Bullet Journal doodles to channel the luck of the Irish! You know what’s more fun than writing “St. Patrick’s Day” on your calendar? Drawing a cute little 4 leaf clover with a Faber-Castell USA Pitt Artist Pen® instead, I love decorating my journal for holidays – not only does it get me in the spirit of things, but it helps me remember upcoming events.
Posca Paint Pens on Your Gel Plate?
Today’s Tidbit shows me throwing caution to the wind and drawing directly on my gel plate with Posca Paint Markers! It’s OK, it will come off. I promise. The wide variety of tips, colors, and sheens of these paint pens make them tons of fun for doodling and drawing on top of my Gustav Klimt inspired Tree of Life mask.
Posca Pens are very versatile, they will write on any surface and do not need a tooth. They work on glass, metal, ceramic, wood, and the rubbery surface of the gel plate.
Joggles offering 25% OFF Posca this week
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All of the products used in this Tidbit are linked below please consider supporting Joggles as the are a family owned business
in Rhode Island with great customer service. Joggles are the exclusive retailer and producer of my stencil and mask designs used in this video.
You can always get your 9×11 gel plates, rice paper, and brayers from them and they often ship the same day
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What are scribble drawings?
Switching your mindset to creating atmosphere rather than worrying about a direct likeness really does take the pressure off your drawing and frees you up to experiment and explore. Most drawings take between 15-30 mins and are great fun way to fit mark-making into an daily doodle routine.
Scribbling adds the fun and playfulness back into drawing as we no longer need to worry about ‘keeping within the lines’. As a result this style of mark making is a suitable exercise for any age group of every level. Doodles can be done in so many different ways and with a multitude of different tools ranging from biros & feather quills to coloured pencils & line painters. The distance between the lines and the density of your scribbles will give you the texture and tone.
As you experiment and explore you will begin to find what you like to use, marks that interest and excite you, and techniques that work for you.
Starting this tutorial
For this demo we will be using simple tools found in every artists pencil case to produce a simple stress free scribble portrait. Once completed, we will consider embellishing your scribbles with accents of colour. To get us going with all the fun and interesting stuff I’ve supplied a basic line drawing as your start point. If you feel confident with portraits then feel free begin by scribbling in your own.
Scribble drawing is all about atmosphere, energy and tone. The reference image is purely used as a visual tool for the approximate facial dimensions and positions plus and those all important lights and darks.
In the first layer we will start with the lightest pencil (HB) to begin working on those shadows and mapping out the darker areas of the face. Starting with a light pencil first means that its a safe way to ease you into the sketch and get over those white paper nerves!
Step 1 – Begin to scribble
With the line drawing transferred to your hot pressed paper, squint at the reference image and identify the darkest tones. These are the areas to begin scribbling. Take a HB pencil and hold it loosely. Move your hand away from the lead to about half way up the barrel. Relax your wrist and start scribbling in the darkest darks you see on your reference. Note the shape of those shadows.
Allow your pencil to freely move and pirouette over the page, skipping across the paper and gambolling in the shadows. The spacing of the lines within the scribbles will have a direct effect on tone. There is no right or wrong way to scribble, just try to keep it random and loose. Don’t press too hard, you don’t want to indent the paper.
When you’re happy that the main features are starting to take shape, grab a makeup wipe (or similar). Gently smudge the lines creating a soft tone and shadow, unifying and blending out some, but not all, of your marks.
Always try to follow the form of your face when smudging, and let the cotton wool do the work for you. It’s amazing just how quick those shadows will develop. For smaller or more intricate areas such as the eyes, switch to a cotton bud or blending stump.
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