Brother and sister
A commissioned sibling pair, each showing their individual personality, but with a unified feeling. I draw with an accurate but loosely expressive style, not photo-realism. These Coloured pencil drawings are on A3 paper, so there is plenty scope for detailed likeness without overworking.
Each portrait is on A3 size Strathmore Toned Tan paper. This is lovely heavyweight paper, which works brilliantly with the Derwent coloured pencils I favour.
The finished portrait, on A3 size Strathmore Toned Tan paper. This lovely heavyweight paper is smooth, with a warm natural colour.
This is the coat from the original photo. You can see I made a change to the shoulder position in the final portrait.
This is the first image I share, so the client can check they are happy with the composition before proceeding. This is the initial transfer from photo to paper, and is very faint in preparation for layers of colour.
The original reference photo has a beautiful expression, but was taken with a dark thick outdoor coat. At the client's request I modified it to an indoor top, which meant inferring the shoulder position without the coat padding. I also adjusted the hue and tone of bounced light under the chin and nose. I moved the stray lock to obscure less eye. This is an early progress shot, shared with the customer to check she was happy with the direction it was going. I don't add eyelashes until late in the process, so it can look quite extreme at this point!
The finished portrait, on A3 size Strathmore Toned Tan paper. This lovely heavyweight paper, which works brilliantly with the Derwent coloured pencils I favour.
The original reference photo needed no changes other than cropping, as the expression and clothing were as the client wanted. This is an early progress shot, shared with the customer to check she was happy with the direction it was going. I don't add eyelashes until late in the process, so it can look quite extreme at this point!
This is the first image I share, so the client can check they are happy with the composition before proceeding. This is the initial transfer from photo to paper, and is very faint in preparation for layers of colour.