This is a sketch I did as a study of a model who I hope to paint a Portrait of some day. Her head is turned up and she is viewed slightly from below which is a very difficult post to capture.

I find her long silky hair to be a subject of interest and want to explore how it can be used in a portrait. Long hair can be symbolic of so many things I hope to do a few paintings of her in different cultural contexts.

The placing of the face is off center a little and normally I would not do that but my photography of her was a little off center and so I took inspiration from the mistake and I felt it worked in this case.

I started with a hb graphite pencil to outline the face then began to work the portrait with a light touch of the pencil. I did a lot of pre-shading of the face. I did a complete drawing in pencil at first but when I photographed it and looked at the image I saw a lot of issues with the values. Sometimes artist will look at a project in a mirror or upside down to critique their work, but I find taking a photo and looking it on a screen shows me areas that need to be fixed.

I returned to the project and redid it in charcoal. I used a lot of charcoal in the hair, of course, but used a blending stub to pick up charcoal and shaded in the face.

It was a fun picture to draw. After I finished I regretted that it was done on some cheap copier paper since it was intended only as a study but I became so engaged in it that I went beyond a study.

Charcoal and graphite study of a woman looking up for a painting