Here is quick roundup of sketches I've been working on during August. One of my goals for 2020 and 2021 is to do more portrait drawing. It is a style I've always admired but felt like I was not the best at. I'm also interested in doing more gouache portraits and building up the layers for the skin tones in watercolor. I think it can make a really interesting effect similar to oil paints.
The first one is of rapper Meg Thee Stallion. I'm working on 5 x 7 Crescent Illustration Board. It's my first time using this material. The board is a bit soft to the touch so I was trying to not press too hard. I'm interested in seeing how it handles watercolor paint. You can see I used the grid method for the Meg Thee Stallion sketch. I'm showing the early stages to remind myself how to push through even when the drawing starts out not looking exactly the way you want.
The second one is of model Gage Gomez. I'm working on Canson L'Aquarelle Heritage 140 lb watercolor block paper using a mix of Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith, and Mijello Mission Gold watercolor paints.
Some things I liked about these sketches: I like how I captured the eyes for the Gage Gomez sketch. I also like how I captured the blush tones in the skin. It was my first time really mixing skin tones so I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and tried to experiment. I like how I captured the eyes and lips in the Meg sketch as well and how I simplified her dress and chain in the bottom half of the sketch.
Some things I can improve on with these sketches: I think I can get better proportions for the the lips in the male sketch. I want to have more dynamic lines and feel free to deviate from the reference photo. I think next time I can also try pushing the line weight and really making some dark lines for the shadows and values in the Meg sketch.
