Scissors Paper Pen: 2013

Wednesday, April 3

Website launch!

I have a site for my Portrait Art!!!!

A little bit exciting!

I am taking orders for commission work - the order form let's you upload a photo - I create your one-of-a-kind portrait and post it out to you!

More arty news.....

Set myself up at Inverell On Display (an expo/trade event showcasing the businesses in and around Inverell) and offered free quick sketches. Quite a challenge - especially the wriggly babies in prams hiding behind their balloons! But a terrific experience and lots of encouraging feedback.

More sales of "Keep Me Safe" - limited edition prints of my drawing of a platypus puggle...

(Only one left - order through the site.)

Completed my latest portrait - for my dear friend...

And a pet portrait for another dear friend for her birthday...

Penny Hackney Portrait Art is now also on Facebook - please visit and "Like"!

Tuesday, March 5

Prints for sale plus 25,26,27

Working late.

Something on almost every arvo with the kids.

Girls trip away with friends last weekend.

No time to blog.

Have kept up with some drawing however.

Just not every day.

Want to see?

#25 My fave Bollywood star Aishwarya Rae

(she was also # 3)

#26 My cheeky niece Amarah Shae

#27 Self portrait

For Sale:

Limited edition "Platypus" print

Numbered, signed, unmounted

Drawing A4 size with border to allow for framing

$25 plus postage

Thanks for looking.

Sorry for being AWOL lately.

I'll be back with an update on Friday!

Monday, February 11

Portraits + a win!

Well, this drawing-a-day thing has got a bit on top of me since going back to work after the Xmas break......but I'm doing what I can and will continue to do so!

I think we're up to #18.....

My middly girl Bethany at age 6 (4 years ago), ready for ballet:

#19 My nephew Jake at 2 months....loved trying a baby....rounded features and no eyebrows!

#20 Jake at 4 months:

#21 some pots on a table.....did this one at Art Class using square graphite sticks.....it's huge (A1 size)....

#22 Kate (my eldest) a couple of years ago:

#23 Johnny Depp

#24 Dean drawn from life at Art Class last Saturday:

.....using my new pastel pencils.....

THRILLED to tell you I entered 5 of my favourite drawings in our local show on the weekend and had a bit of a shock to say the least.

"Coffee and Toast" received a Highly Commended in the Still Life category:

"Sunnydale Heifer" came 2nd in the Work on Paper category:

"My Bessie" (drawn last year and featured in my blog header) came 1st in Novice:

"Mia" was 1st in Portraiture:

"Ellie" was 1st in Any Living Creature"

Then......lovely surprise......I was also awarded the Reserve Champion and Grand Champion of the Show!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Keep drawing!

xxx

Sunday, January 20

15, 16 & 17 plus a layout

Took a quick break from drawing to complete my layout for this month's Show Us Your Stuff Challenge. Another image prompt. Check out the details here.

Put one of my drawings to good use - printed it on a 6x4 and scrapped it!

Lots of handmade goodies on here....if I could remember where they all came from I'd tell you, but I can't sorry.

But I can tell you the rose was cast from air-dry clay using Moulds By Mel, then painted with watered down ink (Mel was our lovely sponsor this month so all the DT received some!) These moulds are such a great invention - heaps of designs and beautifully detailed. Made of silicone they are so easy to use with clay, fimo, resin or wax - once pressed in, they come away so easily!

I'm a bit behind with 365 drawings.....storms, blackouts and the fact that my internet has been shaped doesn't help with trying to share them either....

So it's day 20 and I'm up to Drawing 17.

#15 Hugh Jackman

The first one I've been unhappy with - but I'll still show it - realising where things have gone wrong is all part of improving.

I do like the shading and the way the facial hair turned out - but the likeness is not there.

Hugh has very small eyes and I always insist on making the eyes bigger than they need to be!

I think the mouth is too wide also.

Looks more like Julian McMahon I reckon!

#16 Platypus Baby

People always freak about doing hands - but I love all the detail in them.

It's just a matter of seeing every crease and shadow and adding it to your drawing.

Draw what is there - not what you think should be there - is the motto I always try to keep in mind.

#17 Ellie

(my MIL's Border Collie)

Monday, January 14

Read This + more drawings

What I know about Dawn French:-

She's the zany yet lovable Vicar of Dibley

She was ever so annoying in the Coles Flybuys ads

She has really good hair

And really good teeth

What I didn't know about Dawn French:-

She can write

I'm not talking comedy - I'm talking a serious novel that you won't be able to put down

The blurb on Oh Dear Silvia: "Silvia has a secret which only she knows but she is in a coma. The reader gets to know Silvia through her visitors to her hospital bed and their stories help to unlock the secret."

