Just wondering...

I like to sketch random people from photos found online. It's a great exercise and, since they are total strangers, less pressure to make a good drawing.

Old mugshots are particularly interesting. For one, I love how different people looked in the past. Their hairdos and clothes particularly. Some of the men even look positively dapper.

Sketching these faces always makes me wonder what their lives looked like and why they were arrested.

 

More liaison officers

A few more of my liaison officer friends.

We had stressful but fun times and other downright hilarious moments together.

Christiane

Francis

Han

Irina

Isabelle

Luc

Yolanda

Carlo

Liaison officers

In 2015, Luxembourg held the Presidency of the European Council during the second half of the year.

In that context, I had the pleasure to act as a liaison officer for several European delegations during the informal meetings. 

I met many different people from all over Europe ; the Czech Republic, the former Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Poland, among others.

However, the best part was working with my fellow liaison officers during those 6 months. People from different professions and parts of Luxembourg, all motivated to make "our" Presidency as successful and pleasant as possible.

All good things come to an end, sadly, but to end this wonderful experience and show my appreciation to my colleagues, I made a series of portraits for as many of them as I could.

Here are a some of my favourites. I will post more in a separate post.

Mariette

Michel

Monique

René

Theresa

Laurent

Alain

Bruno

Portrait of Abby - another commission

A few weeks ago I received my second commission for a child portrait.

My new client was referred to me by Kristen, who had asked me to make a portrait of her daughter Bee a while ago. Apparently the portrait was a hit and a friend of hers wanted to have one made of his daughter Abby.

It was a very pleasant surprise, but also a bit of a daunting task. It is one thing to make a drawing for someone you know, quite another to make one for a complete stranger.

The reference photo I received was just adorable and not the type of photo I would usually use, so it was an added challenge.

I decided to add Tentacle Kitty on Abby's shirt, as her father told me it was one of her favourite toys. I had never heard of Tentacle Kitty before, but I think it's super cute.

I'm glad to say that my clients were satisfied with the result, which in turn makes me very happy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to scan the portrait properly before sending it, so the colours are slightly off on this image, but it gives a pretty good idea of the final result.

A Bee commission

A while ago, I was challenged to post 3 of my drawings every day during 5 days on Facebook.

On one of these occasions, I posted a selection of my portraits and a contact of mine, Kristen, asked me if I took commissions. She wanted me to make a portrait of her little daughter, Bee.

To be honest, I never seriously considered earning any money with my drawings, even if, of course, it is a bit of a dream of mine, so I was hesitant at first.

Not so much to make a portrait on demand, but more about getting paid for it. I'm no professional, so it seemed a bit preposterous and I had no idea how much money to ask for it anyway.

However, I overcame these qualms and took on the challenge and made a comprimise with Kristen (and with myself): I would make the portrait (it was good practice anyway) and she would take it only if she liked it.

There were many cute and cheeky pictures to choose from, so that was a bit of a challenge in itself, and I settled on one that I found both a bit complicated and showing a bit of the girl's personality.

Kristen and Bee liked the portrait and it has now arrived safely to Switzerland. It is now part of a collection of Bee portraits, of which I am pretty proud.

It has certainly been a growing experience for me and I am grateful to Kristen for nudging me in this direction.

We are a long way from opening a business from this, but I am now a tiny bit less daunted about selling my work.

A few JKPP portraits again

It's been a while since I did some portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party.

I have so many photos stored that I don't know where to start or just don't always have the motivation.

It was time to practice again, though, so here are some I did lately.

What attracted me to this photo was the pronounced shadows on the face. I really wanted to show that the sun was shining on it. 

I was less inspired with the background, but I like it this way

I loved the moustache on this one. I challenged myself with the hair, trying to put the right highlights were needed. I think the moustache got good. I'm less happy with the hair, though. Practice makes perfect!

Again, the background...

I knew I wanted to use different paper and medium for this next picture. I think it looks a bit like an old children's illustration book. This paper is very tricky to handle, so there are always surprises, but I like it.

"Martine au salon de thé"

Draw Tommy Kane

I love Tommy Kane's work. I don't know if it's his style or his humour I like most, or even his clever self-promotion.

He just seems like a nice guy. Someone I would love to hang out with.

He has this Tumblr account called Draw Tommy Kane, where he showcases portraits of him made by anyone who would like to draw him.

