The first is the iconic Angela Davis, whose interview on Democracy Now inspired me to paint a tribute portrait. I feel like I caught her likeness, but I didn't quite catch her spark. She's a dynamic, powerful woman whose personality explodes out of her eyes, and mine seem more like in a posed photo when somebody says "Say cheese."
The second is of a favorite author, V. E. (Victoria) Schwab, who brought us Vicious and the Shades of Magic trilogy, among wonderful others. She is an extraordinarily pale person with, er, variable hair color, and I had a good time with this one using only the color red to do 90 percent of the shadows on her skin, as they reflected off of her brilliant hair. Her face in life is a little longer and a little thinner, but in this case I think I almost caught her large amount of pizzazz.
Both portraits were drawn first with a Uniball pen, and then painted with Paul Jackson watercolors in my Bee sketchbook. Tomorrow I will probably go back to the 30x30 Direct, but...no promises.
