The materials I started with are paper of my choice, a .5 mechanical pencil, and a picture of my choice. The picture I used was this:
I went directly into outlining the features of her face, hair, and shirt.
When I outline, I try to break down the face into basic sectors, laying down lines with approximate distances between the major features (eyes, nose, mouth, chin, etc). Now, normally I would start from the center of the page (in this case, her face) and work out, shading, adding detail in areas where detail is required, but, when I was doing this, I decided to get her hair shaded first (hair happens to be one of my largest challenges). When I shade, I prefer to use charcoal.
After I finished shading Ana's hair, I went in and darkened some lines, finished outlining her shirt, and then placed some lines where I planed to shade darker for shadowing. After doing this, I decided to go in and color her irises, blending a dark indigo blue, with a bright green color pencil. After getting it to the shade I wanted, I used a white color pencil to swirl and further blend the green into the blue. Once I had them the way I wanted them, I filled in her eyebrows. Also, I went back into her hair, using a white charcoal pencil, I added highlights to her hair, giving it a more natural look, and creating depth.
The last step for me, with any project, is shading. Shading, quite frankly, is what really brings to life any picture. It adds depth, so that your character or object isn't flat. So, I went in with my charcoal pencil, and handy-dandy cotton ball, and carefully shaded and blended her face and shirt. It still amazes me how much attitude shading in her eye lids and forehead wrinkles gave to this portrait.
-Syd
P.S. Thanks to everyone who views my blog, I appreciate it greatly!
