Alex

  This is another attempt in charcoal. I had a coloured photo of my nephew (Alex), which I wanted to reproduce in charcoal. I have encountered numerous issues, from the wrong positioning of the nose (too low) which made him look too old (made him look like an adult), and positioning the eyes too far apart, and thus making the portrait looking far from the original. However, after around 6 hours of adjusting and readjusting, this is what I came up with:

I have made the initial sketch using a 2B pencil. This took me around ann hour. This is where I have encountered most of my problems with the proportions. There are a few differences between the 2 sketches: eyes are slightly smaller in the first one, ears are a bit strange in the first one as well, however, I like the detail on the shirt (top button, collar). So fir the second sketch, I have made slight adjustments to the things mentioned before and added some shading on the forehead and mouth, as well as adding more strength to the shirt. After this stage, I had redrawn everything in charcoal. This stage took me another 3 hours in total, as I kept making adjustments. Below is the first stage in charcoal.

This is still work in progress, as I still want to adjust a few things. I would like to add more shading on the cheeks and improve the mouth as it's not the way I would like it.
5/12/2012

This is the final drawing. I have added a lot more shading to the cheeks, hence giving him the baby/slightly chubby look that he had originally, also the eyes were slightly modified, as the lines under the eyes were a bit too strong, so I have taken some of the thickness off with an eraser and a blending stick. I have added some shading on the nose at eye level, to create the dip at the inner eye.I have also added extra shading on the hair by taking some charcoal powder  on my finger from a separate piece of paper, as in the previous one, the head was too white and the hair strands were too obvious. I have also redone the ears by taking some of the charcoal off with a putty eraser and then smoothing it out with the blending stick. I'm really happy with the final result, as it is pretty close to the original photo, and as I have also mentioned before, my drawing experience is only recent. I have started drawing this year, just before starting the course, my only previous encounter with art being in floristry, which is where I have discovered my artistic side. My friends ( Alex's Mum and Dad) were very happy with the drawing too, so this was a pretty good step for me n the right direction, I think.