There is something about a black and white portrait sketch with a simple colorful tattoo pattern on it... I love me some colored lines on a face! Maybe its my personal design cheat.
I started doing these patterns last year for inktober. They were just to get the drawings going. But eventually they bled out to other stuff I was doing, and every single face in my notebook had a tattoo sketch! I had to force me to stop making lines on my face sketches... But as it turns out, it gave me some really cool designs, and even some cultural ideas for visual world building.
I advice this to you: If you are making an otherwise boring portrait sketch, put some colored patterns in there: circles, straight lines, points, etc. Bam! Tribal Face! No more a boring character, now a tribal warrior of the western fields beyond the sacred seas...
Give it a try, its fun.
Comment something if you feel like it! And maybe follow us for more drawings, thoughts and crazy talk!
Cheers!