Charcoal Portrait of Head Wrapped Woman

I have been drawing portraits for many years and I truly enjoy drawing with charcoal.

Last week I took the time to draw a portrait of a woman wearing a head wrap.  This is actually my fourth drawing of a woman wearing a head wrap.  I just find it very intriguing.  So I drew this lady with a head wrap.

The paper is white to began with but I file done some vine charcoal using sand paper right over the paper.  Then I use a chamois cloth and rub it all over the paper.  This gives the paper some value. By doing this it increases automatically your value range. The more value you have the more appealing to the eye it will be.

Next a vine charcoal stick to drawing in a simple line drawing of the basic form and angles.

As I continue to pull the charcoal around loosely I also add a little more detail to the line drawing.

Now when my line drawing is satisfying I began to add in some proportions and contour lines. I also lay out the future shadows planes of the face.

Now I began to work on adding values to the line drawing with the use of a cotton swab.  I always start adding the detail in first around the eyes then I work my away outward.

At this stage I continue to add more value you with each passage layering more charcoal to the paper making it more darker.  As you can see there has been allot of detail added to the drawing now.

I usually have the option of using a cotton swab or a paper stump to push more charcoal into the paper.  This blends it into the paper for either a subtle change in value as with a soft edge or a hard edge as in creating contrast in value.

I wanted to capture my use of extending a short piece of charcoal by using a string and a skewer.  I tie the short piece of charcoal to the end of the skewer.  This increases length and use of the charcoal. 

Here is the completed drawing with my signature.  14 x 17 on Bristol smooth vellum paper  

I used vine charcoal sticks and one 4B Generals charcoal pencil.

Thank you for visiting my blog site.  I hope this has been informing to you.
If you are interested in this work of art then please give me a email at deeweaver15@gmail.com or message me @ https://www.facebook.com/unique.artistry.3