Wedding Portrait - WIP #3

More of the skin tone has been built up. The eyes look a little scary! Usually the eyes are the first area I define but the reference photo I am using is poor so I am hoping to get a better quality picture to work from. The mouth is looking better and the first layer of hair has been added.

Wedding Portrait - WIP #2

The base skin tone has been added in and I am now building up the depth of the features. It always looks kind of muddy at this point as it takes a lot of blending and reapplying graphite to build up the depth. The lip is too wide on top which makes it look too feminine which I will re-work shortly.

Wedding Portrait - WIP

I thought I would post a portrait that I am currently working on. It is a wedding portait that I am giving as a gift to friends of mine.

To create an outline of the drawing I use a grid printed onto tracing paper. I then print the same grid onto my reference photo and use an F pencil to draw my outline. Once the outline is complete I transfer it to my drawing surface using graphite paper.

I am starting to fill in the skin tones and hair alternating with 2B, 4B and F graphite working from left to right to avoid smuding.