Tag: #sketchbook

Coloured Conceptions II

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It’s been over four years since I branched out to coloured pencil portraiture in my artistic journey, albeit inconsistently, and I must say it has been quite an experience.

Deterred by the duration of coloured pencil portraiture, most of my drawings (besides animations/cartoons) have been rendered in graphite pencils. However, I must say, that my recent drawing is causing me to reconsider things as I weigh the associated pros and cons.

Portrait of a smiling girl rendered on vellum paper using coloured pencils.

As mentioned in my first coloured portrait post, drawings executed using crayons and coloured pencils do require a sufficient deal of patience as one needs to account for every single hue gradation and the right colour blends to come up with a satisfactory result. On the flipside, results tend to be more visually appealing due to the vibrant colour spectrum available to the artist when compared to the limited range of monochromatic graphite pencils.

In addition to time constraints, coloured pencil portraiture is generally less lightfast (i.e. less resistant to fading over time upon exposure to light) when compared to graphite pencil portraiture. So you may ask, “Why should I invest that much time in these drawings if they tend to fade away faster?” The good thing is that most of my coloured drawings are completed in sketchbooks, which tend to last longer due to limited light exposure. Furthermore, most coloured pencil brands develop improved lightfast pencils to enhance the longevity of our splendid creations, thus mitigating the fading/smudging pitfall in the process.

After considering these aspects, it’s challenging to fully favour one over the other. Thus, my next steps will involve refining techniques to enhance overall portrait realism using both platforms. I’m satisfied with the outcome of this drawing and plan to incorporate more coloured pencils into my portraits to achieve a harmonious balance between the two forms of dry media.

For those who could be discouraged by the time constraints posed by colour pencil drawings or any form of artwork in general, I’ve found that adopting the kaizen approach does work effectively. It generally ensures continuous improvement of a singular artwork by discretizing the artistic stages rather than completing everything in one fell swoop. 

I hope that works for you, and I’m excited to hear any other ideas you have about coloured pencil portraiture or your artistic process in general. In the meantime, I wish you a fantastic week ahead, and until next time, take care!

Cheemnonso

Ugochi IV

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Drawing of Ugochi portrayed with graphite pencils on Bristol Vellum paper.

Watching my sister come of age is one of the most joyous things that have ever happened to me, especially as her birthday marks a year further in my artistic journey. I vividly remember my first drawing of her four years ago, which was largely without form due to the absence of shading in my drawings.

Drawing of my sister four years ago.

Within that four-year frame, my drawings have noticeably improved, and I owe that to YouTube realism tutorials from the likes of Silvie Mahdal, Kristen Patridge and so many more graphite and crayon experts who, through their works, inspired me to keep drawing and subsequently improve. I’d also owe the improvement to the spurring support from you, my WordPress family, and also my sister, whose existence and annual voyages around the sun, have fueled the artistic flame further.

I chose this grimacing picture of her for my recent study, as I continue to explore the world of emotive portraiture, and I must say, I’ve picked quite a few souvenirs from my expedition, including this one, and I hope my future collections only get better from this point.

So, without further ado, I’d like to wish my sister a wonderful birthday, with hopes of umpteen more blissful ones to come.

Cheemnonso

A Child’s Innocence

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A child, portrayed with colored pencils on A4 cardboard paper.

When a child is born, we see that sweetness, cuteness, adorability, and particularly, that shimmering innocence, gushing off their aura; however, where does this innocence go as they come of age?

One could argue that a child’s innocence suffocates in the chokehold that peer pressure has on our schools and society. Another could argue that a child’s innocence dissipates in a disjointed family, where one parent’s state of mind is in Tokyo, and the other’s is in Kyoto, and well, it can be hard to refute this since charity, they say, begins at home.

Furthermore, others think it’s just “normal” for innocency to reduce as a child gets older, but statisticians beg to differ. For those fond of mathematics and statistics, you’d remember the Gaussian curves or “normal” curves that tend to start at a point, peak at the middle, and then regress towards the end. Well, comparing this to innocence and our lifespan, I feel our naivety is at its peak when we are children, but this reduces as our brain develops and learns more about the world from childhood to adulthood. However, as we age gracefully towards our seventies and eighties, we see our innocence tends to peak again, thence, completing the inversely normal curve, or should I say an “abnormal” curve, lol. Now, this is just my fun observation which can be true for most, but definitely not all.

