One of the people I've never met is Anoeschka. I know very little about her except for the fact that she will be doing something amazing soon and is in full preparation for it right now. See, she's going to do a several hundred miles walk through The Netherlands together with her horse Ullah for a charity called 'Hersenstichting', which loosely translated means 'Brain Foundation', this is a charity that commits to research and help concerning people with all kinds of brain conditions. How fabulous is that?
I was ever so surprised when Anoeschka contacted me through Facebook to ask if I would draw her and her horse. I said yes immediately, since I like a challenge from time to time, but I also warned her not to expect too much, because I had no idea if I could even do it. So Anoeschka sent me some pictures of her and her horse.
I figured I would start easy with what I know and that's drawing faces. I hadn't drawn a horse in over 25 years, so I would keep that for later. So today I'm showing you some try out portrets of just Anoeschka. Consider it a way to get into the mood for this challenge. I added the reference picture so you can see if I'm close to the real thing or not. (Yes I left out the hand, I know my limits!)
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| The first is a very fast one in a brown Stabilo Woody, which is like a cross between a crayon and a watercolor pencil. |
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| The second one was done with a Tombow Brush Marker. |
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| The last one was done with more detail and was made with a green Derwent Aquatone pencil (and wetted here and there). |
All portraits were done in a really big sketchbook which measures A3 size. The paper in it is not really suited for wet media, as you can see in the buckling of the last portrait. I did however enjoy drawing the same face in different media to get a feel for it. I also like how different media can give a completely different look. So what do you think? Any good?
Meanwhile I have also done some first attempts on the horse, which was a lot more difficult, and it shows too! I will show you those probably sometime next week and I hope that soon I will be doing both of them togehter which is an ever bigger challenge, because of my problems with proportions and such. But I will keep trying until I have something that's at least a bit to my liking. (Anoeschka is way less critical than me by the way.)
It's a wonderful thing to stretch yourself like this, especially if you're not sure you can actually do it. I hope you like these first tries and who knows, you might like to try and do something a little intimidating yourself. You never know, you might surprise yourself!
Wishing you a wonderful and artsy week!