Here's another series of sequential photographs documenting my portraiture process.  Hope you like!

Sketch yah laters!

Final portrait study.

Process.

Portrait Drawing Process

Recently, I have been attending a weekly figure drawing workshop.  While the poses are focused on traditional figure drawing, I always go to practice on my portraiture drawing skills.  In-between sessions, I take photographs of my progress.  Thought I would share my most recent, and favorite, drawing sesh.  In total, this was a 1.5 hour study.

Hope you enjoy!

I usually block in the large shadow values/shapes first.  It helps me create a foundation for the head shape and where to layout my facial features.

 Once I have the basic positive and negative shapes established, I then focus on where the individual features of the face align based on shape and value.  I also make sure they are proportional to the model, and not generically placed.

During this stage, I am also looking at the cast/drop shadow shapes, as well as the reflected/bounced light.  I want to make sure I have a clear understand of how the light source is building the structure and form of the model's head.

After doing some editing, and redrawing of values and features, I allow myself to build a range of values.  This helps me create more structure and form, without have to rely on outlines and contours.

Throughout the entire process I am constantly going back-and-forth from one area of the head to another.  This helps me render the portrait as a whole, instead of individual parts.  By doing this, I feel it keeps the portrait as a complete study, instead of having some parts rendered while leaving others unfinished. 

Finally, after building a range of values I apply cross-hatching to give my illustration more visual texture and a variety of tone.  I then allow myself to include other elements of the model, so as not to have a floating head in the middle of my stage.