Illustration Sketchbook

Drawrch 2026 #21: Preacher

An illustration of a man yelling. The man is facing away from the viewer, to the right. He has a light complexion, green eyes, and brown hair. He has large sideburns coming down from a black baseball hat. He is scowling and his mouth is open wide. The man is wearing a green jacket. White lines are emanating from his mouth, indicating he is yelling. The background is pale blue.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a man yelling. The reference image was named "preacher", so that's where I got the idea for the title from.

This was done in a looser style again, with a somewhat quick sketch. I like the result, although I think the mouth might look a little strange. It fits the style though.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, the Old Brush paint brush for shading, the Fat Nozzle spray paint brush for texture, and the Syrup brush for fills and other utilities.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #20: Tilted

An illustration of a woman tilting her head to the side and smiling. The woman is facing away from the viewer, at an oblique angle, to the left. Her head is tilted to the side toward the viewer, making her eyes hard to see behind her eyelashes. The woman has a light complexion, dark eyes, and dark hair with highlights streaking through it. The background is a slightly noisy, blurry, desaturated green and blue.

Picking a good reference for Drawrch is tough sometimes, because I want to make sure that it's something that looks interesting to draw, and I do want to challenge myself, but I also have to be considerate of how much time it might take to complete. So oftentimes, I end up avoiding really busy references, or references that include a lot of peripheral stuff, like hands, glasses, etc.

I really like this reference, but I was a bit worried about it initially because the angle of the head is a tough one to get right, and I didn't want to spend an hour sketching only to have to abandon it for another reference. Thankfully, that didn't happen this time, and even though it's not perfect, I feel like I was able to capture the look of the reference pretty well. All in about an hour and 45 minutes. Not bad!

As always, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, and the Old Brush paint brush for shading. I also used the Syrup brush here and there for fills and other utilities.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #19: King

An illustration of a man wearing a crown. The man is drawn almost in profile, facing to the right. His face is stretched to exaggerate his chin and nose. He is looking downward, with eyes scowling and nearly closed, and his mouth is open with bottom teeth visible. He is wearing a light gold grown with small colorful jewels placed sparingly around the ends. The man has a medium complexion, very short brown hair, and dark eyes. He is wearing a dark shirt and coat. The background is a gold color that fades to bright white behind the man.

I'm not sure why the guy in today's Drawrch illustration is wearing a crown, but that's what was happening in my reference so... there it is. 😅

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Soft air brush for the background fade.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #18: Subway

An illustration of a woman looking to the right. Her neck is slightly craned, and she is staring and frowning slightly away from the viewer. Her mouth is barely open. The woman has a light complexion, dark eyes, and brown hair. A large hoop earring is visible in her left ear. She is drawn in a slightly exaggerated way and is lit with a light that makes her skin appear yellow in places. The background is a blurry, noisy splash of light green, white, and yellow.

Today's Drawrch features a reference photo that I've been sort of hesitant to attempt. The woman in the photo and the angle of the shot made it feel like it'd be hard to recreate.

I've been leaning into a less realistic style for this project though, and so I figured that might help me a bit. I think that it did, though I had a hard time breaking away from doing the shading in a more realistic way (at least, relative to the underlying sketch).

It captures the essence of the reference though, I think. Someday I'll have to make a video showing all the references alongside the final art. 😎

As always, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, the Syrup brush to help with some fills, and the Old Brush paint brush and Soft air brush for shading.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #16: Short One

An illustration of a cartoon girl smiling to herself. The girl is facing the right and has her head tilted back slightly. Her eyes are closed in a content way, and she has a small smile. She has a pale complexion, blond hair, and is wearing a black t-shirt. The background is a plumb color.

Today's Drawrch illustration is a short one.

Work has been crazy, allergies are kicking in, I'm recovering from being sick, and I need to rest - so today's drawing is a basic one. I do like doing cartoons in this style though, so I can't complain. 😄

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching and the Smooth Natural Nib brush for everything else.

The Smooth Natural Nib brush is from the Rusty Nib pack, by True Grit Texture Supply.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #15: Playing Card

An illustration of a man looking away from the viewer. The man's shoulders are facing to the left, and his head is turned to the right. He has a slight smirk on his face, as if he is hearing something incredulous. He has thick, short hair and a mustache and beard. The man is drawn in a classic playing card style, in blue, red, yellow, and black. The man's face and hair are drawn only in blue. His shirt is drawn in red, yellow, and black, and has stripes, line patterns, and a series of hearts on one side. The background is white, with a large blue line going down the left side and behind the man's shoulder. Half of a large red heart can be seen above the man's right shoulder, going off the edge of the image.

I did today's Drawrch illustration in a playing card style because I like playing cards and I'm tired and need some rest tonight!

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Studio Pen brush for linework, and the Soft Brush air brush for slight shading.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #14: Amused

An illustration of a woman smiling very slightly and looking downward at something. Her head is angled to the left slightly, away from the viewer. She is squinting her eyes slightly, and she looks like she might be mildly amused. She has a pale complexion, faint freckles, sandy blond hair, and green eyes. She is wearing a blue jacket with an open front. The background is a gold color that fades to white behind the woman and to the left.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a woman looking slightly amused.

This is my second attempt to draw this woman, the first being my very first Drawrch illustration this year. The first time, I just couldn't get the expression correct, and so I gave up until I was a bit more "warmed up" for the project.

Waiting paid off in terms of the sketch; I was able to do that party fairly quickly and felt like it looked pretty nice compared to the reference. Choosing a style and coloring it turned out to be quite a challenge though, and so I'm posting this one late.

To be fair, I like how it looks at the end. I just hate that it took so much effort to get there! 😅

Anyway, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Soft air brush for shading. I tried a lot of other things in there, but I'm not naming all the brushes I experimented with because they didn't end up in the final piece. The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #13: Wince

An illustration of a man looking to the right and wincing slightly. The man has a medium dark complexion, dark eyes, short hair, and beard. His eyes are squinted slightly, and his mouth is slightly open. His head is angled away from the viewer at an oblique angle, and his eyes are looking further to the right. He is wearing a gray shirt with a plaid shirt over it. The background is a teal green, and the drawing is done in a loose, painterly style.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a man wincing.

I'm not sure if I captured his expression completely accurately - you can see that I started drawing this pretty loose and then tightened up the sketch at the end before "inking" - but it still reads "wince" to me, so I'm alright with it.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, and the Old brush paint brush for shading.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from Line of Art.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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An illustration of a woman looking to the left. The woman has a vacant look on her face, with eyes partially closed and mouth very slightly open. She has a medium complexion, orange eyes, dark eyebrows, and she is wearing brown lipstick. She is wearing a black choker. Her hair is large and wavy, and fills almost all of the edges of the canvas. The upper left corner is uncovered, with a pale green blotchy background visible behind. The woman is drawn in a caricature style.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a woman looking to the left. I've wanted to draw this image for a while but couldn't settle on a good style for it. I'm glad I finally decided to go for it tonight, because I'm happy with how it turned out!

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, and Old Brush paint brush for shading.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from SketchDaily.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Drawrch 2026 #11: Glad

An illustration of a man looking to the right. The man is smiling slightly, with mouth closed and head turned to an oblique angle. His eyes are looking further to the side and his mouth is closed. He is drawn in unrealistic colors, but he has a pale complexion and medium eyes and hair. He is slightly overweight and is wearing a t-shirt with a large neck. The man is drawn in lines and colored in hues of blue, with a pale green background behind.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a man looking to the side, with a slight smile.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Inka brush for shading.

The photo I used as a reference for this drawing is from Line of Art.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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