The face a day challenge of 2020 is now officially over! I wanted to conclude with a final more elaborate drawing as a final challenge.

This one is a portrait of my friend Jordi Grifell, a man of many qualities: singer, musician, stage actor and tap dancer among others.

The reference photo I used had really beautiful lighting, it was perfect for this exercise. It took me a bit to realise how important a good sharp reference photo is, and the impact it has in the quality of my drawing.

I've drawn this one over a couple of days, one where I concluded a 2H pencil drawing, and a second day where I experimented with the finish. I have also used this opportunity to document the process a little bit, so you can see the steps I went through.

---

I start with a sketch that focuses on the general shapes, in order to get the proportions right, and the placement of the features:

Secondly, I use a kneaded eraser to lighten up the general shapes and start focusing on smaller shapes and details. I use a kneaded eraser a second time.

At the final drawing stage my concern has become the quality of the lines, make sure they are fluid and not shaky.

Finally, to experiment on the finish I took a photocopy of the 2H drawing and used a combination of compressed charcoal and soft graphite pencil to get much darker blacks: