An Old Friend

Description:

This piece is my first successful portrait. It was made using primarily graphite pencils, along with some pen (both black and white) and a black colored pencil. This portrait is of an old friend of mine, which is how I got the reference photo.

Looking back I am not all that proud of this work. At a glance, it works, but the second I look closer all I can see are the imperfections. To be honest I would pick a different reference as this portrait is accurate according to it. But the photo quality is low.

I did spray it with a fixative when I was done, but it still looks faded. I think this is because I was afraid to push the values further, and I didn’t have a black colored pencil to darken the darkest values to their full extent.

Time Spent:

12 hours over multiple months

Materials:

Graphite, pen, small eraser, and kneaded eraser