A pencil portrait of LEE JUN KI

Greetings again!

There are about a thousand pictures I would like to draw but I do not have the time, speed and skill to do so very quickly. Forgive my tardiness.

I hope to do more than just one drawing this month, so here's the first:

... beginning with my usual tools, kneadable eraser, tortillion and 2B to 6B pencils.

I left out the 8B this time. There was no black background to color and I don't usually use it together with the other B pencils because 8B has a very strange crayon like texture that doesn't quite get along with the others...









... and the smooth art cards. (11 more pieces to go!)













... beloved tissues for blending shading...










... more mechanical pencils. These fellows are loaded with 2B, 3B and 4B leads...











The very beginning, a rough sketch to position the figure on paper.
















Then the proportion of the eyes, nose and mouth. These are important, if they go wrong, the work will be a total waste of time to continue.

















Adjusting the proportion of the face and hair.



















Finishing off the proportion with the clothes.














I'm using less of tortillions these days, I must say.

One day I'll go back to my sketch book and work it out again.

I will not stop exploring all possibilities....












I'm a big fan of tissue blending now. Addicted, kind of...
















Tissue blended shading has that realistic tone from photographs. It really fascinates me...
















For more details, I used a mechanical pencil to fill them in. The tips are sharp enough to work with for a long period of time.











Other darkening was done with usual pencils like 4B, 5B and 6B.
















Time to work on the hair...

















...getting darker...
















Always cover important parts of the drawing with paper while working on other parts to avoid fatal smudging.
















...more details and touch up after the hair is done.












Working on the clothes now. From left to right since I'm right handed.

They say left handed people are more talented and artistic so I guess I don't fit in the category... T___T










Working on the right collar...












Working on the white coat. Very little shading needed since it was supposing to be very white...











Shading in the background.

I used to have problems with background shadings like this one but the smooth art card is a gem for creating even tone.

Amazing, what you use can affect what you create.








...and here's the final work...

I hope to see some improvement in every drawing I do.

There is no black to test it but I hope the tone is strong enough this time...









Well, hope you like this one.

I want to dedicate this to my dear friend Nueng. I wouldn't have known her if it hasn't been for Lee Jun Ki, and I'm so grateful.

This took about 17 hours, spread across another 3 long busy weeks again that really doesn't help to improve my skill. Practice needs to be consistent, not disrupted. I feel very agitated when I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't work faster.

I'll just have to hang on and survive this. There's always retirement to look forward to if I don't die before that.