Realistic Human Portraiture in Graphite. Everybody who knows me well, knows that I am not a big fan of this type of artwork, regardless of how much I love the person depicted in it. Yet, here I am again with a new blog post presenting another portrait of a loved one. This shows how much I am willing to persevere, just to put smiles on my loved ones' faces. Why do I harbor such contempt for this popular type of artwork? That's something I will address in another blog someday. So, here it is, I present to you @jacinta.sevilla's long-awaited portrait.

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First, A Bit of History About This Project

The idea for making this began life sometime in the second half of September 2017. She had some pictures in her FB profile photo album, in which she appeared to be imitating a popular local actress, named Liza Soberano.

I teased her about it and told her that I was going to draw her. Other FB friends of hers saw our exchange and got in on the act too, and promptly began working on their own portraits of her. I also promised her that I would not only draw just one, but many. And on Sept. 29, 2017, my pencil touched my sketchpad, and I began the construction drawing phase of my first portrait of her.

This project started hot on the heels of another I finished a month prior (Aug. 25, 2017), and for a girl I was seeing at the time. So, I thought that being fresh from the experience of the previous effort, this one would be finished a lot faster. But things kept getting in the way, like work and personal issues, and this project eventually got shelved for most of 2018.

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The Materials

• Staedtler Lumograph pencils: B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 7B, and 8B
• Faber-Castell PVC-free eraser
• 120 gsm sketchpad paper
• Tissues for blending and shading skintone
• Paintbrushes for brushing away eraser crumbs, and also for blending on the hair
• Rosary, crucifix, and scapular I know a lot of you might find it odd that I'd have those included, but they helped by keeping me calm throughout the mad rush to finish this piece. Christmas holidays are a stressful and hectic time, with periods of good cheer often abruptly disrupted by tempers flaring over even the most innocuous concerns, in the kitchen. But even if I didn't have to touch them, they are always in front of me, on my computer table. 😂 🙏

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The Reference Images

Primary

Supplementary

This is the most crucial aspect for me in this type of endeavor, the need to have many reference images of the subject, and not just that singular photograph that is being copied. This is what differentiates me from a lot of portraiture practitioners in this country, and it's something I picked up from my days as a traditional animator.

You can see in the pictures that her two front upper teeth protrude a bit. And not obvious in the pictures is that her mouth is a bit lopsided, with the left corner a bit lower than the right. Also of great concern for me are the obviously asymmetrical shapes of her eyes. I also needed to see better pictures of her eyebrows, in case I decide to put more detail into them, rather than being just a shaded area.

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The Process

When it comes to drawing, I am strictly a freehand artist and have never used a grid, unlike a lot of portrait art practitioners in this country. I always begin a figure drawing by using a rough sketch method known as construction drawing.

Now, I won't get into detail into how it is done, as I had already in a previous blog post here about another portrait I made in 2017. I strongly encourage you to read it as it explains a lot about the techniques of the whole creation process, which I do not feel like explaining again.

The picture shows a construction drawing that had already been cleaned up and ready for shading. All of the construction lines had already been erased, leaving behind the contour lines and other details of the face and hair. I was not a Steemian yet, hence my lack of foresight of the need to photodocument every step of the beginning process. Next time I make a portrait I will be more aware, and take pictures of everything.

And before you move on down to the next parts of this blog, I'd like to point out a few more things. My pencil portraits will never be exact, pixel-perfect copies of the pictures they were based on.

This is due to the fact that I am a freehand artist, and that means that the underlying drawings will be a bit off. This is most obvious in the hair. But, even though it is not an exact copy of the picture, it still bears the subject's likeness, due to my diligent studies of her facial anatomy. before, and while working on the portrait.

This post will have many process pictures included, because it is also my way of helping my friend with her desire to get better at creating realistic portraits. So, if you just want to see the final artwork, just scroll down to near the bottom to see them.

