Portraits in Graphite

One of my favorite subjects is people. These are typically drawn with a freehand outline in a light pencil such as 2H and shaded in with a very soft, dark pencil, like 6B. The shading is created not with typical smudging, but with overlapping, continuous, oval-shaped marks. Shadows are lightened and highlights are lifted with a kneaded eraser. I like challenging myself by only using one pencil to reach the full range of darks and lights instead of using different pencils from hard to soft. I love to achieve rich, velvety shadows and to draw focus with precise highlights. Expression is also extremely important: to tell a story or convey an emotion in the final piece. Lately, due to my focus on drawing from life rather than photographs, I haven't been drawing that many portraits. But check back in soon because I plan to come back to this subject for the pure joy of it!