You can see the reference photo for this painting on Sketchy here.)
This painting taught me once again how much harder painting can be when you don’t start with an accurate drawing, going directly to drawing with paint and then correcting, correcting, correcting.
Getting the drawing right and capturing a likeness can be as “simple” as recognizing the big shapes, contours, divisions of space and observing where things line up with each other. Getting the values right can be as “simple” as observing where the light comes from, how it lands on the large and small planes of the face or any object, and asking myself where the darkest and lightest areas are and how this plane compares. Getting good color “just” means accurately observing the overall and predominant range of colors (saturated or grayed, warm or cool) and then asking is this the spot “warmer or cooler, more or less saturated, lighter or darker.”
I can ask myself these questions over and over, but until yet another layer of the onion is lifted, I just can’t see the answer. When that happens my brain tells me it’s too hard and just jumps ahead with a lazy guess, which then sets off another round or layer of correction, correction, correction. But I do learn from my mistakes and each next painting is an opportunity to put what I learned from them into practice and hopefully remove one more layer until at last I will be able to truly see!
I’m returning to using Sktchy for my reference photos of people for portrait practice since there is such a wide range to choose from. I’m not abandoning my series of “people Facebook thinks I should know,” but those are less useful for portrait practice, which I’m wanting to do right now.
Can you tell those splotches on his face are light coming in from a window through maybe lace curtains? I can’t post the original Sktchy reference photo off that site, but you can see it by clicking or swiping on my Sktchy painting on Sktchy here if you’re interested.
One thing I love about gouache is that it limits me to working on a painting for only one or two sessions. Unlike oils that can go on being repainted forever, gouache fairly quickly says, “Sorry, no more paint, no more layers, you’re done.” It teaches me to get the drawing down, go for the values and then lay down brush strokes of color and let them be.
I had to make myself stop or I would have worked on this one forever because the colors and expression in the Sktchy photo were so fascinating (and challenging) and fun! I again tried to focus on painting the planes of the face using mostly cool colors with some warm colors to help create dimension. The lighting really helped show the underlying structure of her face.
I was really happy with the way this gouache portrait of Olivia A. from her photo in the Sktchy app turned out. I focused on putting down patches or tiles of color, based on what I was seeing but also considering color temperature and facial landmarks. It also helped that for once did a good job on the drawing first.
Sometimes I study and study and have lots of book learning and every now and then, if I’m really lucky and persistent, it pours out of the end of my pencil or paint brush like magic and I actually meet your goals for a piece.
I wasn’t sure which version of the very pretty artist Makenna Snyder I liked best, but I think it’s monochrome version above rather than the colored version below.
When I was looking for new glasses two years ago I tried on a frame like hers and thought it was a frumpy, old-fashioned look, having seen the style the first time around several decades ago. But eventually I’ve come to see them as attractive and stylish. Now that I like them it means they’ll probably be going out of style very soon.
Below is a sketch of Tomas from Sketchy. There was something rather ominous about his bathroom selfie. I’m not sure why someone would take a photo of themselves half naked in the bathroom and post it for people to draw but I’m glad he did.
Jana Bouc, Artist 