Portraits and some updates

I have been continuing my new linocut project, but this one is taking some time to carve out, here is the progress on it:

Still have some corners to deal with, but most of it is done. In the meantime, I wanted to get back to practice some drawing and decided get back to doing some portraits.

This is a portrait of the author Ray Bradbury and it was done with Derwent drawing pencils and a few Derwent Coloursoft. I decided to leave color out in order to simplify the portrait and concentrate in getting the features and values right.

Finally, since this one went quite well, I have started a new portrait (also done with Derwent Drawing pencils) of Juliana, a character in the TV series "Man in the High Castle":

I will be posting the progress on this one and hopefully it will go as well as the last.

New Projects and a Mini Haul

I have been back to sketching with my soft pastels (and oil pastels). They are one of my favorite medium to work with. I like the way they force you to be more loose and expressionist, since it's difficult to achieve a lot of fine detail with them. Here is a drawing I have done of a blue throat:

It took me roughly one hour and half and I finished it in two separated days.

I also got around to finish my vibrant poppies dry point. It was painted over with Jackson's artist watercolors, they are excellent paints for the price.

I have also started another linocut project, trying to make at least one set of prints each month and since the last ones were mostly dry points, I though it was time to get back to some lino cutting.

Finally I got some boxes to organize my supplies and with them, these two lovely items:

I am really curious to try the monoprint plates, they are quite versatile allowing for a lot of printmaking techniques, as I discovered reading the back of the package:

Winter Landscapes Series and Monoprints

Took some time but I am finally done with the first set of prints for my winter landscapes series. I painted the drypoints with a mix of watercolor, inktense, pastel and color pencils.

More prints, I am planning to do at least three prints for each image, five if I have the time to paint them all afterwards.

 

I also bought a Gelli plate (the A4 size) and I have been having some fun making monoprints. This one was then combined with a linocut of a white fox. I retouched it a bit with some white gouache. 

For this one, I am planning to combining it with a drypoint and see how the effect adds on: