Spoiled for Choice

The first thing I try to determine, whenever looking at a possible artistic subject, is:  What should I use to draw or paint this?

This is not easy to figure out, since I have a TON of art supplies, and have never truly specialized in any particular medium.  So whenever my Seattle friends get together for a Zoom sketch session, and we choose a photo to work from, I scratch my head a lot while pondering, "ink?  watercolor? colored pencil? some combination? other??  what paper should I use..."   Yeah, there are just as many choices in surfaces as there are in media.  Argh.

For this koi picture, I fell back on the ink + watercolor method on mixed-media paper, which is my "go to" technique for most quick sketches and for all outdoor sketching.  It seemed to work fine for this subject.

For the next Zoom session, we chose a photo that showed palm trees in silhouette with a colorful sky, and I decided to use a brush pen with just a touch of watercolor.  You can use a brush pen to make a variety of line widths, from very thin to quite thick, and I liked the way this turned out.

Then I decided to do another portrait from Good Omens (no, I haven't gotten tired of drawing or painting those yet).  So far, I've done portraits using pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic paints, or colored pencils.  The most successful pieces have been done with the colored pencils. I drew the character Aziraphale using those, and this time I did the character Crowley.

The photo was a bit too dark overall, and not as detailed as I like, but it was good enough to work from.  I like Faber-Castell colored pencils, which are oil-based (most colored pencils are wax based).  This makes them harder to blend smoothly, but unlike wax pencils, they tend to keep a finer point longer and they don't break easily.  

I lightened the overall values considerably.  It was a challenging and fun expression to draw.

The strokes appear rough (this is hot-press watercolor paper), but they can be blended more by going over them with a white colored pencil at the end.

I'm happy with this one.  I've ordered some new colors, as the set I have doesn't contain enough shades that are useful in portraiture.  I also ordered some different papers that are more specific to colored pencil work.  

Of all the mediums I've tried so far in drawing or painting people, I like the colored pencils best. Now I'm thinking I might try using them for other subjects, too.  

Maybe I should use them to draw dogs....

Tricky subject, especially when they move!

Have a great week out there!