A beloved face...

About a month ago, equipped with my graphite pencil trio, an eraser and a ruler, I embarked on a sketching journey that unrolled before me in many miles of woven textile, as you will see below. (Or at least, so it felt.)

It was the first time I was beginning to capture my husband's facial to some degree of accuracy, and I was elated! 

Initial sketch

My husband found a mind-blowingly exhaustive website for art techniques, covering all topics from beginner's workspace and material recommendations, to mini courses on every classical drawing medium. You can find it here. He downloaded a PDF package which we have both been working through, and the material is undoubtedly very helpful. 

One of the tips I picked up from those notes, is sharpening your pencils on fine sandpaper or similar coarse surface. Apparently, and I can understand why, sharpeners wear down your pencils much too quickly. As I didn't have sandpaper, I hunted about for a stray brick, and found this grey one to be the perfect texture for working down my graphite tips to the desired shape. This is the other advantage of sanding over sharpening: you are able to fine-tune the exact shape and sharpness you are looking for.

Sharpening by sanding...

As Jonan my husband, loves textures, (especially when overlaid on photos and video animation!), I decided to draw in a woven textile in the background ("negative space", in fancy terms!). I looked up a nice strongly-defined fabric texture online, downloaded it, zoomed in very close and carefully studied the shadows and twists of each strand. Then I set about my long journey... It's been quite rewarding... But I must add, and most will understand, there is a certain point where your strongest desire is to see it finished!!

The final result: My wonderful, creative, kind-hearted husband!

So, at some point, I would like to be making beautiful life-like portraits, capturing those delightful special nuances of each character, just like Brenda Hoddinott...