This is a Portrait I did for my own pleasure and for practice. It is Dwain who is just a guy who works odd jobs this portrait was inspired by a photo of him on a temporary assignment at a lumber yard.

I liked the dark mood that was in the photo and in his expression. I did not intend for him to look sad but the photo was taken when he was especially tired.

As in all my drawings, I began with a 2b or 4b pencil and then after the basic composition is laid out I move to charcoal or whatever medium I am working in.  I did the first layer in hard charcoal and then did a lot of blending with a blender stub. I wanted to leave the picture a little impressionist or parts of the face to be undeveloped and other parts to be overdeveloped for emphasis, but I got so enthralled with the process that I kept working it and developed a more realistic picture than I intended.

I saw an art student of mine use tissue to buff the medium and soften it which is a nice technique to give a softer texture so I borrowed her method and buffed out the medium in the background and parts of the face.

I finished the portrait with a soft charcoal pencil which is a darker medium. I did the darkest areas being mindful not to overdo it  I was going to leave the hair in the shadows so the face would look like he was just about to emerge from darkness but the softer darker charcoal had such a nice contrast to the buffed layer I had created earlier that I couldn't help but draw in the coarse hair.

Charcoal Portrait of  The Lumber Yard Man.

I think I am very happy with the project.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look.