Portraits

When I was young, my go-to for drawing was portraits, I even submitted a portrait as part of my art exam at school, but for some reason, after leaving school, I stopped drawing altogether. It was thirty-one years later, when I picked up a pencil again, and decided to draw regularly again. Five months into my return to drawing, I thought it was time to attempt portrait drawing again. I drew a self-portrait last year, but that was purely for practice.

One evening, my son and I was watching football on television, and he was just sat there really concentrating on the game. I know that a lot of portraits are completed when the person is sat facing the artist, but I wanted to catch him in a fully relaxed pose. This is the finished piece:

For my first portrait (other than myself) in so many years, I’m really pleased with how this looks, not only because I think I got the proportions right, but I also successfully drew in a background to make it look more complete. Hair isn’t usually a strong point for me, but I think this is an improvement on previous pieces I’ve completed. I know that there is much room for improvement, and the more I practice, the better it will be. The picture was completed using 2H and 2B mechanical pencils, but I think it would look more effective using other tones of pencil, or maybe colour pencil.