I got some Arches watercolor paper.....but it's the cold press What's the difference between hot and cold?

Shelby

Your using Ritmo HB For the skin tone and blending with white felt for texture?
Where does the vine charcoal come in? The shadow areas? And why Vine and not Ritmo B-3B.

Thanks in advance!

Marc Forest.
http://www.marcforest.com

theduke,
I sometimes use a few grid lines - 2 vertical and 2 horizontal. I try to place them only where they are needed. Even dividing the picture into quarters can help keep things straight, but mostly I do a lot of comparing and marking common measurements.

I am really bad at Photoshop but I have added a few common measurements to the my first WIP to help show you what I mean. Keep in mind, I don't draw the lines that you see here, I just make small dots at either end of these measurements. The original dots are way to light to ever be seen by my digital camera.

The width of the nose is the same as the outside corner of the eye and a dark shadow in the ear. It is also the same distance from the inside of HIS left eye and the edge of his face. Four times this measurement is the distance between the tops of the ears. Half this measurement is the distance between the inside of his ear and the bottom of his earlobe.

I take common measurements like these using a compass (the kind you make circles with) I subdivide, double or triple these common measurements and make small dots on my page that serve as land marks for the drawing. These land marks aren't just between major features, sometimes they are between to minor shadows that seem to pop out at me in the reference photo.

This method is explained and illustrated much better in my book. I have found this method faster than using grid lines that cover the entire page

Marc,
I tried using soft vine charcoal for the lighter skin values on this one - like the forehead and cheek areas. By using the broad side of the stick, I was hoping it would be a little quicker to create that rough skin texture I am trying to achieve. I'm not sure if it helped or not. I have to find a way to speed these things up or I'll never get done.

Thanks again for taking a look everyone.

J. D.

I am not sure if you already know or use this method, but Ive found it very, very useful.
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Oh, I just read that you are still waiting blu-tack to arrive. Anyway, when it comes its worth trying this tip