Walter WIP 5

Here's an update on my portrait of Walter. He's almost finished....I'm just making some adjustments and then I need to sign him and prepare him for delivery. My next update will be my final completed drawing.

Walter WIP 4

Here's an update on my portrait of Walter.  I'm working on building up the fur on his body.  I'm hoping to finished with this tonight.  More to come soon!

"Walter" WIP 3

Here’s an update on my portrait of “Walter”. I have his head just about finished and added his whiskers using a Uniball Signo gel pen with white ink. More to come soon

"Walter" WIP 2

Here's an update on my portrait of "Walter".   I'm using Pentel P205 mechanical pencils with 4H, 2H, H, and 2B leads.  No blending tools are being using.  I love using the Vellum paper, I love how it just grabs the graphite.  More to come soon!

"Walter" WIP1

Here is the start of my newest commissioned portrait.  This is "Walter", he 11 x 14 graphite in Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper.  

I'm not using any blending tools with this one and I'm using Bristol Vellum for the first time.  I must say that I'm loving the paper right now.  I love the way the paper holds the graphite.  I will be using this paper more often.  

For pencils, I'm using a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil with a 2B lead.  

More to come soon!

"Walter"

I got my line drawing of my latest commission piece. This is "Walter" 11 x 14 graphite on Bristol Vellum paper. I used a 2B Derwent Drawing pencil.

My line drawing was done initially on plain printer paper. I do a lot of erasing and measuring and don't like to do this on my good drawing paper because it's expensive. Once I have my line drawing done and everything where I want it to be, I tape it to the back of my drawing paper and transfer the line drawing to my actual drawing paper. This way I don't have to worry about damaging my good paper during my measuring, planning, and erasing phase.

I call this initial phase the "ugly stage" of my drawing process. The lines are drawn quickly and look like a two year old did it. This is how I start all of my portraits. The line drawing helps me to map out everything, to get all the features placed properly. My line drawing is the foundation of the portrait, without a solid foundation, the likeness isn't going to be captured. Just like when a building is being built, the walls and windows won't go up until the foundation is laid out and is able to hold the walls and roof of the house, without a solid foundation, the house won't be able to stand - same with my line drawing. Now I can add tone and texture to bring Walter to life on paper.

More to come soon!