Hello, its hard to believe, but I am starting the fourth week working on the pencil portrait of my Grandma and Grandpa Dillard. I am now entering the finishing stages of the drawings. My objective moving forward will be to continue adjusting value of the lights and dark areas of the drawing to add a better sense of depth. Also, I want to ensure everything is even and does not look muddy. What I mean, is if an area that should be all one value and it actually is a mix of some lighter and darker values, it will look muddy. This can really be noticeable in the lighter areas of the portrait like the forehead, cheeks, and chin. One more thing that I want to work on is the gradients that go from dark to light to ensure I smooth transitions where I need them. Basically, I am looking at getting the details correct. This is a slow process, but I find it to be very relaxing. I want to give you a heads up that next week, I will be shifting gears a little. Tina and I are going to be taking...

Hello, it is hard to believe another week has gone by and we are almost halfway through September already. Fall is fast approaching, and I can’t wait for the cooler temperatures to come. With the change of seasons, I hope to have less lawn work to do and a little more time for drawing. Speaking of drawing, I am continuing the portrait of my Grandma and Grandpa Dillard. This week my focus has been on my Grandpa and getting the values established and correcting some areas that were off with my original outline. For my Grandpa, I started with an H Pencil and working from the top left began to build up the layers to get the skin tone. For the skin, I used mainly pencil, instead of relying on the blending stumps and makeup sponges to start. Then gently went back over the areas just to soften and blend the edges. When I did the skin for my Grandma, I think I relied too much on the blending stumps and sponges which almost makes it look blurry. I do not believe this will be a problem, becaus...

Hello and welcome to the start of the second week of my blog post series on drawing my Grandma and Grandpa Dillard. Last week I left off with the outline of the drawing being completed. This this week I have been concentrating on my Grandma. My first objective was to set the rang of values that I will be using and then build from there. This is a tip I have received watching several videos on drawings done by JB Hillberry. Anyway, for my Grandma, the darkest areas are the inside of her ear and the shadows from her glasses. The lightest areas are the highlights on her nose. At this time, I will be using a 6B pencil for the darkest values and the white of the paper for the lightest value. I began with a B pencil laying in the dark areas very softly. Then I transitioned to a 3B pencil, followed by a 6B pencil. In building the layers this way using light pressure, I can avoid some of the shine that is created when using graphite as a drawing media. The harder pencil leads, especially when ...