MY SKETCHING PROCESS
This blog post reflects one of the rare occasions I documented my process. I thought I would describe how I sketch a portrait in a realistic style, such as this element to my 'Laughter' series. The equipment I use include graphite pencils (HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B and 9B), good quality sketching paper, a putty eraser, a normal eraser, cotton wool, tortillon (blending stump), ruler and an extra piece of paper to rest my hand so I'm not smudging the work.
The first thing I do is draw a grid over to help with proportions and sketch out the outline. I then erase the grid carefully but also any outlines that are too dark. One of the things to remember when sketching realistic faces, is that there are no sharp lines on the face, it's all about different levels of shading. One thing that helped me get my head around realism, is forgetting what I thought I knew of the face and features. I look at the picture I'm copying and don't take in the fact I'm drawing an eye, for example, I just follow the shapes and shades of the photograph.
As you can see, I start with the soft shading, so this is usually the skin. I focus on the different tones and shades while I move the pencil in circular movements. Once finished the soft shade area, I go over with a little bit of cotton wool and blend. If I were aiming for hyper-realism, I would use a tortillon and blend in much smaller circles, bringing out the detail of the pores etc.
The more detailed shaded areas are things like the lips and eyes, where it still needs blending but in much more detail. It's areas like these that I use a tortillon. I also use the putty eraser, mould it into a point, and dap it on areas where I want tiny highlights, like on the eyes and lips.
Finally, I put the blending equipment away and use maybe a 2B, 4B and 6B to do eyelashes, eyebrows and hair. These pencils make it possible to sketch the hair fine but dark enough to stand out. On the very shaded areas where you can't see hair details anyway, I use the 9B graphite pencil!
So there you go...
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