Pencil drawings of women on blue and orange paper

Pencil drawings of women on blue and orange paper
25 October 2025


After lunch and while waiting for electricity to be set up in the reiki and pranic building I had installed in the garden, I decided to draw a couple of female faces to add to those I had already drawn beforehand. I had a portrait of a woman on blue paper and one on orange paper so decided to add one of each today. I plan on having these framed and hung just above the bed in the main bedroom. For the bedroom where my stepdaughter stays on weekends, I am waiting to have her put her own artwork so did not do anything else than furnishing it.

In the corridor I had some of the papyrus paintings I bought in Egypt last year put up and the third bedroom upstairs would house the paintings and other artwork of my daughter Léa. The fourth bedroom downstairs would have either some more of the papyrus paintings or some other artist’s work. In the living/dining room, I had already hung works of Shakeel he painted in 2013 and the paintings are quite big so six of them have covered the whole room which is around 7 m x 4 m

It had been a while since I had drawn with pencils so the drawings are not my best but I think they will do for the place I have destined them to go onto. Even though my hand was not up to the mark, I enjoyed drawing these sketches and look forward to using some of the acrylic painting I just bought from Amazon to paint as it has been years since I painted in acrylic. There is a big mirror above the desk in the main bedroom, and I plan on painting some boat scenes in pastel blues to go with the headboard of the bed which is dark blue. I hope I soon find time to start these paintings as it has been difficult to find time with my busy schedule between work, daily chores, healing of others and just me-time to relax and resource.

I leave you with some music that I was listening to before and after drawing these female portraits.
Shadow dance blues

Pencil drawing of my brother’s daughter

Pencil drawing of my brother’s daughter
17 April 2025


It was recently my niece’s birthday and I had seen a few pictures of her published with the birthday wishes. She is a beautiful girl and was also a beautiful baby. Her picture as a baby appealed to me so I decided to draw her. I did not have much time as I was coordinating some repairs in the place where I will be living soon so it is not as well crafted as I wanted it to be.

I had a bit of trouble with the eyes as the glancing upward effect in the photograph had me puzzled as to how to reproduce it. I decided to stay with a somewhat level gaze instead of an upward one as I simply was not getting it. I used only pencils 4h and 5b for this portrait. I hope you like it.

And as always, mixing the visual, sometimes the spoken but always an audio of the moment, I give you a song which I was listening to when I got the inspiration to draw the portrait.

Sade - Paradise - Official - 1988

Pencil drawing of a third smiling boy

Pencil drawing of a third smiling boy
3 April 2025
Smiling boy drawn by me


I found another beautiful photograph of a smiling boy in the database I had subscribed to and decided to try drawing him today. I feel that my drawing of boys has improved since I started with the small sad boy.

This time I decided to dedicate more time to the shading/blending and drawing of the hair. I am not sure the technique I used to make the sun-kissed hair stand out but I tried my best. I hope you like this pencil portrait because I really like it this time. I think I will start drawing adult male portraits in a few weeks after I have settled into my final accommodation.

And as always, mixing the visual, sometimes the spoken but always an audio of the moment, I give you a song which I was listening to when I got the inspiration to draw the portrait.
Ruby Sinclair – Midnight Lullaby (Soulful Blues Ballad)

Pencil drawing of a second boy

Pencil drawing of a second boy
1 April 2025
Drawing of a boy by me


I found a beautiful photograph of a boy in the database I had subscribed to and decided to try drawing him. As I mentioned before boys and men represent a particular challenge for me as I am mainly used to drawing female subjects. I thought that I should still challenge myself and try to improve my drawing of male subjects.

Again, I was drawn to the eyes and concentrated most of my attention to them. The rest of the drawing, especially the T-shirt was done with more haste and less attention to detail. I hope you like the pencil portrait all the same.

