Drawing process for Nhu with a Fence

Here are a few notes on the various stages of the drawing.  The first six photos were taken with a tablet computer and are of lower quality than the last six.  Each step, apart from the first two, show the drawing after each day’s session.  Some sessions were very short, hence the little change between steps.  I have not given detailed notes on each stage of the drawing as there is little to say that is not evident from the photos.

The initial sketch was made using a 0.3mm/2B mechanical pencil, very lightly, using the ‘Slip and Slide’ method to mark key positions and key lines.  I apologise for the poor quality lighting and photo, taken under artificial room lighting in the evening, but I wanted to photograph this stage before starting the initial shading, which I did the same evening.

The shading on the smooth areas of the picture (skin and background) was initially done using a 0.3mm/2B, lightly, and circular shading with blending with a tissue.  This was then darkened in subsequent stages with more circular shading and blending using the same, or softer pencils according to the tone required.

You will see that in stage 6 that I grossly over-shaded her mouth, which I corrected in stage 8 by lifting off graphite with a kneadable eraser.

The fence was first generally shaded as for the skin and the highlights lifted out with a kneadable eraser and the shadows added to give them relief.

The hair was drawn by first sketching in the direction of the hair (7) before adding background tone with the side of the point of a 4B wood-cased pencil and blending (8).  Then I used a Mars Lumograph 8B, rather lightly with the side of the point, with blending and lifting out of highlights with a kneadable eraser to give a stronger background tone (9) before using Faber Castell 6B and 8B with blending and kneadable eraser to finish the hair, before adding light-toned fly-away hairs with a Tombow eraser trimmed with a craft knife.

For information about the photograph by  Réhahn Photography that I used as the reference see the finished drawing: .

Here are some other of my 'Drawing processes'  , , , .