friday face off

Hi everyone, 

    It's been a very busy week so I'm running late with the art challenges this week but only by a day. This week for Friday Face Off, hosted by Nicole, I only managed a pencil sketch of what is to be a watercolour portrait. That's the plan for now anyway. I might have her finished for next week. 

    So this is as far as I've managed so far. She is actually very faint in my sketchbook but I've darkened the image so you can see the lines more easily.

    I thought you might also like to see some more of my older portraits. 

    The following portraits are all done freehand using ink for an INKtober challenge I did back in 2017. I do love working directly with ink.  I've learned to love the mistakes if they can't be rectified but, most times, I manage to blend them in. I usually draw with a .005 ink liner pen which is very, very fine, then I paint in shading and darks with liquid ink (usually Sumi ink) using a paintbrush. Then I often use a .01 or .03 liner pen to redefine certain lines more.The liquid ink gives you a wide variety of lights and darks depending on how much water you add.

    I also did an ink portrait of Selena. I don't know if you've heard of her but she was a very popular singer back in the 90's until she was callously gunned down by the woman who ran her fan club. Such a tragedy. She was known as the Queen of Tejano music and many said she could have been the next Gloria Estefan. There is a movie titled Selena where Jennifer Lopez plays the role of the popular singer. A lovely movie on Selena's life and highlights the close bond she had with her family. I'd highly recommend watching it if you haven't already. If the video trailer below doesn't work, you can watch it on YouTube HERE.

    So I thought you might like to see my process when working with ink. There is always an ugly stage in most paintings which is why you shouldn't give up and press on until you are happy.

    First the fine ink pen drawing. The ink liner pen is fine enough where I can cover mistakes and redefine areas later. Bear in mind, the line drawing is darkened so you can see the lines more clearly.

    The first pass with liquid ink and not too attractive. You'll notice the ink bled too far into her face...

    ... but, not giving up, I was able to use acrylic gouache to blend it out. And then achieved an end result where I was happy with it. I sometimes use a white ink pen for some highlights and fine white lines though not always. Sometimes I will use white gouache to block or blend areas too.

    Remember to pop on over to Nicole's blog to see the work of other participants. Click HERE.  

    Note — I'm running a little behind catching up with everyone's blogs but I hope to remedy that over the next couple of days.

    Til next time...

Love, Light and Peace