Commissioning Art Part 4: The drawing process

Above, I began by using a very light silhouette of the entire tree to set the composition. Next with a very soft dark pencil I put in the big textured areas. I used 120lb paper size 24 x 18. I use a wide range of pencils from 8H to 8B. H pencils are hard and light; B pencils are soft and dark.An 8B pencil is almost charcoal. 

Next I added the large areas of 50% gray. I put in the big shapes of the branch on the right. As a put in teh values, light and dark, I rub them with a paper towel. 

One of the focal parts of this tree is the big section of smooth bark in the middle. I used 8H, 7H and 6H pencils to put in some of the very light areas of bark. 

When I am working on a drawing, I refer to the photograph and also the initial sketch. I added many of the distinct cracks, scars and knots to the tree. All trees have multiple patterns going on, many are cross current to the mail bark pattern. 

I try to work on the drawing as a whole, bring up all the different areas together. 

 Here the drawing is about 90% complete. I added many of the small branches and bark shapes. 

Sketching the Head

Final drawing.  I put the primary emphasis on the eyes, mouth, and hair details.  I tried to make the cheek shadow very sublte. 

Step 3.  The hair has three layers now.  I have begun to work on the jaw and neck shadows.  Shadows have been added under the nose and lower lip. 

Step 2.  This photo shows the hair with two layers.  The eye and mouth areas already have about five layers at this point.  I worked a lot on the jagged hair line.

Step 1.  I thought this was a nice profile.  I begin with the exterior contour line then add large shadow shapes.  Very little of the face has no shadow. 

Sketching Process

The sketch above is complete.  I worked to make the exterior contour lines less bold.  The figure fades to flat shadow on the bottom and in the arms.  The highest contrast is in the face.  I am very happy with the jaw and neck shadow.

Here is step one of the sketch: contour lines and first shadows.  The shadows are all one large shape at this point.  I worked on \the sketch starting light and proceeding to dark using layers of color pencil. 

The above is step two.  This shows about three layers of shadows. 

Here is the final sketch and the line drawing I use to work out the contour details. 

Exhibition Photos 2

The exhibition is completely installed now.  I want to go over some of the decisions I made while working on these drawings. 
In all my drawings I start with line. In this series I decided that each figure would be outlined using a bold exterior contour line. In each drawing, I draw the outside or exterior contour line first. Then I put in the shadow or interior contour lines. After the lines are roughed in, I start shading, adding the darks. I draw the lightest shadows first and work from light to dark. As I draw, I gradually use darker and softer pencils. I usually begin with a B pencil and end up using a 6B or 7B pencil to finish the darkest shadows. Notice I even placed line boarders around the edge of the paper.