Looking at it scanned, there’s clearly a lot of things that need work. But I’ve got something else I need to move on to, and honestly, I don’t think there’s a whole lot more I can add to it. Mostly I’m just seeing a lot of stuff that I could have done better. Especially a lot of the blending. But this is the first portrait I’ve finished in many, many months. Possibly more than a year. Whenever I did that Jim Henson one for Sarah.

In fact, I just looked it up and I did that Henson portrait over two years ago. So yeah, I’m out of practice. This was an ambitious picture to jump back into it with. I drew it on the biggest paper I’ve got (14X17) and the metal on her bustier thing was pretty challenging. Her hair was a real pain in the ass too, actually. It’s so light, on a light background, that it was hard to really define it. The lettering on the sign looks like shit, and that’s bothering me a lot. But I can’t do much about it without erasing the whole sign and starting over again, and I’m just not up for that. Plus, I’m not sure I could do any better on a second go (third or fourth really… I already erased it a couple of times).

Anyway, I’m calling it done and moving on. I do think the metal dress thing looks pretty cool. It’s weird because I was sure it looked like garbage as I was finishing it up, but after scanning it and being able to look at it smaller, I can see that it actually turned out pretty good. The thing I’m most impressed with my self about are her hands. I hate drawing hands because they always look horrible. But I think her hands came out pretty good. I’m happy with them.

14X17 Strathmore Bristol Board
All kinds of pencils between HB and 6B. Blending stumps and cotton and various erasers and bla bla bla. Usual shit.