ANOTHER PORTRAIT

 

I've had a lovely time this week drawing my middle granddaughter, Stephanie.  I was inspired by a photo taken by Rose Jones, a friend of Justine's which depicted Steph wearing one of her beautiful jewellery creations.  This is a photo of the finished piece which is too big to go under the scanner, hence the less than perfect quality.

 

I always start with the eyes as if they go completely wrong I can start again without wasting too much work.  This is actually the second attempt as the first one wasn't quite what I wanted, you can see that one at the end of the post.  I just turned the paper over and re-traced the outline before starting again.

 

The main reason for a second attempt was that I couldn't draw the beaded necklace successfully so I decided to draw some ivy instead and came up with a name for the picture as well: Stephanivy.

 

The first drawing had ended up with rather heavy hair so this time I tried to keep it lighter despite the fact that Steph's hair is very dark brown.  Even this has gone through a couple of erasures!

 

To make the background look misty and soft I rubbed on some pastel greens with a duster wrapped around my finger tip.

 

Here is Rose's photo and I think I've almost got her likeness but there's always a little something that isn't quite perfect in the drawing. I don't want to fiddle any more or I will ruin a portrait that looks lovely now hanging in the hall mounted on a pale flesh pink background with a plain black frame.

 

In this first attempt I realised that the eyes were on different levels so when I re-traced the drawing I moved the left eye down a fraction and used a straight edge to line them up with the photo I laid alongside.  I had also gone a bit crazy with the background, overdoing the detail which I was so fed up with I didn't even scan it!  It's a lesson learned, make sure the drawing is anatomically correct before getting stuck in and step back for a day to reflect before finishing the background.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I made this portrait, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments.  I'll be back soon with something different so watch this space!