Friday, May 6, 2011

ELLA - a pencil portrait




I thought you might like to see my process of drawing. This one is done strictly in pencil - no charcoal, no pastel, just pencil, and built on values.


Last summer, I took some photos of my nephew's beautiful wife, Ella. She has some of the most amazing features for drawing that I have seen. (Just my opinion, of course.)


I began with the eyes, as I needed to get them right, or nothing else would "flow" for me.

I then moved around the drawing, adding value to the face, then value against the face in the hair to get the correct tones on the places of the face.


Here you can see the photo I was working from on my drawing board.




I always put any photos I work from in plastic sleeves to protect them from my dirty fingers, or the paint that I inevitably splash on all surfaces close to where I work! I am not a tidy artist when I paint...








And here is the finished drawing - Ella.

2 comments:

irinapictures said...

The result is better than the original. I mean that you managed to show the inner light which is not possible to get by the camera. Great.

Unknown said...

Thank you Irina! I appreciate your feedback. :-)