A Pop of Blue

Portraits are one of the subjects I really enjoy, and so I've done many. Some I've done only with graphite, some with a mix of graphite and charcoal, and some with watercolors. But I've never mixed a black-and-white medium with a colorful one.

My friend sent me this photo of her for me to draw, and I loved the bright blue of the scarf.

To make this blue stand out even more, I decided I would use charcoal for the whole portrait except the blue scarf, which I would do with chalk pastels. I figured the textures of charcoal and chalk pastel would also look good together.

I started the portrait like any other grid drawing I've done. I measured out the grid, marked some points, and started drawing the outline. I followed this with outlining the face as well, and then I erased the grid lines and thinned out some of the heavier lines.

I began the shading with the charcoal, starting with the eyes, then the nose, then the mouth, and then the rest of the face and neck.

Then for the hair, I made sure the strokes followed the general direction of the hair, and I used a mix of dark, thick strokes and lighter strokes, leaving some areas white as well. To finish off the charcoal parts, I outlined parts of the scarf and shaded in the darkest creases.

And now it was time to add the pop of color. I started by adding light blue to some of the lighter areas on the scarf. On top of this in some spots, I layered a light blue-green. Then I filled in most of the remaining area with a medium blue. On top of this I layered a dark blue in the darker spots, and then some purple. Finally I went back in with a black chalk pastel and outlined the scarf and the darkest creases again to crisp it up.