Check it out, it's quite fun to browse through this big diversity of drawings.

Here is the one I made.

The squirrel is a last-minute addition. He seems to like them and he has this very cool drawing of a squirrel with a gun.

There happened to be some tape with a squirrel on it among the presents I got from my friend Sari for my birthday, so I added it.

Farewell, captain!

I have been struggling with this post for several days now...

Last week, the sketching community lost one of its most charismatic members, Jorge Royan.

He was an engineer, photographer and sketcher from Argentina, but more importantly he was a visionary, a mentor and, above all, a good father.

He is the founder of the Sketching Workshop community I once mentioned, and its driving force.

From the first time I "spoke" to him via Facebook, when I applied to join the group, he struck me as someone a bit intimidating but kind, fun, open and very encouraging.

He was always striving to learn from others and teach what he knew. He always pushed people to be better and to reach their potential.

I don't remember how often he told me to "adjust the levels" of my drawings! I didn't even understand what levels were at the time. It was very humbling to have someone tell me that my sketches deserve better than a poor quality picture.

I feel fortunate to have know even just a little bit of him, exchanging ideas to improve the group, talking about our families. He was so fiercly proud of his family!

Although he was not exactly a close friend, I will miss him, I already do. He was a driving force for progress, the kind of person you don't meet often. I only regret that I didn't get to know him more.

His favourite quote, and the motto of Sketching Workshop, is "All that is not given is lost". I think that says a lot about him.

Now, after fiddling around so much with these stupid levels on this portrait, they still look off to me, depending on which screen I'm using! I'll do better, Jorge, I promise!

Portrait for Sari

Do you ever happen to promise a friend you will make a drawing for them? I do. Quite frequently. The problem sometimes is keeping that promise.

On one hand you really want to give them one of your drawings and on the other you're not always satisfied with your work, so you don't want to give it to them. And where is inspiration when you need it?

A while back, I offered my friend Sari to make her portrait and a couple of weeks ago I finally sat down to do it. 

This was not the first time I attempted to draw her, but this time I guess my muse was smiling on me, for I'm really happy with the result.

As with many portraits, the likeness is there but not 100 %. However, I do feel like I captured her spirit somehow and I'm very happy with the result. So was she when I showed it to her. She says I made her prettier than she is.

Now unto the next assignment!

I used some of the washi tape she sent me from Japan

Me, myself and I

I have been a very bad student for the second klass, this time held by Koosje Koene again.

Our assignment was to make one selfportrait a day. Which I failed to do miserably.

Koosje suggested that we make 2 portraits from a picture, 2 looking at a mirror, 2 using one continuous line and one from memory.

And I thought: "Oh yeah, I've done that before, it will be ok."

Right. Only the problem was I somehow didn't find the time / energy / will to do one every day.

So here are the only 2 portraits I did, both looking at a mirror, one of them in one continuous line (I'll let you guess which one).

    

 

In spite of my lack of actual work, I think this is quite a fun assignment.

I will definitely challenge myself to one selfportrait a day at some point. It was just not the right time, I guess.

Latest portraits for JKPP

Here are some more of the portraits I made for Julia Kay's Portrait Party and did not get around to posting.

Constantine's photos offer a variety of funny faces to choose from. Not always easy to portray, but certainly an interesting challenge.

Constantine

I chose the next one because I liked the challenge of replicating the light shining on Amy's face. The lips got slightly too big, but it turned out to be one of my favourite portraits so far.

Amy

Mireille's photo inspired me a immediately. I exactly knew where I was going with it and which medium I wanted to use. Also one of my favourites.

Mireille

On the contrary, with this one I just went with the flow and saw it slowly develop.

Cooper

PIFAL - honouring the arts and letters

PIFAL, or Portraits of illustrious figures of the arts and letters, is another Flickr group dedicated to portraits. More specifically, as its name so aptly says, portraits of known artists, writers, actors, etc.

What I think is interesting about this group, apart from the very impressive work I see there, is that I get to discover artists and writers from different corners of the world and of whom I had never heard before.

For my first contribution I chose to make a portrait of the Portuguese writer José Saramago. I have read a few of his books (ex. Blindness) and, after some getting used to his style, I really love reading his stories. They are always very intelligent and philosophocal, and never boring.

So I thought it would be a way of promoting him a little.

