A pencil portrait of CHLOE AGNEW

Hello again!

Life's been very busy for me, glad I made it back here... hope I have not forgotten how to draw!

Well, here's another pencil portrait after the long break...

This time, I'm revising my list of ingredients:

These are the pencils I used: Mars Lumograph from Germany. 

I chose only 3B, 4B, 6B and 8B for the job.

And here are the types of kneadable erasers I favor. They're Japanese?

These are white and soft, very useful for moulding into sharp tips to erase tiny spaces.

The tortillions were made in China.
They are paper rolls and feel kinda 'furry'...

The paper used is still the same A3 size smooth art card. 

I bought another new pack, actually...

Beloved tissues for photographic tone blending.

The very useful and important Mono Zero eraser for drawing fine white lines.

So here's the very beginning. A basic sketch...

Working on the proportion...

Adding more details...

Doing the hair sketch...

Adding the dress line...

Laying down basic shading with a 3B pencil, this will be the lightest tone for now.

Blending the shading with a tissue to create smooth tone.

Working on the eye shading now. Still using 3B.

Using the kneadable eraser to create some lighter shades.

Completing the shading for the rest of the face.

Working on the mouth & teeth...

Drawing the other eye...

Here's the face completed in 3B.

Using the tortillion to blend the face shading in circular movement.
Not trying to draw any pores here, there aren't any on miss Agnew's face, but circulism will make the skin texture look more natural.

Darkening the shading with 4B and 6B pencils.

The process of darkening from left to right...

The face darkened by 6B and the neck line done (basically) too.

Starting to work on the hair now with 3B...

Blending the 3B shading with tissue.

Using the kneadable eraser to make highlights.

Here, the Mono Zero eraser plays a big part in drawing white or lighter lines on the hair.

Darkening the hair further with 6B.

The tortillion is also used for blending some parts in the hair.
Unlike tissue, it makes the blending darker.

The hair took many hours to 'evolve', at the end of 20 hours, it was still 'half-done'.

Darkening the back ground with 6B, it is rather 'weak' compared to 8B.

See the difference in tone when the 8B comes on. 
Nothing seems to be 'serious' before this...

How the 8B washed out all my previous effort in darkening the picture.

I noticed the Mono Zero is very good at drawing fine white lines on solid 8B black too.
Now, I have no need for gelly-rolls, never worked well with them anyway.

The process of darkening the rest of the drawing with 8B begins.
They had to stand the test of black in the solid background.

I worked on the dress line last, starting with 6B, then drawing over them with 8B.
Finally, completing the hair part where it 'interacted' with the dress.

So here's the finished work... the lovely miss Agnew. Hope it's OK...

The entire drawing took me 45 hours to finish. I'm getting slower in my work. I believe my battery is dying... >___<

Hope you like it, though... it has been a 'near-death' experience, struggling to incorporate art into my lousy 'no-art support' life.

Thanks for looking!