Sherry, my drawing instructor, offered a very good critique of this portrait. My drawing hand, the hand that appears closer to the viewer, is smaller than the hand further back. That is not good foreshortening – however, to my defense, the smaller hand WAS my drawing hand. This meant I would draw, place my hand back on my leg and commit to memory what I saw, and draw again.
Sherry also picked up on the fact that I had no clue what the grades of graphite meant in terms of application. She gave me a lesson on graphite hardness and softness: B stands for softness – the higher the B grade, the softer the graphite, the more velvety, and the darker the effect. H stands for hardness – the higher the H grade, the harder the graphite and the lighter the effect will be.
So, I should have used a 6B on my hair, under my ear in the shadow – not continuously drawn over the area with the same hard graphite, producing a shiny effect instead of a velvet darkness. Very bad!
However, I had fun drawing, and ultimately, that’s what I care most about. This drawing was done with graphite pencils and sticks on 18″ x 24″ Basingwerk paper.
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