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Face Four Ways

I spent the morning staring at my reference photo for the day, not knowing how to proceed. I decided to try four different techniques on the model's portrait. At the top, I used a brush with water-soluble graphite washes. Below that, on the left is a portrait created without looking at my hands or paper. On the right, I went with my instincts and kept the first impressions I made (I used pen so I couldn't erase or retry). Finally, the bottom-most portrait was created with guidelines, loose measurements, and three different pencils.

None of these techniques really yielded an accurate rendering of the face by themselves. However, I learned something new each time about the shape, angles, and sizes relative to one-another each time I finished. Drawing constantly can't make you worse at drawing - it's a skill that gets better the more you do it.

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