It's brilliant.

Read it.

OK now - 365 drawings.

Are you sick of them yet?

A huge storm last night and a 7 hour power outage meant I had limited time for art.

So I tried something a little bit different.

(Just in case you and I get bored.)

Manga or Anime has a huge following and has always fascinated me.

(It's those eyes again)....

So went slightly wild and got the colour out for this Pirate Boy.

LOVE!

There's something about a pear.

The shape. The colour.

And so fun to draw.

Experimented with some cross-hatching on this one.

A pear or two may pop up again in the next 351 drawings I'm thinking.

Thanks for coming by!

xxx

Sunday, January 13

Blend Me Happy

Drawing #11 - something different - a still life of coffee and biscotti as requested by a friend!

And #12 - talented and gorgeous actor Amanda Seyfried from the TV series Big Love, Mamma Mia the movie and lots more since.

Another lady with amazing eyes!

I've decided I really love to draw eyes - must be why I'm so keen on portrait drawing!

Tried out these on both drawings.....

.......(a Xmas pressie from Mum - thanks Mummy!)

I tend to use my finger for blending but I've found out that's a big no-no. Can leave grease on your page that the pencil then "grabs" to (yuk) and also leaves your fingers black! Messy!

These blenders are made from paper compressed into a stick.

You just rub where you want to blend your pencil lines.

I LOVE the result!

So subtle and perfect for skin.

Also worked well on the white coffee cup.

Thursday, January 10

9 & 10 - 365 Drawings

Ten days of "a drawing a day" and still going strong!

Yesterday I drew one of our lovely cows.....

We have about 140 cattle and they all look different.

Each have their own unique "hairstyle" tufty thing on top of their head. This one was pretty tame - some have quite alarming mops up top!

This girl is a Limousin cross - so a lovely caramel colour with blonde highlights on her face.

Ain't she a stunner?

Today's portrait is my Princess Mia - at 7 years old (last year).

Took ages to get right - I think it's harder when you draw your loved ones cos they need to be SO exact or they just look plain weird!

Really happy with the result though - a very close likeness.

Right down to the freckles and the long long dark lashes Mia is known for.

She is wearing a hoodie - fabric folds are tricky!

See you soon.

xxx

Tuesday, January 8

Portrait Step-by-Step

An old school buddy who's been following my 365 Drawings on FaceBook wanted to know if he could see some "during" photos of my process of creating a portrait.

Here's my Day 8 drawing (of my 13-year old daughter Kate at her dance concert last year) and how I did it.....

Choose my photo - I prefer a close-up to get all that lovely detail...

Crop the image and convert to black and white on my computer. Print it out A4 size, the same size as my sketch book. For my 365 Drawings challenge it makes things much easier - no tricky sizing problems...

Sketch in the "foundations" of the face - line of jaw, position and shape of features....

I do the eyes first. I leave blank shapes for the catch-lights (the shine in the eyes that all good photos have). I then render in all the minute detail of the iris, lashes, eyebrows etc.

I spend quite a bit of time getting these right. The eye is surprising sometimes - and you have to draw what is actually there - not what you think should be there.

A really sharp pencil is a must for each individual lash and eyebrow hair....

I start lightly adding shadows where they need to be - sides of face, nose, under eyes.

Squinting at the photo helps to gauge the intensity of each shadow....

More detail - clothing, teeth.

Teeth are difficult to get right - it helps me to turn the whole thing upside down. This engages my "right" brain so I'm merely drawing shapes and shadows and not "teeth". It works every time - I swear!

I swap to a really dark 8B pencil to blacken in the background.

Detail on the headscarf, hair.

More definition to the shading on the face.

The final step - which I love cos it really brings the face to life.

I take my putty rubber - for the non-artists reading this, a putty rubber is a special eraser like a ball of Blutac you can shape it any which way to get right into the tiniest places on your drawing.

I swipe over the areas of the face that are highlights (usually front of nose, centre of bottom lip, top of cheek bones), use it to dab away any smudge marks, and to really whiten up the teeth, catchlights and whites of the eyes.....

....can you see the difference?

I am no expert by any stretch! Just someone keen to learn more about drawing and become a better artist. I'm sure there's better ways of doing things - but that's how I do it!

Oh - I almost forgot. I got so caught up in my 2012 Faves post I didn't show you #7.