I sketched this guy not too long ago. The date on the sketch says 19th of December, 2008- so that wasn't long ago - still had memories of him.
I really wanted to capture him in a still but tense mood. He was sleeping and most likely snoring- could have been the result of a hard day at work or something else more personal......
I went about this one, thus
1. Start sketching directly with daler rowney hard pastels on dark grey pastel paper.
2. I then add tones with the hard pastels.
3. When I have enough information for a balanced tonal face, I switch to soft pastels
4. With the soft pastels I make the face richer with more colour strokes are added wildly to project the mood.
5. When I have enough colour on the whole surface I re-draw the main features with the Pitt extra soft oil base pencil.
6. Thought I would end this with the chalk pastels but it still lacks the punch I need to see, so I switch to wax crayons.
7. With the wax crayons I can get more permanent marks and it also binds the chalk below.
8. With the wax crayons I feel satisfied and call it quits before the ruin...........
This transformation again is done without any colour reference but just a love and passion for human faces and everything about them!
