(References courtesy of avrillavigne.com)

Hedgeworth

- Melissa (aka: Honey Bee)

Very sweet of you comment...

Good question, lol, I'm not sure. I had a reference photo next to my blank in GIMP, and started off by defining the overall shape of the face, filling in with broad strokes with the medium tone, and black fill for the hair. Reducing the brush size, I started drawing in the eyes, outline roughly the shape of the nose and mouth. Then comes dark tones on the face, shadows, and these had to be blended in (with the smudge tool.) After that, details like the eyes, mouth and highlights make entrance. To finish off, I streaked the hair with thin white strokes for hair highlights and blended these off. All of that took about eight hours, three hours one evening, and five the following morning.