u/Heighwaystar

This is a portrait of Rick Danko, bassist in The Band, who toured with Bob Dylan in the 60s and 70s, the reference is from the Scorsese film/documentary The Last Waltz from 1976.

I'm trying to get back into drawing by getting as much practice in as my hectic schedule allows and is my sixth portrait in my new sketchbook over the past few weeks.

I feel my composition and sense of proportion is starting to improve and has motivated me to keep going.

Hope this helps inspire some other amateurs, eager to improve their portrait drawing too...

So I bought a new sketchbook a few weeks ago to motivate myself into practicing and drawing regularly.

As I'm a big music fan, I've decided to dedicate this book to musicians, some are particular favourites of mine, some interesting references and some that family and friends might recognise.

Hope this might inspire some visitors to this sub to have a go themselves, I can vouch for it being very worthwhile.

Watched a special showing of The Last Waltz on Wednesday as part of the local Open House Festival (Bangor, Northern Ireland) and thought I'd have a go a doing a portrait of some of the band.

This is my first attempt, as Rick Danko is one of my favourite characters and "crazy Chester" enthralls me, even after over 30 years of watching this concert.

Thought you guys might appreciate it.

So, this is the third portrait in my newly purchased sketchbook, and I've went for a more straightforward, slightly less detailed reference photograph, but once again, of a well-known musician.

I found an old picture of Paul McCartney from the earlier days of The Beatles (mid 1960s would be my guess) and gave it a go using the same looser style.

I started off, as with my last two drawings, by drawing out the darker areas first, and building the portrait from there, rather than drawing out the head shape, hair etc and then working in.

This technique seems to help me get proportions correct quicker, requiring less adjusting and rubbing out as the portrait begins to take shape.

I'm looking forward to giving a tour of this sketchbook once I'm a bit further into and my own style starts to develop its own identity.

Thanks for looking.

Just wanted to show my appreciation during the fallout of Glen Hansard's tragic passing in Lucan, earlier this week.

I'm trying to motivate myself into drawing more regularly and started a new sketchbook on Monday, so it seems only fitting to attempt something of a tribute to someone who touched so many.

I'm trying to learn and hone my own skills and try and help others along the way, so I've included some of my progress pictures as well.

RIP Glen, and safe journey

After the sad passing of Glen Hansard in Lucan this week, I thought I'd try a little tribute drawing in my new sketchbook.

This is one of my most difficult sketches in a long time, and I realised I'd never attempted to draw either a short beard or curly hair before.

I went for a more interpretive approach rather than photorealistic and I think I'm happy with the final result.

That's what a sketchbook is for I suppose.

Bought a new sketchbook to try and motivate myself to practice drawing regularly.

I'm a big music and movie fan so I've picked out a few interesting photos of musicians and actors and going to try a do a few portraits a week.

This is Page 1, Billy-Joe Armstrong from Green Day, as well as few of my step by step progress pictures.

Drawn using a Pentel Graphgear 0.9mm mechanical pencil, no smudging or blending and blocked in using an 8B pencil.

I thought other amateur artists might be interested in trying this technique when drawing portraits, this my second attempt using it and it seems to work well for, so might prove useful for others too.

I'd seen a short video where the artist picks out the darkest areas, maps those in a builds the portrait up from there.

You can see in my steps and how I started with the eyes, then the shadows of the nose, cheeks and mouth and, finally the proportions start to come together.

The majority of this piece was drawn with a Pentel Graphgear mechanical pencil 0.9mm and the background blocked in at the end using an 8B standard pencil.

I hope this proves helpful for someone out there...

I'd seen a technique where the artist concentrated on the dark areas on the source picture, sketched them out first, then built the portrait out from there.

This is my second attempt at using this technique and it seems to work pretty well for me.

This is the first page in my new sketchbook and I'm going to try and do a couple of portraits a week to track my progress and learn to work quicker.

I've included my progress pictures, showing the drawing coming together.

Been working on my first ever mural, which is to show some of the sporting heroes and landmarks from around the country.

George Best in his Northern Ireland jersey is getting pride of place, so I thought Irish League fans might appreciate it.

Finally getting round to painting a Northern Ireland themed mural in my friends' garage wall.

They wanted a number of our local beauty spots, landmarks, sporting heroes and bands so I managed to put something together they both liked.

The background will be the Mourne Mountains, with the H&W cranes, Helen's Tower, Bangor's McKee Clock and old boathouse with Joey Dunlop and George Best taking centre stage.

The mural will probably evolve while the actual paint is going on and there's plenty room for smaller bits to be added, there's a Stiff Little Fingers badge being squeezed in there too.

Been working on George over the weekend, it's my first time actually painting a portrait rather than simply drawing... and I've never worked above A3 size before this.

It's starting to come together well though...

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Been meaning to practice sketching more, but haven't done as much as a doodle since Christmas.

I had a spare couple of hours today so got out my sketchbook and my Pentel Graphgear 0.5mm mechanical pencil and checked for someone interesting to draw.

This is what I came up with after a couple of hours... Michael Stipe of REM.

I tried a looser style, making up the portrait with crosshatch lines and only tidying up once the whole thing was finished.

I also added some darker shadow using 8B Daler Rowney pencil.

Any feedback or advice will be greatly appreciated.