The Religious Sister - The Face

The photo's very grainy but it, more or less, shows where I'm up to with this portrait.

The original photo was a bit of a challenge - there was some guesswork needed to get something close to a reasonable likeness. Here's the original photo - what do you think? Is it her, yet?

Seeing the picture on the screen allows me to pick up details that are hard to distinguish up close. Her right eye, for example, looks good on my drawing board, but I can see that it needs repositioning slightly, when I look at it on the screen. It only needs a slight adjustment but it will make a big difference to the look of the eye and it will improve the likeness. Further flaws will become apparent as the clothes and background are completed, but, for now, the face is done and it's time to move on. Except for that eye which is irritating me, though! As always, there will be constant touch-ups and corrections, as I go.

Here is the original drawing - the one that I felt was much too rough. I think the new portrait is smoother and has a better glow to it. Do you agree?

For the new version, I used Prismacolor pencils for the initial washes and Derwent Artist Pencils for the modelling. I, then, used a combination of Derwent Coloursoft and Prismacolor pencils for the deepest tones and soft blending. I will post the exact colours that I use if anyone would find it useful.