Drawrch 2025 #19: Pink

Martin · 11 days
An illustration of a woman looking somewhat intently at the viewer. The woman has a light complexion with ruby shadows. She has steel blue eyes and pink lips. Her hair is cut to chin length and is colored pink at the ends. Her hair is also being lit from behind by a bright environmental light. The woman is wearing a denim jacket. The background is a blurred outdoor environment with a white sky, green hills and a bright spot just above the woman's shoulder at the bottom of the image.

Today's Drawrch is one that I've been wanting to do for a while, but was sort of worried about being able to get it right.

It's a bit similar to yesterday's drawing, in that the reference is somewhat unconventional. I'm glad I went for it though, because I feel like I was able to capture the woman in the photo properly. It would've been nice to have more time for shading, but I can only work for so long in the evening! 😅

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 Soft air brush for shading and background texture. 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 2025 #18: Squinting

Martin · 12 days
An illustration of a man laughing. The man has a medium complexion and is shaved bald, with only stubble left behind. His eyes are squinting and his mouth is open. He is wearing a mustard yellow shirt and a gray coat. The background is a gold color that fades to white as it goes from top to bottom.

I really struggled with today's Drawrch illustration. I spent about an hour working on my first sketch before abandoning it and starting over, and then just rushed through it to get done.

The second sketch, which was less concerned with proportions, turned out a lot better. Partly because it was more stylized than then original, and partly because I was more familiar with the reference's face at that point, but it still just doesn't look right to me. It was a hard expression and angle to capture, and I'm not sure I succeeded here. He just looks a little... dopey? I don't know!

This project is about practice though, so they can't all be good! 😅

Anyway, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Soft air brush for some light shading, the Rough Dot Shader 45/Light brush for the hair/stubble, and the Syrup brush for everything else.

The Dot Shader brush is from the Beat Tones 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 2025 #17: Tilted

Martin · 13 days
An illustration of a woman looking at the viewer with her head tilted back and to the side a bit. The woman has a light, but tanned complexion, pink lips, brown eyes, and brown hair with dark roots and light tips. Her hair is tied back behind her head, but many strands are loose. She has a small stud earring in her visible ear and a necklace. Her shoulders are exposed, and the strap of a white bathing suit goes up around her neck. Part of her face is in slight shadow, which transitions from a red to orange to blue from right to left. The background is a light turquoise that fades to white at the bottom.

I started drawing today's Drawrch illustration thinking I would make it a little more cartoony, sort of like #10 Night Walk from a week ago.

I couldn't really find the right angles to make the proportions fit that style though, so I opted to just make the sketch a little more realistic and then put the image in a less realistic style. The brush I used was thicker than usual, and I like the effect it produced - almost like a physical art print.

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

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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An illustration of a man with a mustache, beard, and headscarf, looking to the left. The man has a medium complexion, dark hair, and dark eyes. He looks like he is scowling slightly, as if he is looking into the sun. His beard is trimmed neatly but is also growing in on his neck a bit. His headscarf is covered in various red and white patterns. He is wearing a magenta shirt. The background is a light blue that fades to white at the bottom.

Another late Drawrch illustration, and another beard (which you may recall I am very tired of trying to draw).

I picked this reference because I thought it would be simple to draw, which is sort of was, but then the pattern on the headscarf took forever, and now its past midnight. At least the sketch was easy to do! 😵‍💫

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Inka brush for everything else.

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 2025 #15: Sunglasses

Martin · 15 days
An illustration of a woman in profile. The woman is facing right and is wearing a pair of sunglasses. The woman has a light complexion, pink lips, and green eyes. She has blond hair with a darker brown underneath and towards the bottom, and it is tied up behind her head. She is wearing a silver hoop earring in her visible ear. The sunglasses are a transparent brown with dark blue lenses. The woman is drawn in black outlines with painterly shading. The background is a purple that fades a little darker as it goes from top to bottom.

The more I work on Drawrch illustrations, the more I find myself sitting there thinking, "man, I hate drawing _____". First it was beards. Then hair. Now sunglasses. And yet every time I get done drawing them I take a step back and things weren't really so bad. I didn't actually have that bad of a time illustration these things. I think I just find them sort of tedious.

It's especially egregious with hair, since I feel like this project often makes me spend more time on that than anything else, but it's all in service of practicing, so I can't complain too much.

By the way, this drawing marks the halfway point for this project - just 16 more to go! I hope you'll join me tomorrow for the start of the second half of Drawrch! 😊

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, the Old Brush for shading, and the Soft air brush for a few fades/gradients.

