Inspired by a Sktchy photo, created in ProCreate on iPad with Apple Pencil, when it was too early for bed and I was too tired to go to the studio. Sat the iPad on my knee, looked at photo in Sktchy App on iPhone. And here’s the inspiration photo:
Shower cap inspiration photo on Sktchy by Danith R.
Let me know what you think about shorter posts like this. I’m going to try to post more often to the blog, with more pictures and less words. Sometimes less is more (posts) if I can get stuff posted quickly without long explanations. But don’t worry, there will still be lessons I’m learning in the studio posts too.
I so enjoy the Sktchy App where people post their photos, artists post their sketches of the photos and everybody is so positive and encouraging. Each weekend Sktchy hosts a Weekend Art Extravaganza or “WAX,” which is a cue or art concept to inspire artists to apply to their sketches. Last weekend it was “Candlelight.” I found the inspiring photo below on Sktchy and used it for this painting.
Photo reference for candlelight
Do join in on Sktchy if you have an iPhone and want practice drawing people (and their pets and home/cities) from all over the world, all ages, all lifestyles. It’s so much fun!
Instead of my usual lengthy posts I thought I’d experiment with the occasional quickie drafted on my phone. A picture, a few words, and done.
I have several long posts in progress but can’t tear myself away from painting to complete them. So to give me a little more time…here’s my contribution to the SktchyApp weekend challenge to draw using cross-hatching. Done and done!
Sketching from Sktchy App photos (I explained it here) is a great warmup exercise and opportunity to practice drawing a wide variety of faces and expressions. Each week they offer a Weekend Art Exploration (#WAX) challenge and 3 of the drawings marked in the collage below were for WAX. All are in a 12×9″ sketchbook.
Collage of sketches and inspiration photos from Sktchy. (Click on image two times to enlarge.)
The challenge marked in the top row was to draw on text; mine is on a page of “Secrets of the Flesh: The Life of Collette.” The challenge in row two was to show your tools used to create the art so I put my colored pencils in front of “Crazy Eyes,” as she titled her photo. The bottom row challenge was to use the magic of art to transform a photo into something else (I combined Tweety Bird with the girl making a bird face). The last sketch above is from a photo I uploaded for others to draw. I did a better job on Millie than me.
Below are larger versions of a few from this batch (click to see larger):
Audrey Henry, Colored Pencil
Artist known as “Foggy 365” in the hospital, graphite and conte pencil
Henry Luis Alonso on Secrets of the Flesh
4 views of “Moon Child Luna 2” in graphite
This weekend the challenge is to draw from the same photo twice, once with each hand. Wish me luck! I don’t think my left hand knows how to do anything except type.
I’ve had so much fun since I discovered the SKTCHY app. It’s so simple: people upload photos and artists use them as inspiration to draw from and then upload snapshots of their artwork. (click on collection below twice to enlarge.)
Collage of recent sketches and their Sktchy.com inspiration photos
Above are my sketches and their Sktchy reference photos from the past week in a collage (made using free PicMonkey online). The Sktchy app is super easy to use, with an incredibly wide variety of people to draw and really interesting artists’ work to be inspired by. Join me there! It’s big fun!!! (FYI, it’s currently only available for iPhone/iPad; Android version is in the works).
Click on any of my sketches below to see larger or in a slide show. They are all in a 12×9″ sketchbook.
Walter Justice, colored pencil
France Belville Van-Stone, graphite
Kalie Jones, colored pencil
Khyla Duran, colored pencil
Shwan Kamal, photo ref, watercolor
Fernando Quijano, Jr. Graphite, attempt #2
Fernando Quijano, Jr., Colored pencil & Graphite, attempt #1
Jana Bouc, Artist 