Progress

So this is the progress I've made so far on my picture. This is something like two hours of work so as you see this takes a lot of patience. I learned that i should always have as a goal to "not finish it today"
By thinking like that you will relax more, make less mistakes and focus more.

If I would give somebody advice on how to draw the hair I would say - think of the hair as a formation like a cloud or a shadow, not like individual straws of hair. I would also say don't put too much effort into making every single hair like it is in the photo or etc, nobody will notice if each individual hair is not exactly like in the picture, it will look nice anyway.
Instead put your effort into the eyes, nose, mouth and the shape of the chin. These are the things that will make the picture really look photo-realistic.

The reason I start at the top and draw my way to the bottom is simly not to smudge out the graphite with my hand. I also use a blank sheet of paper under my arm to avoid this. Think of it as if you are painting a floor, you wouldn't start at the door and then paint yourself into a corner.

Also as you can see this is a A3 portrait (compare to the pen). I have only done one such before and it is definitely harder but also more forgivening when it comes to small detail.
It's like how they make post-cards or stamps. They draw the pictures large to get all the detail then shrink it and print it in the desired size. Well I'm not planing to shrink it but when I present it in a photo like this you have no idea if it was draw on a A4 or A3, that's what I meant.

 

 

And you probably can't see who it is yet right? ^^ Make a comment here below if you can guess!