I’m going to try another portrait from the imagination to showcase and practice my skills.

The Abstract Head

This time, I think of a fictional model with a more slender face. Maybe oblong in shape.

Features of the Face and Head

The features go on.

And I put on the hair.

Actually, by this point, I’ve been agonizing over the pose and hair. What you see is the result of thinking, erasing and redrawing over some amount of time.

This can happen if you have several ideas in mind, and I did here.

Thinking about the Form

Like with my previous example of a drawing from my imagination, I put on cross‑contour lines to demonstrate how I might think about the form. This time, I draw even more cross‑contours than I did last time.

Again, I don’t always do this – I just imagine the lines on the drawing for speed and simplicity, but maybe this will help with demonstration.

Again, to do this, you think of the form. You imagine what it would be for lines to travel across the surface and then draw them across the surface. Where the form turns, the line does as well. You draw cross‑contours across and lengthwise to really appreciate the form.

If you’re a beginner, I would suggest you draw from direct observation before trying this on a drawing from the imagination. You need to get the feel for forms down if you want to be proficient working from your head.

Drawing the Shadows Out

I erase the cross‑contours but keep them in mind.

I draw the shadows in, imagining how they wrap the face – where the light terminates and how the shadows’ shapes conform to the contours of the form.

Blocking In the Shadows

Shading begins with blocking. I use a 2B for this.

There’s something I want to experiment with in this drawing, and that’s using a tortillon.

My goal is not to completely smear out the crosshatching, but to soften it just a little bit. I only do this for this layer, as I want the crosshatching to assert itself in the layers above this one.

I also don’t use the tortillon everywhere. I will not be using it on the light areas of the skin and shirt, for example. When it comes to modeling, meaning blending values together, I’m mostly going to do that through crosshatching without the tortillon.

Developing the Values of the Shadows

I stay within the shadows and begin to develop the different values it may have. I’m imagining a core shadow and potential reflected light.

Modeling the Face

Using a 2H pencil alternating with 2B where needed, I model the face. This is where I’m going to have to really pull from memory, as I don’t have a direct reference for my shading. I develop the shading, modeling out the values to precision (or at least as precise as you can be for shading from the imagination).

I want to make sure my shades are stepped properly and everything is blended to my satisfaction.

As usual, I use the kneaded eraser where needed, even out values as best I can going back and forth between shading and lifting graphite away.

Rendering the Hair

It’s going to be the same as the face – first I will block in the value, soften it with a tortillon, and then I will crosshatch over it.

Here we start wit the recessed part of the hair – the area inside her hair receiving the least amount of light.

Moving on from the recessed area, I do more blocking, light blending with a tortillon, and crosshatching on top.

I’m carefully drawing out the shapes of the highlights, making sure to preserve them.

Rendering the Clothes

Use a 2H to block in the shadow area of the clothes and blend it with a tortillon.

I hatch over that foundation of gray, and I make sure to create a core shadow with 2B.

Finishing Out the Drawing

It’s going to be a lot of little things here and there until I’m satisfied with how the drawing looks. Basically the same as always.

To finish the drawing, I make sure that everything is modeled well. I like a soft look to my values and shadows where a hard edge isn’t absolutely necessary, so I make sure everything is very carefully blended softly.

I added a 4B to darken the darkest shadows – that would be the recess of the hair, the occlusion between the turtleneck and jaw, the underside of the bangs.

I’ve blended the very edges of the highlights on the hair, making them slightly darker at each of the ends than the center. This makes the highlights look like their actually part of the hair, not just unnaturally stark white sitting on top of the hair. Also, I remember that the local value of the hair will influence how light the highlights can actually get, so I makes sure that the highlights’ lightest areas are still a light gray, not just pure white.

I corrected the lighting on the shoulder. I believe the way the light would be hitting it, more of the top plane of the shoulder should be lighter.

And when it comes to the clothes, I added a few details to make it look more convincing, such as folds and seams.

Final Thoughts

Unlike the previous drawing form the imagination, I gave a fair bit more work into this one. I wanted to develop it even further than I did that one. I introduced the tortillon, which I think I like, so I might continue using it in my process.