I love how bored he looks in this picture

In keeping with my idea of promoting Portuguese artists, I chose Fernando Pessoa as my next subject. He's been sketched and caricatured so much already that I think I got a bit influenced by the portraits I have seen of him more than by the reference photo.

He must be one of the most interesting poets I know of. He created various personas (called heteronyms) under whose names and personalities he would write. They were not simple pen names, but more like separate writers with different lives, interests and styles.

Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, Bernardo Soares, etc.

For my last contribution so far I chose Romy Schneider. Most people know her better for her iconic role as Austrian empress Sissi, and that's also how I discovered her when I was a child.

But she grew out of that role when she moved to France to become one of the country's most beloved actresses.

She even starred in Hollywood movies (e.g. Orson Welles' The Trial and What's new Pussycat? with Peter O'Toole, Woody Allen and Peter Sellers).

Her acting was always very humane and sensitive. To me she embodies what most actresses should strive for.

She even learned style from Coco Chanel herself

Different paper, different styles - part 5

Last type of paper, I promise!

I actually didn't notice it at first, only after filling quite a few pages. My observation skills are unsurpassed, haha!

Again, I don't quite know how to describe these pages. They're slightly grey and porous.

My pencils don't make strong enough marks on this paper, so I thought it best to use watercolour.

It's not as tricky to work with as the first few pages in the sketchbook (or maybe I have just changed my approach), but I have to be very careful with the amount of water I use, and wait for the paper to dry correctly before putting more detailed lines.

I also have to put something under each page when I work on this paper, otherwise the pages below get easily stained, like on this portrait.

I guess it makes the portrait more interesting...

I'm learning to master my brushes and the amount of water I use in watercolour with this paper.

Once again, I got the name wrong... She's Sylvie, not Chantal!

After a couple of portraits I started to add some shading. Always very carefully, for the paper is quite capricious. It does make for very soft transitions, though, which I really like.

She's much lovelier in reality. Very elegant.

I tried using markers, too, but I didn't really like the result. For one thing, the colour continues bleeding a bit after I finish drawing and for another the lines are not as smooth as I would like them to be.

I might give this technique another try later on, when I get tired of using only watercolour

I think I'll use her picture again. I feel like great things can be done with it.

This paper is teaching me patience once more. So far I like the overall results I'm getting

Looks like his hand is disconnected from the rest of his body...

I have to say I'm having a lot of fun filling this sketchbook. I feel there has been development in each of the styles I'm using, which is very motivating.

Thanks again, Marisa, for the wonderful present! ^_ ^

Different paper, different styles - part 4

There are a few black pages in this Lamali sketchbook.

Not plain black paper, but beautifully thick with pressed fibres. Really gorgeous.

I wasn't really sure what to do with it, though, haha.

For one thing, I'm not used to working with black paper, and for another I don't have many tools to work with it.

Watercolour is out of the question and brushpen and the like also.

So for now I am using a white gel pen to work in very clean lines.

Cheers!

It's a good exercise to force myself to decide which lines to put an which ones to ignore.

Different paper, different styles - part 3

Next type of paper in this Lamali sketchbook is plain white paper like the one from a normal notebook, so I can't use watercolour here either.

At least not with much success, haha.

So I decided to try out a more comic-like approach for these portraits. I have to say I have a lot of fun with them. Probably because I love comics.

For my first attempt, I stuck to only using my brushpen. Baby steps.

I might add some colours in the balloons one day

For the next one I wanted to try making something more caraicature-like. Caricatures are not my strong point, though. But I got the expression right.

Bad quality photo, sorry...

I loved the face Marine was making in the reference picture of my next portrait. She seems to be a very funny person.

I got her name wrong here. She's Marine, not Martine!

In this one I started adding colour and skin tone with markers, to make it a bit more real while remaining in the comic style. I'm not satisfied with the likeness, but I like the expression.

I met her in Barcelona, she seems really nice

The next two I chose because I liked the challenge, of the composition for the first one, and of the very distorted face for the second one.

It was a fun composition to try out

The skin tones were particularly interesting to try out.

Glasses are a challenge by themselves...

So far these pages are the ones that show a greater evolution, in my opinion. It might have to do with the fact that the medium is much easier to use, while at the same time forcing me to make more radical decisions in my choices.

One thing I find interesting is that while at the beginning I would invest half an hour tops for one drawing, now I can sit more than one hour working on one single portrait. I'm becoming a more patient person, haha.