Portrait of my dad

[Hawkmoth]

Hello, I'm new to the site and also new to portraiture. (I've always focused on wildlife, plants and landscapes before).
This is my 3rd attempt at my dad, and I can see improvement. I used an Inktense watersoluble pencil first, with dry pencil on top. I used tracing paper from a photo so the likeness is pretty good, but I really struggled with the beard and especially the hair, so I need to work on technique for those. Any advice (especially about hair/beards would be welcome).

 

[P. Barrie]

Looking very good to me! The drawing looks accurate and i think the beard and hair are handled really well. It looks like you used a wet brush over the water soluble pencil? Gives a nice warm tone.

 

[ams]

Looks great to me too. Your hair and beard are very well done.

 

[Artyczar]

I think it looks amazing. I think it depends on what you're going for. If your want to render extremely crisp, I'd use pencils for fine hairs, but this is so much nicer, it being soft like this. It looks way more natural. I love it just the way it is. Really, really well done.

 

[moscatel]

Claudia, the portrait is very good. In oil painting I approach the hair/beard area by establishing first the big shape, then values, then I could do local color and from there go to color and detail. One can also go directly to color. I don't know the tools you used in this portrait so I can't say how they work out to something I tend to do when doing portraits.

 

[Triduana]

This is a wonderful portrait!

 

[Hawkmoth]

Thanks very much for your comments, they are much appreciated.

P.Barrie, yes I did a few layers of pencil first which I brushed with a wet brush and allowed to dry, then a final layer of dry pencil for detail. I love watersoluble pencils, they suit me very well and I find them versatile.

 

[Dm7]

What a beautiful portrait. I think beard's tough to nail, but you did it pretty well.

 

[Jane]

Wonderful portrait. Such a nice way to honor someone special.