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Drawing and shading the parts of the face

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Moving on to the hair

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Next, the hair draped on her right shoulder

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Finishing the right side, and beginning shading on her left

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Et voila! It is finished!

When I resumed working on this on Dec. 26, I told myself that I would finish it before 2018 ended. And true enough, on Dec. 30, it was done.

But there was just way too much material to sift through for the blog, and work beckoned right away after the holidays that I had to postpone working on this blog until I had finished my work assignment.

Then I thought of posting it on Valentine's Day, but again, my work kept me too busy to prepare this blog. So I decided to show it to another artist here who knows Jacinta in person, to have a witness and also for her critique of the artwork.

Looking back, this is the fastest I've worked on an artwork like this, considering that I could only work on it for about three hours a day, since I resumed it. Altogether, it took me 9 days to make, 4 days in 2017, and 5 days in Dec. 2018.

It looks better and cleaner too, than the other portrait I made for another girl. It may not be an exact copy of the picture, but people tell me that it looks like her. I can't wait to see her reaction to it.

Now, I wonder how fast I am going to be with the next. Let's see.

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And now, some proper shots of this beauty!

So, here it is, the finished artwork, in its unedited glory. However, my phone's camera sucks at taking pictures in the lighting conditions of my room, so a photoedit was necessary to make it look more presentable, as can be seen in the two pictures below.

Together at last! I meant the gold logo and the portrait. Girls like shiny things, and I remember how happy she was when I showed her the logo. It was modeled in Blender a week before I began the portrait, for which it was intended to be placed on. This combination of traditional and digital art serves to differentiate me from other portrait artist, and it also means that those whose portraits bear such a decoration are more special than the others I've drawn too.

And here's another special version of this drawing. I wanted it to look like an old picture, so I opened it in GIMP. With the aid of a tutorial, I gave it a sepia effect. And after many tweaks, this is what turned out.

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A special message for her

Jas, here is your portrait. I hope it puts a smile on your lips, love in your heart, and hope in your soul. Sorry it took me so long to finish, but you probably knew in your heart that I would finish it, no matter how I felt. I'm sorry too, for being too harsh on you over some mistakes that you kept repeating. But, it's all water under the bridge now. Let bygones be bygones.

Remember when we talked about how similar we are? We're both firebrands in our respective social circles. Yeah, very feisty ones at that! But, what I liked particularly about you was that I saw in you the same underdog I was, when I was your age. And I don't know if you remember this, but isn't it uncanny that we both began our lives by nearly dying right after being born? I was about four-months old when I was stricken with a severe bout of typhoid and diarrhea. And I was so sick that my eyes had already rolled to the side, and they all thought I was going to die.

God obviously had other plans for me, and I'm still trying to figure what His Purpose for me is. But, for now, I want to start by inspiring you with the artworks I will create and post here. So, here's to a more creative year for us. Let's make 2019 a great one!

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Up Next

The first picture is for my next portrait of Jacinta. Middle picture is an owl brooch that I will make a 3D model of, and use as a decoration for Jacinta's next portrait. She loves owls, and so I thought of including one in some form, for her next portrait.

The third picture is that of my sister-in-law. She saw this portrait of Jacinta and was awestruck by it. Though she didn't ask me, I just decided that I'd do it as my way of thanking her for some gifts she gave me last summer.

Of these three I guess I will start with the owl as I haven't done any personal 3D modeling yet for this year, then next is my sister-in-law's portrait. She lives in New York, and will be here this summer.

I want to get started on it right away as those swirls of hair look like they will wreck my eyes again, so I want to be done with it, ASAP. And, of course, these three projects will be presented here first, as blog posts, before the rest of the world sees them.

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And, that's a wrap! You'll be seeing more portraits and other traditional art from me, in the weeks and months to come. Until then, keep on Steeming and believing!

If you liked this post, please consider giving an upvote, a resteem, and a follow. Good day, and God Bless!

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This blog was created with eSteem Surfer and GIMP.