Veiled

(fixed up the scan to make it more accurate in color)

Been working on this on and off for the past couple days. This is going to be my first entry ever for the monthly contested for the Colored Pencil Magazine: coloredpencilmagazine.blogspot…

I am very proud of this piece. I admit there a few things I need to work on(lips and the gap between the nose and mouth to name a few), but overall not bad for a second colored pencil portrait. I really wanted to concentrate on making her skin colorful. I've added some blues, violets, pinks, and even a little green in there.

This is also my first main piece done with my Faber-Castell Polychromos. I'm still familiarizing myself with them, but I think it's safe to give a small review on them. They're not as bold as Prismacolors and they have a smaller variety of colors they come in(I'm comparing them within the 120 prisma set I have). But damn, I can not complain about the results. They are rich. Since they're oil based the Polychromos have a harder lead, which gives them a little less area coverage, but they blend beautifully. They blend so much better with the blending stumps I have, and it's really easy doing a lot of layers with them to help build up color. I can not say one is better than the other because FC are really in a different ball park; it wouldn't be fair. I've experimented a little bit with using both brands together in my Vigilante/Fillion portrait, and I really can't wait to try both Prismas and Polys as a tag-team. I'm pretty positive I'll get killer results.

This is also my first 100% colored pencil drawing on smooth bristol paper. I did get a much more smoother blend, especially for the skin. It did take a little more effort to get even the darker colors to pop a bit more. It was a nice experiment.

Original reference photo by Sally Ford
Medium: Colored Pencil
On 9x12 Strathmore smooth bristol

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