Improved Version

As per Veda’s and RKV’s suggestion, I made some improvements. What you see is before in the left and after in the right. I think it looks better now. What do you say?

BJ Again

I got a reference photo from BJ with her three-fourth profile. The profile was challenging since this was my first time with such an angle. I recently bought conté crayons sketching set from the local art store. So the colors used were limited to sanguine,sepia, charcoal, 2B graphite and white. I did lots and lots of scrubbing with a paper towel to blend the colors. Tortillons and cotton earbuds are good substitute for blending. The good thing was I could erase the colors with a kneaded erasor but only to a certain extent. So a stain always remained especially in area where the conté crayons were heavily applied.
I think conté crayons is a good transition for me after using graphite for so long. A good transition for me to use colors in portraiture. I want to try out this sketching set before I invest in colored crayon pencils. Now that the holiday season is approaching, there are lots of sales going on in internet art supply stores. There aren’t a lot of tutorials on how to use conté crayons in the blog world or internet. So I am learning on the go. It seems it is not a popular medium and you can see it is mostly used  in mixed media type of arts. Since it is mainly composed of graphite with kaolin clay as binder, there is a lot of hesistation among the artists to put conté crayon pencils under colored pencil category. You can also get conté crayons in stick ; the same as you see in pastel sticks. Since I hate the chalky feeling on my fingers, I opted out of sticks. Oh and another thing, the drawings are easily smudgable. But again, you can erase them off with a kneaded erasor.

BJ Again
9 by 12 inches on 111# Canson Drawing Paper

Portrait # 28

Update

My mil passed away two weeks back after battling with cancer for almost 15 years.  This has forced me to stay away from my regular painting routine. I thank regular visitors for checking this blog from time to time in hope to see a new post. I will resume my painting as soon as possible.