Friday 14 August 2015

More Sktchy Portraits

It's been three months since I developed a new obsession - using the Sktchy app to create portraits. I've written about the portraits before, but I'd like to share a few of my newest sketches.

In this day of the endless selfie, and the current love of sharing these on social media, there's an endless supply of wonderful people to be inspired by. 
Many people who are on Sktchy have no plan to create any portraits, they are content to post creative photos of themselves for others to use. Are we becoming a tad self-obsessed?

Each weekend there's a different challenge, the Weekend Art Extravaganza. It may be  #WAXinyourshoes - creating a portrait in the style of a fellow Sktchy artist whose work you admire; or it may be #WAXinmotion where the aim is to capture movement. 

The lovely photograph of this little girl jumping with delight over a puddle of water made a perfect reference to use for #WAXinmotion. I was delighted that it was featured as a 'Sktchy Pick' 

 Jumping watercolour and gouache

Last weekend it was #WAXmini - making a very small portrait and photographing your painting with something to show the scale. Some years ago I painted many miniatures so it was fun to re-visit the world of the small. I had to search for my smallest 3/0 brush to paint this portrait.  
 
Yasmin - watercolour on Canson Hot press paper

Often when working on paintings in the studio I'm reluctant to experiment and I realise it's important to make time to play; to use different materials; to try another technique. These portraits give me the impetus to do just that - use an unusual colour; add a lively wash to the background of a ink drawing - and in this case, deciding to leave the portrait itself in black and white, adding no watercolour washes to the face. 

Men and beards is another favourite theme - here are two of Ronin Memphis. What a magnificent beard - a pity it's now been trimmed !!  

RoninI Ink and watercolour

Ronin II Ink and watercolour

And here's a portrait of the co-founder of the app - Jordan Melnick

Jordan Ink and watercolour Beta sketchbook

Sktchy has a Tumblr site where many of the portraits can be viewed as well as interviews with some of the artists. 

And of course, here's a link to the Sktchy app itself is where you’ll find all the action!



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