Hey All, I wanted to share the next piece I'm working on. It's a photo inspired portrait of a white-haired man with glasses. I've added a series of my drawings but have never broken down my process. I've been asked about my methods and thought it'd be a great opportunity for me to actually show you shot by shot the different phases.

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Starting Point

I started this piece using light strokes with a graphite pencil. When drawing portraits, I usually like to start with the eyes. It helps capture the portrait I'm trying to accomplish. In my opinion if I've got the eyes down, the rest should be pretty easy.

That and I'm always most fascinated with drawing eyes in general. So much detail has to go into them in order to give the drawing some life.

Then I map out the surrounding facial features.

Adding Detail

I like to add some detailing along the way to get me excited about the outcome. It also helps me to get a feel for direction and overall mood for the drawing.

Once I started adding detailing, I decided I didn't want to make it a light drawing. Part of the reason I choose to do portraits is because of the fun I have with shading. I prefer using pens or charcoal. Adding ink only helps bring out the contrast and depth. Makes for more interesting and bold results. Also, using cross-hatching in pen drawings really helps bring out different shading variations and controlled shadows.

Finally, for the next phase I work on dimensions. Since I've already got myself going, I want to make sure everything is lining up just right. Making sure it's symmetrical is key for this piece especially since the glasses can give me away if I veer off :)

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Hope you've enjoyed. Most will probably agree my method is a little unconventional. Truth be told I started out self-taught. My art instructors always found my methods a bit rebellious and unorganized. At the end of the day we all have our own ways of achieving things. Whatever works for you I say :)

Additional post to follow...

See you Soon!

Thanks for Stopping By!
@comealong