Now at Portrait No 19

I have done 11 more portraits since the last post. Keeping up with a sketch a day and a portrait a day is only possible because I am still not able to walk much due to my foot injury and painting is a way to stay occupied and not fret about all those other things I have to do but can't.

So far I have done 5 women, 5 girls, 5 men and 4 boys. It is a short term plan that keeps me focussed on a smaller goal at a time. November has passed quickly because of this project. Here are two of the portraits

Pen and Watercolour Portrait by Bee KC Tan

Watercolour portrait by Bee K C Tan

For day to day progress please follow me on Instagram/bee_kctan as I will not be updating this blog as often.

6/100 Portraits

Portrait No 3/100

Portrait no 4/100

I was second guessing myself again, thinking perhaps I have made a hasty decision about wanting to do 100 portraits. However,  I have laid the inner critic to rest. So far, I did manage to do a portrait a day! I suppose keeping the sizes generally small did help, and also watercolour wash and pen is a quick method. I am still laying the watercolour down first very loosely before using the pen. I switched to using watercolour paper for No 4 and also used a different pen with not very satisfactory results. The nib was too thick and the ink ran, so much so that one of the eyes was ruined and I had to use a white highlighter to restore it. My approach for this series is that I am learning as I go along, so I just try to make things work instead of fussing over mistakes and imperfections.

I decided to vary my approach for portraits no 5 and 6. I no longer laid a watercolour wash first but painted the entire subject with watercolour and then added the ink outline on completion using a fine 0.2 pen. I will keep varying the approach and medium as I proceed. After all, this is also a journey of exploration and experimentation as much as practice. I am especially pleased with No 5, where I managed to capture a good likeness of both the subjects who are my friends.

Portrait No 5/100

Portrait no 6/100

100 portraits

To keep the momentum going after Inktober I have decided to embark on my next project: 100 Portraits. Being on Sktchy has made it convenient to find subjects to paint, and I have also started painting people I know. Here are my first two portraits:

Portrait No 1

Portrait No 2

Both of these are done with Ink over a watercolour wash, in the pages of an A5 sketchbook. To keep it manageable, I've started with a smaller size, and the portraits can be completed in less than an hour. I have found that drawing everyday during Inktober definitely improved my speed and dexterity. I am now able to sketch directly with the pen without doing a preliminary pencil sketch and am getting better at controlling my ink pens. These two paintings were done using my ancient Rotring art pen which came out of storage after 20 years. This is very sturdy and the nib glides smoothly over the page though the ink tends to smudge. I have also used fine liners.

What I have discovered during Inktober is that if I turn up, inspiration will turn up. Even on the days when I found some prompts uninspiring, I was able to make things work once I got started. The main difficulty is getting started. So now that I have started, I do not want to stop creating. 

Hello November!

Reached the Summit, conquered Inktober 2107

Inktober 2017 is finally over! For 31 days I have been slavishly following prompts on Skytchy (you can download this app for apple devices only), spending from a few minutes to sometimes hours on drawing with some form of ink. I have not used ink in years. I used it a lot when I was much younger, before I discovered other media such as watercolour and oils, simply because it was the most affordable.Through Inktober I have become reacquainted with ink again. It was like meeting an old friend. I also used Chinese ink, which is wonderful and very versatile. Used with a brush, it offers huge variation of tones when diluted with water, much like watercolour. I also tried out a self inking Chinese calligraphy brush.Below is an example of a painting I did combining the two, which turned out very satisfactorily:

Inktober day 16 Fat Ⓒ beekctan

I used primarily watercolour on the left and transitioned into Chinese ink on the right. The result is very satisfying. Another one that I am quite pleased with is this portrait of a little girl painted on day 17 to the prompt Graceful.

Inktober Day 17 Graceful  Ⓒ beekctan

On some days I did use nothing but ink as in this portrait of a cute but messy little boy on day 18 Filthy:

Inktober Day 18 Filthy  Ⓒ beekctan

So, at the end of Inktober, it looks like ink is here to stay for a while in my work!

Hello November!

To view all the works I did this Inktober follow me on Instagram/bee_kctan