Pencil portrait of Johanna

Graphite pencil drawing of a Johanna on A4 Daler Rowney Airbrush Bristol board. 

Pencils: Mars Lumograph (4H, 2H, H, B,, Faber Castell 9000 (6B, 8B), W H Smith Woodless 9B, mechanical pencils 0.3mm/2B, 0.5mm/4B with Pentel Ain Stein leads.
Blending: Blending stump from Royal Langnickel and paper tissues.
Erasing: WH Smith kneadable eraser, Tombow Mono Zero Ultra-fine eraser.
Embossing:  Royal Langnikel embossing tool.
Photo adjustment using GIMP: Removal of barrel distortion; Cropping to A4 ratio and removal of perspective distortion; Cropping unfinished edges of drawing; Adjustment of histogram.

Johanna is the daughter of Karin Cleasson (KarinClaessonArt) and I an very grateful to both Karin and her daughter in making the photo Photoshoot 2010 Reference 33 available as stock.

I found it difficult to start this drawing.  I looked at her hair for about a week, asking myself how I could draw it.  Finally I took the plunge and it was not as bad as I had feared.