Amazing Pencil Portraits 2

Now it can be told: my portraits of Aidan and Cole are featured in the new book, "Amazing Pencil Portraits 2" by Platte Productions! I don't have my copy yet, but I'm very excited about it, and honored to be included with such great artists! I guess I'd better start drawing again...

Aidan - Final

After a little over two months, I finally finished Aidan's portrait. It was more complex than I first realized, with all the different textures - skin, hair, hat, shirt, bird bath, snail - but I'm happy with how it came out. Now I just need to find a good reference photo for Cole's portrait!

Aidan - WIP 5

I haven't gotten as many lunch hours or evenings to work on this as I would like, so it's moving along slowly but surely. I finished the subject of Aidan's interest - a snail that is hanging upside down on part of the bird bath. I've never drawn a snail before, so it was a challenge but fun. I actually picked up a snail the other day while the boys were playing with it and studied its shell to get an idea of how I might draw one. Another challenge with the bird bath was trying to make its texture different - it is aluminum, I think, and somewhat smooth on top but rougher on the sides. I also wanted it to stand out from Aidan's mouth, since it's overlapping. I hope I did OK.

Aidan - WIP 4

I've finally finished Aidan's hat and face. I originally wanted to place the part of the bird bath that's blocking his mouth further to the right and then reconstruct his mouth, but after thinking about it and looking for other reference photos, I decided against it. I think I made the right decision, because I probably would have made him look like the Joker if I'd tried to guess what the obscured part of his mouth looked like.

Aidan - WIP 3

I finished Aidan's hair, the shading beneath his hat, and most of the hat. Since his hat is a light khaki color, it loses a lot of detail on the left, since the sun is shining on it. I think I'll have to add some background to this drawing to define the edge of the hat.

Aidan - WIP 2

I worked a bit more on Aidan, adding his ear and starting the hair. There isn't much of it in this portait, since he's wearing a hat, just a few locks that typically hang down on his forehead. I'm afraid I may have messed up the tooth of the paper on his forehead to the viewer's left, since I can't seem to add any more graphite to darken it up. I'll keep trying.

Aidan - WIP 1

After I finished Grant's portrait, I felt very proud - I had never been so proud of one of my drawings before. I spent many hours on it, and took my time, applying lessons I'd learned from books and from my friends at the ArtPapa forums. I already had a photo of Aidan picked out that I wanted to use for the next one, but after a while, I realized I was dragging my feet about it. One day it occured to me that what was preventing me from working on another portrait was a fear of failure. I was afraid that I couldn't do as well (not to mention better) on another portrait as I'd done on Grant's. I don't expect my skills to improve markedly from one drawing to the next, but I do expect to learn from my mistakes, if nothing else. Still, weeks went by and I couldn't bring myself to start Aidan's portrait until one day I forced myself to.

I'm using a new paper, Arches 140 lb. Hot Pressed Watercolor, and graphite.