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 2025 #14: Mask

Martin · 16 days
An illustration of a person in a black body suit, from the shoulders up, wearing a round mask with a smiley face on it. The mask is lime green and has scratches around the edge. There is a crack forming in it at the top right. The body suit is dark gray, and there is a light shining down from the right, brightening the edge of the mask and the right shoulder. The background is a pale green split in half with a darker green going diagonally down the bottom half. The image is made to look like an old comic book illustration, with blotchy ink lines, faded colors, and a thin layer of grunge over the entire image.

Today's Drawrch illustration is a little bit of a throwaway, but after a long week (and yesterday's epic 3.5 hour drawing session), I needed a break. That's two weeks of this project done, by the way!

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Rusty Nib 1 brush for linework, the Rough Dot Shader 45/Light and Vertical Line Shader Light brushes for shading, the Worn 3 Subtle and Toner Grit Detail 2 brushes for grunge, and a small assist from the Syrup brush for fills.

The Rusty Nib brush is from the Rusty Nib Pack, the Dot and Vertical Line brushes are from the Beat Tones pack, and the grunge brushes are from the Fast Grit pack, all 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 2025 #13: Cold

Martin · 17 days
An illustration of a woman looking to the left. Her face is in profile with wind-blown shoulder-length hair sweeping out from either side. She is clutching at a scarf around her neck. Her face is almost fearful, and her mouth is slightly opened showing clenched teeth. She has a pale complexion, bleached blond hair, light green eyes, and bright red lipstick. She is wearing a gray coat and a dark gray-blue scarf. The background is pink with a grungy magenta swooping in at the bottom half.

Today's Drawrch illustration took me waaay longer than I thought it was going to, but I like how it ended up.

You can see in the time-lapse that I spent a lot of time going back to the eyes, nose, and mouth to get the shape right. In the end, it does look like the reference to me, so I don't hate the effort going into it. I just lament that it took me past midnight to finish. Procreate says I spent 3 hours and 31 minutes on this. Yikes!

Anyway, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for everything else, save for the Hartz brush for background texture at the end.

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 2025 #12: Laughing

Martin · 18 days
An illustration of a man laughing. The angle of the image is from below and to his right, looking up at him. His head is tilted back slightly, his mouth is open and smiling, and his eyes are slightly squinted. The man has a light complexion, he is bald, and he has a beard, soul patch, and mustache of stubble. He is wearing a dark collared shirt with a closed button at the top. He is drawn in black and white with halftone shading. The background is cyan with puffs of spray paint splotches behind his collar, neck, and eyes.

Today's Drawrch illustration is based on a reference that I pulled a year ago for 2024's version of the project but never got around to drawing. I think I avoided it because of the angle of his head, but after the last few drawings I've done, I was feeling confident and went for it.

Overall, I'm, pretty happy with how it turned out, although I think if I wanted to spend more time on it, I might have reworked the shading to be a little more in line with the reference.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Smooth Natural Nib brush for linework, the Grainy Dot Shader 45/Light, Grainy Dot Shader 45/Dark, and 45 Degree Line Shader Light brushes for shading, and the Burst spray paint brush for background effects.

The Smooth Natural Nib brush is from the Rusty Nib pack by True Grit Texture Supply. The Dot and Line Shader brushes are from the Beat Tones pack, also by True Grit Texture Supply.

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 2025 #11: Red

Martin · 19 days
An illustration of a woman in profile. The woman's shoulders are facing the viewer, but her head is turned to the left. The woman has a dark complexion, and she has a very slight smile to her face. She has a round earring in her ear, and she is wearing plum-colored lipstick. Her hair and eyes are dark, and her hair is in braids and tide up above her head. She is wearing a thing necklace and a pink shirt with her arm visible on the left. The background is a garish red.

Today's Drawrch illustration is of a woman in profile against a very red wall.

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

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 2025 #10: Night Walk

Martin · 20 days
An illustration of a younger man looking away to the right. He is drawn in a stylized way with slightly sharp features and large eyes and eyebrows. He has a light complexion and dark hair and eyes. His hair is cut short. He is wearing a light collared shirt, a darker coat that is open, and a dark lanyard. The man is lit by an orange light that makes his darker features go purple near the top of the image. The background is a blurry orange, white, and brown.

Today's Drawrch illustration was the quickest one I've done so far. I could add more texture to it, and maybe re-work some of the line thickness here and there, but I think I like how simple it is (and I need to be done with this tonight, haha). 😅

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 and background texture.

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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