And as always, mixing the visual, sometimes the spoken but always an audio of the moment, I give you a song which I was listening to when I got the inspiration to draw the portrait.
Through The Eyes Of A Child - Aurora

Second gel pen portrait of a woman

Second gel pen portrait of a woman
22 February 2025



I liked the use of the gel pens so I decided to make another portrait and I might do a few more down the road. Here again, it has a very much animated movies feel to it. I hope you like it. I still thought I would try the watercolours this weekend but now this is going to be Sunday and I probably will not publish whatever I will do with them Sunday itself but might decide to publish it on one of the weekdays after that. I am leaving you with another wonderful song from this lovely young lady called Elyanna.

Elyanna - Callin' U (Tamally Maak)

New drawings and paintings

Additional artwork
January 25, 2025

I am on the verge of leaving my flat in which I have lived for just a bit more than 6 years. While I was packing, I found some artwork that I had not published on this blog before and so I decided to do this now.

The first two items are my daughter's : a pencil drawing of our family with my two boys on the left side and my daughter and myself on the right side and a pastel drawing of two flowers.

The rest are all mine being some quick sketches of semi-clothed models and a couple of oil paintings: a bird, a horse head and two still-life of fruit and vegetables

I tried putting them in gallery mode but my laptop or wordpress was not complying so I just had to insert them as separate images. I hope you like them.
Our family

Lea pastel pink flower

Female model sketch 1

Female model sketch 2

Male model sketch 1

Male model charcoal long sketch

Copy of a Felix Vallotton ink drawing called La Paresse

Sketch of a model head

Oil pastel of a folk woman

Oil painting of a bird

Oil painting of a horse’s head

Oil painting – still life

Oil painting – still life 2

Sunday musings : Resilience

Sunday musings : Resilience

17 March 2019

 

Trying my hand again at sketches with a focus on nudes ; sketching to the tune of jazz.

 

I called the portrait « Resilience ». It is perhaps one of the traits that I favour most in human beings. Whatever we go through in life, a little bit of music, giving free course to our imagination and the exercise of our hobbies together with this trait allow us to go through many situations that we initially thought insurmountable. So here’s to resilience and to the great all at once soothing and stimulating effect of jazz.

Click on the thumbnails to see the larger version

Hey Laura – Gregory Porter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWUAKq-reLQ

Oil pastels and an oil painting

Oil pastels and an oil painting

29 August 2017

Lea baby
An oil pastel sketch of my daughter when she was little (based on a photograph)

 

I have not usually favoured the use of pastels as I feel somewhat hindered by the amount of mess they often generate which cannot be somehow « fixed » unlike oils and to an extent acrylic and aquarelle.

 

My daughter on the other hand was so enamoured with soft pastels that it got me thinking I should perhaps revisit the subject. I had both oil and soft chalk pastels and decided upon the oils to complement the oil painting of flowers in a vase.

 

I hope you like all of them.

Miro like cat
A Miro inspired cat 🙂

 

Purple flowers
Oil painting of flowers in a vase

Colours of the wind – Vanessa Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8rU2CK_1FI

Pencil sketches

Pencil sketches

29 August 2017

Stabat Mater copy

 

Today I am sharing two divergent moods in the sketches. One is of a flamenco dancer having fun and one is a drawing inspired by the cover of the CD of Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

 

I thought the sombre vis-à-vis light mood was quite interesting to look at and hope you like them.

 

Flamenco dancer

How do you leave the one you love – Katherine Jenkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i96nP8KHap0

Sketch and song of Eva Cassidy

Sketch and song of Eva Cassidy

19 August 2017

 

I was listening to this beautiful soul’s songs and had an urge to connect with her in a deeper way so made a sketch of her.

 

I listened to a number of her songs while I drew and while Autumn leaves was the one I felt she sang with the most fervour, I liked more, for personal reasons, her interpretation of Ain’t no sunshine. The version I had always favoured was Bill Withers but I think she does this as splendidly as he did.

 

I hope you enjoy both the sketch and the song.

Eva Cassidy

 

Ain’t no sunshine – Eva Cassidy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZGzB8TDvD8