Nonetheless, this thought on a child’s innocence fascinated and spurred me to make this portrait in color pencil, and to be honest, I truly enjoyed it after making most of my previous drawings in graphite. I cannot say if my subsequent drawings will be in color, but I can only relish the unpredictability of my artistic journey.

So, what do you think?

Cheemnonso

Portraying Moms. (Sketch)

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It is Mothering Sunday! A day to acknowledge and honor the adorable ladies who bore and aided our passage to Earth. However, mothers should not be limited to women who bear children and aid in procreation, as many who proved infertile have nurtured, fostered, and raised children who have been seemingly abandoned by their so-called procreators. These, I liken to the sweet roses of love everblooming in a desolated land of hate, thus, earning their right to be called mothers.

Mother and child portrayed with STÆDTLER graphite Pencil set on Bristol vellum surface paper.

In my little way of honoring mothers, I peeked through Pinterest to find reference photos depicting motherhood and ended up with my recent portrait study. I found it captivating and challenging as it is my first portrait with two faces, albeit completed with graphite pencils on a 9 by 12 inch Bristol vellum paper (small surface given reference photo). In my After Dark post, I highlighted the importance of shading drawings of big sizes, as this captures more details in your drawings, thus, providing more accuracy in drawings. However, my recent study was mainly for illustration purposes and I was okay with how it turned out in the end.

Without further ado, I wish a happy Mothering Sunday to all the moms, with hopes you continue to be that undying source of love to your offspring, family, and the world in general. Do stay blessed.

Cheemnonso

Inter-Dimensions. (Sketch)

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Completed with A4 cardboard paper and STÆDTLER graphite pencils. (Portrait reference)

What do you see when you close your eyes? Yep! You read that right. What do you see when you close your eyes? For lovers, the astral plane becomes the thin veil between reality and that fervent french kiss. For poets, words become ventriloquists, breathing life into the inanimate, whilst the living become statues of its awe. For cheerful givers, they see blooms of happiness sprouting from seeds sown in the needy’s bosom, and for non-givers, well, they see nothing, for they had already turned the blind eye, lol. Anyways, the answer to this question still saunters back and forth on the bridge between reality and our fantasies.

Fascinated by this question and the portrait reference (by Sandra Parreno photography , whose character seems torn between the 2D and 3D verse), I decided to make this my first drawing of the year 2022.

Looking back at my drawings in 2021, I noticed significant improvements from 2020, particularly in maintaining shading segue, to add more depth to realism; however one crucial drawback still exists: portrait likeness.

Last drawing of 2021 completed with STÆDTLER graphite pencils and Arteza Drawing pad (80 pages). Drawing deviated from portrait likeness, however shading seemed okay. (Portrait reference)

Achieving portrait likeness will be the key area I’d work on this year as I try to build on more emotive drawings from years past, and judging from my recent portrait, I see good signs in shading, particularly as the paper used was a bit low grade (still on my media exploration quest); However, the rooms for improvement in portrait likeness ultimately need inhabiting.

Please, feel free to reach out if you’re interested in learning some of my portrayed techniques, and I’d also appreciate every critical input on my works. Thank you.

Cheemnonso

Happy Holidays 🎄.(Sketch)

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Drawing of Bart, Maggie, and Lisa wishing you a Merry Christmas

From everyone at Evergreen Terrace down to Nonso’s world, we would earnestly like to wish you happy holidays and a blissful Christmas.

May you and yours reap the splendid tidings of the season as we proceed into the new year. Do stay blessed.

Cheemnonso

Drawing Yelena. (Sketch)

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Sketchbook: Arteza Drawing pad (80lb)

Media: Black Widow/ Arteza Color Pencil set

The reference this time was particularly inspired by my choice of coloured pencils, which was predominantly dark-toned black widow pencil set, hence my drawing of the character, Yelena Belova (portrayed by Florence Pugh), from the Black Widow movie.

I have had this pencil set a while now, but it was majorly used to underpin my prevalent Arteza coloured pencils in colour drawing, so I decided to make an exception this time with role reversals.

Three particular pencil shades were used for skin tones including Leather, Suede and Olive brown, whilst both Midnight and Greyhorn variants were used for her gear. Arteza’s Pink macaroon, however, was used for blending the skin out, albeit not hundred percent achieved. This was subject to my carefulness with the sketchbook paper, as the burnishing technique can be somewhat hostile and aggressive on drawing papers.

Nonetheless, these pencil sets have proved to be a great combo in colour pencil realism for me, and I’d keep using them, for now, to see how I improve off them.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed creating it, and, do have a blessed week ahead. Ciao!

