Little boy in a kimono

The latest picture is actually from a full-length portrait of a little boy wearing a kimono. The face was quite small in the original hard copy so I took a high-resolution scan and blew it up (enlarged not exploded). The resultant picture was still quite blurred, but there was enough detail to be going on with.

For this picture I went back to the old method of a 2B pencil on the older smooth paper. The face was done as usual, with the shading the result of the side of the pencil, and the detail done with the point. The kimono was fun too. It's actually easy to draw - simply shade with the side of the pencil in the direction of the collar, i.e. from the neck to the point in the middle of the chest. (Whatever you do, don't draw the robe as right over left - this is reserved for corpses!!) A few dark and light areas give the illusion of creases in the fabric. Experiment with this and you'll find you can create life-like images.

Not a lot else to say about this one, other than this boy has the cutest little cheeks I have ever seen!

See all the latest pictures at http://pencil-pictures.co.uk.

A new sketch pad - Alfred Hitchcock

I was in town the other day and decided to look at sketch pads. WHSmiths does a pad with really thick textured paper so I thought I would try it. I have a long mental list of people I want to draw and decided on British film director Alfred Hitchcock, he of the distinctive jowly jaw. For this first picture I went back to using a 2B pencil for the whole sketch. This worked nicely in the very dark areas under his chin, and also for the lines on his forehead.

Lines are fun to draw. Hext time you see someone with a lined forehead, especially when they are raising their eyebrows, have a look at the light. The forehead is divided into folds of skin separated by lines. The lines are very dark, but the top of each fold is light. So a lined forehead is basically light fading to dark at the line, then immediately light again for the next fold of skin. Try it - it is really effective. (In Alfred Hitchcock's case, the light source is quite low, and his face is raised, so his wrinkles go the opposite way, but I hope you get the idea!)

The textured paper shows up best when using the side of a pencil as opposed to the point, so for a textured skin tone use the flat of the pencil. I like the effect on Alfred's clothes as well.

Finally when I had finished the face, I decided that the left side was too bright and not easily defined, so I shaded the background a bit on that side. Now you can clearly see his profile:

Let me know what you think in the comments section! As usual you can see the latest pics at http://www.pencil-pictures.co.uk.