A pencil portrait of Emily Evan Rae

Hello again!

This posting is a special birthday gift for lovely Emily, who just turned 12. Emily is a young actress (from USA) who is known for her role as young Kate in the TV series 'Lost' (& many others...).

This drawing was requested by Heather, who approached me a month ago to join her in her birthday project for Emily. You may see the wonderful fansite she runs for Emily (& Emily's sister Savannah) at Rae of Sunshine


Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Hope you like the drawing, here's how it started:





... with my usual tools, pencils 3B to 6B, tortillion and kneadable eraser...












smooth art card in A3 size...












Beloved tissues for blending.











... mechanical pencils with 3B & 4B leads.






Introducing my new discovery... a Mono Zero eraser. It works like a mechanical pencil and the eraser tip is very fine at a diameter of 2.3mm. Superb for making fine hair lines. I was so thrilled to find it at the stationery store...












To begin, a rough sketch on paper to position the figure.

















... then the adjustment for the features begins...



















... adjusting the face line...

















... some hair line...




















Done! The fun comes next...















Working with the tortillion to blend the eyes first.

I love to start shading with eyes...












... adding a thin coat of pencil shading on the face with a 3B pencil.










... then I blended the shading with tissue to create that nice photographic tone.













... using more of the tortillion to blend. Together with tissue, they make smooth shading and more realistic skin texture.













Half of the face done with basic shading in 3B pencil.

















... covering the whole face now... (& neck too)















... using the tortillion to blend in some cute freckles... n___n

... and darkening the features with 4B to 6B pencils...













The face is nearly completed now...

















Next thing to do, work on the hair.

I started with 3B and slowly darkened it with 4B & 6B.















Paying attention to the strands of hair, darkening one by one (almost) with a fine tip mechanical pencil loaded with 4B lead.










... here's where my new Mono Zero came in. Did I mention I was so thrilled to have it?

Now I can draw fine strands of hair in lighter tones or white.












... half side of the hair completed...


















Hair done! She has such beautiful hair...
















Working on the background shading now and also some final touch ups...











... and here we have it!

I wanted it to be as good as possible. As usual, it can always be better.

But for now, I hope my little drawing here could make Emily happy, for a while at least... XD








I think I spent more time correcting it than finishing it... was it 20 or 21 hours? Crazy slow me...

I'm grateful for Heather's invitation to be a part of her special birthday project. It was very exciting... XD

Thanks Heather! And Happy Birthday again Emily!

Thanks for looking!