Feature Image: Drawing Earthsworld Challenge

Day Nine of my 365 Day Sketch Challenge

Continuing with day nine of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour.

Drawing Earthsworld Challenge

I should have been getting ready for our pre-Christmas getaway to Córdoba in Spain, but I couldn’t resist todays Drawing Earthsworld Challenge from Facebook. This lady has such a great face, I needed to sketch this portrait.

Using Watercolur Not Ink Lines for Contours

I put a few too many ink lines on her. Some of the shallower creases and contours in her face should have been done with watercolour rather than ink. This was a strategy that Sketching Scottie covered in his Sketching Clothing tutorial, and it’s equally applicable (even more so) to facial wrinkles.

Skin Tone Swatch

I played around with a colour triad of Opera Rose and Indian Red for the base layers, and added Cobalt Turquoise Light for the darker, and shadow areas.

I also mixed a shadow shade out of Indian Red and Colbalt Turquoise light, which created some soft greys, and then when I added Opera Rose I got some soft lilac shades with granulation.

The Cobalt Turquoise Light and Indian Red combination makes some lovely warm browns for hair tones, and these can be made dark with neutral tint.

This colour triad is really useful for portraits. Who would have thought that this combination of bold colours could create such a variety of subtle colours that are ideal for skin tones. I think this skin tone triad is going to the top of my list.

I ended up with some really nice granulation with this paper. It was a scrap in my oddments pile – I wish I was more organised and knew what it was!