Natasha’s Applying NMA Studies to 100 Portraits

[Christopher]

Hi Natasha,

I regularly look into here and I really love your work since I’m also a huge fan of watercolor and pen & ink (I would also love to see more lectures here on NMA covering those two topics).

I like the expressiveness of your watercolors and I admire what you already achieved regarding pen & ink work.

Are your portraits done with ballpoint pens, or fineliners?

Oh and I exactly know what you mean with getting impatient 😅 I find it so easy to fall into the trap of getting impatient and just mindlessly hatching to finish what I’m working on.

Do you have specific resources regarding pen & ink and hatching or do you have favorite artist’s to study? I for myself only got the book from Alphonso Dunn which is pretty helpful to get a system into your hatching since he want’s you to think about the purpose of each individual stroke aswell as each layer of strokes.

Keep going, I think you are on a good way 👋

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Christopher.

[Natasha]

@christopherbunger thanks so much for your comments! Sorry I’ve been out of the loop for a bit. I’m a big fan of Dunn and even have his workbook, but somehow it’s not translating to something I can replicate. As far as the pens go, it’s anything laying around nearby: I have a bunch of colored uniball signos, some doctor’s office pens, bics, gel, pens, and mircrons. I’ve been sampling a bit of everything to find what I like best. The signos have been pretty nice.

[Natasha]

75…It’s been hairy trying to keep up my posting here and elsewhere. I’m so far behind in posting that I’m losing track of which came next. And you don’t have to tell me I messed up the angle of her mouth. . . once that pen is in place there’s no going back.

[Natasha]

76 & 77….Doing a little catch up by making a drawing pull double duty. This was a uniball signo pen followed by a watercolor study of the same model.

[Natasha]

78 & 79 ….Uniball signo pens again this time in a lovely dark green. The watercolor sketch was an interesting study in a limited palette. My watercolors are just hobbyist dry set so I don’t know their exact names but the colors were close to yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and a dull purple (definitely not dioxazine). The burnt sienna, which I thought was too brown, gave me a pleasant little surprise in her cheeks.

[Natasha]

We’ll call this one 80, although I’m not really posting them in order anymore. I’ve finished the challenge, just having a hard time getting them all posted here without being spammy. He’s my absolute favorite. Using only two color mixes: a blue mix and an orange mix.

 

Here’s the pen sketch I did prior.

[Natasha]

Soooo many to go. Here’s number 81, I think. I still haven’t worked out how to get pen more delicate for female features.

[Natasha]

Next up, we’re calling this one 82, although I think it was closer to 80. I liked how it turned out and I think we can attribute it to the nice shadow side of the face.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

HOLY FUCK! In love with the pen sketch above me. Those eyes! Really liking your pen-work all-around. Awesome job!

I like that it isn’t too sketchy to be sloppy. It’s a nice balance. Definite character and personality to all these.

[Natasha]

I’m not worthy, @stuart-1188 ! I lurked over on your posts and was in love with how fluid your figure drawings were. That’s going to have to be my next challenge. Thanks for the compliments…some days are success, some days are not. 😉

[Natasha]

I either missed posting a picture or I failed in my counting so I’m not sure it’s worthwhile to give this a number. I guess 83? I didn’t think I would like doing this expression, but I love how it turned out. I love the emotion it evokes.

[Natasha]

Getting caught up and getting closer. But I have not mastered this medium…pen is hard because there is so little correction that you can do.

[Natasha]

There’s a fine balance when it comes to keeping a drawing elegantly understated. More often than not, I like to say more with less.

[Gordan Knezic]

Natasha I love your portraits and variety of mediums you work with. The whole thread is amazing, they all look very interesting! I just started with drawing portraits and really admire your contour hatching technique. It looks logical and simple when you look at it, but I know it is hard. Any advice on book or other resource where to learn more about this technique? Keep up doing great work!

[Natasha]

@gordanknezic thanks a lot! My first introduction to cross-hatching (or at least what made me really think about it) was the Russian drawing course by Iliya Mirochnik. Working on anatomy with him really helped in doing portraits too. Then I found Alphonso Dunn and got his workbook, however that did not translate to any skill I could do. So I resorted to just trying different things such as just straight-line cross-hatching that kind of ignored the form and just focused on the values. Then I tested out trying to carefully follow the form for cross-hatching. I eventually settled on a blend of the two, but still often find it very frustrating.

[Author]

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