I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
Mantid on a rose bud was done on Strathmore Bristol with Derwent Graphitint (tinted graphite) pencils. I love these insects and they are all over the rose bushes this time of year. I tried to capture her natural grace and beauty as she stepped down from her rose bud perch while eyeing her prey.
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle ~
Norman Schwarzkopf
.
When the battle goes outer space and you are the only left ⚔️
An illustration for a Grimm's Fairy Tale in a Moleskine notebook. This one is for a kind of obscure story called The Companionship of the Cat and the Mouse. Just graphite.
All the faces above have the same blot or cloud as a base. When I am sick of the faces I draw automatically, I make a nice, oddly shaped blot and then look for faces (or whatever) within it. This time I did it digitally so I could see how many different faces I could get out of the same cloud. This time I stopped at thirteen, but I am sure there is more.
A silly watercolor sketch, I know, but there's a lot tied to this little thing. There are so many bittersweet feelings lately. I tend to avoid putting a numerical value to time, I don't like the count-down aspect to things, especially knowing how obsessive I can be with that. It allows me to live in some semblance of ignorance (they say ignorance is pure bliss). There's a lot of tip-toeing around what I want to say and what I'm afraid to say, or even what I'd love to explore and embrace and simply afraid to. It's something I'm not used to. It's taken me quite a while to finally sit with certain things, or even acknowledge them, and it feels like there's so much more I'm now realizing. It's odd to be so frank to some and worried that others may find out. There's a lot of shifting again, goodbyes coming soon, complicated feelings and situations.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NABRE)
It's been an interesting week, one of which had events I didn't expect to affect me as much as they did. I'd like to say something that occurred was surprising, but quite frankly, it wasn't. It's concerning how far things have gone and how some seem to feel indifferent to or even support them. We'll see what will happen, 11 days can't pass soon enough... besides that, time ticks on. A bit too fast in my opinion, but it is what it is. I know this drawing isn't my usual style, but something about drawing like this feels mindless for me, it lets me zone out and disconnect.
Satch’s perhaps the most resourceful dog on the planet. His legs are fast, his nose is keen, his mind is set, but the world has grown too complicated for a dog even as well-equipped as Satch. His owners got lost and he does not know how to find them in this never-ending maze of smells and sounds.
Thankfully, he stumbled upon Neal. He will know what to do.
