One thing I've learned about chalk pastels as I've used them is that usually lots of layering and blending is needed. The great thing is, they blend really easily and smoothly! This works especially well for portraits where I need to blend several colors together smoothly in order to achieve the right skin tones and textures. The pastels can easily cover large areas, but the corners of the pastel sticks can be used for the details, which is quite useful.
In April, I did a portrait of my brother when he was young with chalk pastels. Like most of my graphite and charcoal drawings, I used a photo as a reference and the grid-method to draw it out before I started using the pastels.
These were the materials I used. The reference photo (I only printed out a black and white version, but I had the colored version pulled up on my computer) and gray-toned paper, both divided into squares; a ruler to make those squares; a pencil, sharpener, eraser, and kneaded eraser to draw out the portrait first; a strip of sandpaper to sharpen the pastels and clean the blending stump; a blending stump to blend the detailed parts of the drawing; and last but not least, chalk pastels.
I started out by drawing the main outlines of the portrait-the head, shoulders, neckline, and bow tie. The grid gives some guidelines for the lengths and angles of the lines.
I then drew in the more detailed parts of the portrait, like the face, ear, hairline, and the creases of the suit.
I decided to start with the hair, so I used a dark brown and lightly colored in the relatively dark parts of the hair.
Then, using black, I went over the brown in the darkest areas- the hairline, the side and top of the hair, and some lines in the middle.
I went ahead and blended the brown and black together before adding more colors.
I added some lighter brown, mostly to the middle parts of the hair.
On the tips of the darker part of the hair, and a little on the sides, I layered on some yellow.
Then I blended the yellow into the browns and black.
Though it seems a bit weird to add gray to a 2-year-old's hair, that's what I saw in the picture, so that's what I drew. I mostly used it on the sides and towards the bottom of the hairline.
To the brighter part of the hair where the light hits, I added a pale yellow-cream color, then blended it in.
I noticed that the dark parts of the hair had gotten a little muted and weren't dark enough anymore, so I added some more black to the top of the hair and the hairline.
To finish the hair, I added a few white lines to the brightest parts of the hair to make it shine. I didn't blend the white in, since the white gets pretty muted when its blended, and I wanted it to stay bright. I also extended the hair on the sides to go a little in front of the ears. For that I used some brown and black that was on the blending stump so it would look a little smudgier and faded.
To start the face, I began with the dark parts of the eye. Because of the lighting, the center of his eye was actually the bright part, and the rest looked black. Since the upper eyelid looked dark, I outlined that part, the corner of the eye, and a little bit of the bottom eyelid.
I did the darks of the other eye in the same way, and then I colored in the whites of the eyes as well as the light reflecting in the middle of the eyes.
I colored in the teeth with white, and then I used the blending stump with some black on it to create light lines between the teeth. For the gums on the bottom, I used light and dark pinks as well as some orange. For the upper lip, I used pink, a reddish-brown, and some black.
I darkened the bottom gum with some of the reddish-brown and added the highlights on the gums right under the teeth with some light pink. For the bottom lip, I used mostly the darker pinks and some reddish-brown. For the highlights, though, I used light pink, and in the brightest parts, white.
With a mix of brown and black, I outlined the dark lines in the ear and on the nose, and I marked where some other dark lines would be, such as the upper and lower eyelids and the eyebrows. Using black, I colored in the shadow behind the ear. With brown, I added a little bit of shading across the nose.
Continuing with the black, I colored in the shadows under the neck and chin. With brown and black, I outlined the side of the face and drew in the creases in the chin.
To start the skin tones of the face, I covered the whole face with a pale yellow-cream color.
To add a little more warmth to the face, I added a layer of light pink over the whole face. Then towards the sides of the face where there are some shadows, I added a little orange.
To get the smoothness of the face, I blended these three layers together. It still looks too pale and flat, though, like he put way too much sunscreen on.
So then I added some brown to the darker parts of the face to add some depth. This was mostly on the sides, the ears, on the nose, and under the nose. I also darkened the eyelids, eyebrows, the creases in the chin, and the lines from smiling.
I blended the brown into the rest of the skin, and then darkened some lines where necessary since they got a little muted when I blended them.
To finish the face, I added the highlights with some white. These were mostly on the side of the face next to the ear, on the nose, and on the chin.
Using the same colors as the face, I colored in the little bit of neck. Then for the shirt, I colored it in with white and used a light blue and gray for the shadows and the creases. For the suit and bow tie, I colored them in with black, then added the highlights with a light blue and some white. I blended in some of the white, but then I added more on top that I left unblended to give the shininess.
And with that, it's finished!