Cheemnonso™

Ugochi III. (Sketch)

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Graphite rendition of Ugochi

Sketchbook: Arteza Drawing Pad (80lb)

Medium: STÆDTLER Graphite pencil set

It’s that time of the year again, when my baby sister celebrates her birthday, consequently signaling one more progressive year in my artistic journey. At this point, she knows she has become my most used muse, but one thing she does not know is what reference picture I will choose of her, or which medium I’d portray her in (colored pencil or graphite). This has always made her birthday expectations somewhat of a surprise.

This time, however, I chose a tricky reference picture; one that she discarded at the time due to poor photo lighting. I chose this because it presented various challenging features including:
• portrayal of light and shadows
• achieving depth in drawing braids,
• realistic body features (hands and foot)
• cloth form and likeness.

I am happy with the performance in some of these areas and how it turned out generally, particularly as she was carved from another page on my sketchbook. More importantly, I am glad she loved it bearing in mind she once disliked the original photo; So, I’d like to use this opportunity to wish her a very happy birthday with many more years, hoping I’d capture her alluring moods in the years to come.

By the way, if you have any questions concerning improvements in portrait realism or realism in general, I’d be more than willing to help. Conversely, I’d appreciate critical inputs on some flaws that could help me improve as well. For now, however, do have splendid days ahead. Ciao!

Cheemnonso

Alma de Cristina. (Sketch)

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Graphite rendition of Cristina Otero’s Soul Portrait.

Sketchbook: Arteza drawing pad (80lbs)

Media: STÆDTLER Graphite Pencils

Still on expressive portrait drawings, I stumbled on this monochromatic reference photo on Pinterest (as ever), and after finding it captivating, I decided to give it a try with my graphite pencils.


After some digging, I discovered that the photo is indeed a self-portrait of Cristina Otero, a young Spanish photographer, who captured this using the front camera of a Huawei P10 smartphone, of which she dubbed a Soul Portrait, hence the title of this blogpost in Spanish.


This time, however, I opted for my normal 80-paged Arteza drawing book to recreate this photo, rather than the much smoother Bristol vellum surface paper, as I seek to complete the sketchbook soon enough, amidst hectic school and work schedules.


The drawing came out coarser, as expected, because the drawing pad has got more tooth than vellum surfaces. It is evident from the original photo that I still struggle a bit with portrait likeness, probably due to the inaccuracy of my grids, which needs to be improved, thus, giving me room for progression in portrait realism.


In all, the drawing seemed satisfactory for me, if for anything, the depth of realism on the hand figure, and judging from this, there will be more graphite and colored pencils drawings emanating from this drawing pad, hopefully with better results. Fingers crossed!

Cheemnonso

After Dark. (Sketch/Quatrain)

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Graphite rendition of Ninõ.

Sketchbook: Bienfang Bristol Vellum paper

Media: STÆDTLER graphite pencils

Earlier this year, I indicated that the theme of my portrait sketches in 2021 would exude more expressions/emotions with some interludes pending striking inspirations, and my recent study seems to suggest we are on the right track.

Like always, I came across my recent portrait study on Pinterest, all monochromatic, and the wisest option was to approach this drawing using graphite pencils on a vellum surface. What particular piqued my interest in this study was my long-dreaded fear of going too dark in shading and drawing drops of water. I found this crying child or Ninõ (as dubbed by Pedro Luis Raota, the actual photographer, in 1970) encapsulating all I have always feared in drawing; thus, I decided to take on the challenge.

Initially, things went smooth, but I had not even gotten to the teardrops and my 8B pencils were already toast because of the number of dark areas I had to cover; however, I had to improvise with my other pencil grades.

Although likeness suffered a bit, one key takeaway from the drawing was that the bigger the size, the better the details you capture in your portraits, so these enabled shading the teardrops fairly easy.

Overall, I was somewhat pleased with the drawing, if, for anything, its successful completion and I look forward to taking on more expressive portraits before the year runs out.

Lastly, do imbibe this quatrain I wrote as inspired by the drawing, and take it with you as you enjoy your lovely days ahead. Cheers!

Though the dark’s mouth may spew sorrow,

with our limbs caught ‘tween its jaws of pain,

always remember there is a dance tomorrow,

where our teardrops elope with the rain.

Cheemnonso

Ugochi 2.0. (Sketch)

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Sketchbook: Arteza Drawing pad (80lb)

Media: Arteza Coloured pencils.

