# woman in graphite



## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

My friend asked me to do this drawing of her friend who recently died. She wants to give the drawing to this woman's son.


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## Michael Graves (Nov 30, 2011)

Very nice! I see your back with a vengeance! Love the detail


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks Michael! I can't seem to find the time to draw as much as I would like...or should, but I've gotten enough commissions to keep me busy for awhile.


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## Sean (Aug 6, 2011)

Dang, that's nice. I love the hair. Any tips?


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks Sean! Tips on doing the hair? Well, with animals being my subject of choice hair usually come easy to me, but what I do is many layers of alternating hard and soft leads. I start with say a 2H (hard), then a layer of HB, blend, take out highlights with kneaded eraser, add a layer of 2B (soft) and continue the process until I get the look I want. Depending on the darkness of hair I will go as soft as 4B and 6B. Hope that helps!


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## Hickory67 (Mar 26, 2012)

Very nice work! Thanks for posting the tip on doing hair - very useful.


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks Shane, and glad I could be of help!


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## chanda95 (Apr 6, 2011)

Its really nice!! Lovely piece. One to really be proud of!


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## Jeff (May 31, 2011)

great job pmi!


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks, guys!


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

Great works, the portrait is one of the most unforgiving things one can take on as an artist, you have seemed to handle the proportions and layout very nicely. In this piece though what lays a problem for me is the tonal value of dark and light. It pretty much stays in all the same range...could have been a much stronger piece if some of the dark's were darker and the lights light. Such as the hair and shirt being the darkest of the piece to capture the face and frame it in as to let the viewer stay focused on the face and the eyes, nose and mouth to stand out a bit more by getting them almost as dark as the hair and shirt. Still a very nice portrait...


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks for the tips! I'm always being told to darken my darks, lol. Something I'm trying to work on.


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