This image was drawn from one of our holiday snaps. Using Windsor & Newton Bristol board which I find is very smooth, and WHSmiths watercolour pencils.
As usual I started off with the easy grid method. I draw this dark and then took most of the pencil off after the scan, but before I started blocking in.
The hat was the first stage and I wanted to use this opportunity to see how the black colour worked on it's own for drawing. I was pleased with the range of tone available.
After blocking in the tones I then tested the pencil further to see if some sharper constrast could be produced, as the pencils are quite soft, and was very pleased with the results.
Next I moved on to adding some dark colour tones in the hair. The darker tones were easier to work with as they could be covered over with thicker layers if they needed to be changed. After the hair I moved on the contracting lighter skin tones, but again started with the darker blush and shadow areas.
Working up slowly I added more skin tones but kept a strong contract with the blacks. The pale skin tones looked very washed out at this stage until the glasses were added with helped to add depth and frame the face.
The dark top was added in the lower right corner to mark the contract range of tones that would be used across in the final image.
Then building up the tones of the jacket, I found a blending stump was really useful as new layers were added to keep a smoother finish.
Once all the tone areas were blocked in and the last details added, I went back over the whole image enhancing the darker tones where needed.