It’s been exactly three years now I rekindled my old flame for drawing, and since then, I made it a tradition to have a drawing of my baby sister for her birthday. In that time, I’ve had four drawings of her, which I like to see as a present to her and also as some sort of annual progress in my artistic journey.

This particular drawing is portrayed as the remake of a graphite sketch I had of her in 2019. I particularly enjoyed this drawing as working in coloured pencils seemed to prove a challenge at the early stages (especially with the skin tones), but ultimately, turned out okay. After sketching my first colour pencil portrait not too long ago, I had serious doubts I’d be able to replicate the levels attained in the drawing, but having this recent portrait of my sister has really served as a confidence booster to take on other challenging art studies with coloured pencils.

So for this and many more glorious reasons, Happy birthday Ugochi. Stay gold!

Previous sketches: 2019b, 2018

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Cheemnonso™

Strange thoughts. (Sketch)

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Page 1 of my Strathmore Sketch pad.

Here’s my recent attempt on El (Millie Bobby Brown) from the Netflix original series, Stranger Things.

Upon the completion of this drawing, I conceived some thoughts on artistry, particularly pencil drawing:

•I’d like to think drawing as the portal between two worlds: our world and oblivion, where the artist is its gatekeeper and his/her media, the keys.

•I’d like to think artists as those who not only possess the deftness of visualization, but also the ability to percept ultrasonic screeches from entities stuck and forgotten within the walls of blank canvases, waiting to be let out. Strange.

•I’d also like to think a pencil artist as a “compassionate sorcerer” who with the subtle strokes of his/her wand and the seething darkness spewing from its tip, conjures up his/her deepest epiphanies from a clean slate. Dark magic, huh.

•I’d finally like to think that just like alpha numerics, drawing should be learned and not necessarily inherent, thus, all humans are artists, making us gods of some sort from the aforementioned thoughts. Hence, before that bob start clanking repeatedly on our aluminium coated mindscapes, yelling, “I’m not talented, so I can’t draw; or I’ll never reach the levels of elite artists”, remember that not all Greek gods reside at the summit of Mount Olympus, not even the nine Muses; but we budding artists can only strive to get there.

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Cheemnonso™

Villanelle. (Sketch)

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Page 5 of my sketchbook.

Over the years,some stone cold female assassins have graced our TV screens including Mystique, Nikita, Talia Al’ Ghul, Elektra, Jane Smith and even Arya Stark, but none caught my eyes the way Oksana Astankova does. Her mecuriality, charisma, femininity and scathing sense of humor makes psychopathy seem charming and fun. She is truly one enigmatic and exuberant serial killer portrayed by Jodie Comer brilliantly.

So, here’s my sketch of Villanelle from the amazing TV series, Killing Eve.

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Cheemnonso™

Jenny. (Sketch)

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Page 4 of my sketchbook

After my camaraderie with HB pencils, I decided to get a graphite pencil set ranging from hard to soft grades (2H – 8B) in order for me to plumb the depths of sketching and shading. To be honest, having a wide range of pencil grades to choose from, seem to ease the attainment of value and depth in portrait drawings.

So without further ado, here’s my recent stop, Jenny, on my progressive artistic journey.

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Cheemnonso™

Dany. (Sketch)

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Page 3 of my sketchbook.

At long last, the totally absorbing series, Game of Thrones, drew its curtains after eight fantastic seasons albeit a somewhat drab series finale.

Nonetheless, here’s my sketchy tribute to Queen Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, The rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Queen of Dragonstone, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons,regent of the realm.

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Cheemnonso™

Ralph and Vanellope. (Sketch)

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Page 2 of my sketchbook

Last year, the world witnessed some wonderful animated movies including Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, Isle of Dogs, The Incredibles 2, Smallfoot, The Grinch, Mirai and the likes, but, one that particularly stood out for me was Ralph Breaks the Internet. The way its plot relayed the real world social media to an in-game fantasy sphere was second to none.

So, here’s my portrayal of its protagonists (Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz) in HB.

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Cheemnonso™

Baby Steps to Realism

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Page 1 of my sketchbook:

It’s been a while since I sketched something, so, I got hold of this sketchbook and a couple pencils, then decided to portray Arya from the Game of Thrones series.

Still off by a long shot, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Let’s see where these baby steps to realism lead and how many souls I’ll draw out from the walls of these blank pages.
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Cheemnonso™