Grant WIP 1

I'm taking a little break from eye studies - I literally have 20 or so sources for my studies, and it's become a little overwhelming (and repetitive). After studying Vanderpoel, it's all downhill from there anyway.

Having recently read J.D. Hillberry's "Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil" and Lee Hammond's "How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs", I decided to try just that - drawing a portrait from a photograph. I chose my youngest son, Grant, whose 18 month portaits were taken just a couple of months ago. I liked the expression on his face in this one, and thought it would make a good model for my first serious portrait attempt. I've spent a few lunch hours and an evening on it so far, and have used mostly F, 2B and 3B graphite with just a little charcoal for the eyes and some accents. I think overall it's pretty good, but I may need to lighten it up a bit. I'm worried about the hair, because I haven't really had much experience doing realistic hair. We'll see how it goes.