Realistic Self-Portrait

Realistic Self-Portrait

Graphite pencil on drawing paper  

8"x 11"?

We were given the prompt to draw ourselves; it gave us the main idea for our drawings. The reference photo was taken as a selfie and printed in black and white. This prompt asked me: How can I recreate the selfie of myself realistically, using graphite pencils on paper?

To start this drawing, I used the gridding method and made squares 1" big. I used graphite pencils, but when mapping out my reference photo I used a sharpie. I made a light sketch, making sure to keep proportion. After this, I started at the top of my paper and moved down row/square by square. I constantly lined up my reference photo to make sure I was accurate. I used lighter H pencils to make light parts of my photo, and darker B pencils to make dark shadows and tones. After I made it to the bottom of my paper, I focused in on smaller details to improve accuracy. Once finished, I attempted to erase the grid lines.
I went through a couple processes from start to finish. At the start, I struggled with taking a picture I liked of myself. One thing I didn't like especially was the inverted characteristic. I undid this by flipping the photo in the camera app to make the photo the way I see myself. Another process I went through was gridding, and making a proportional frame. Something I struggled with while drawing was recreating my lips and nose. I think these two aspects of my face that I drew made it more unrealistic. I don't like how these parts turned out, especially with how long I spent drawing them. Something else I don't like is the text on my hat. I didn't want to spend too long on it, so I kept the version of the text I drew that excluded a logo. Aside from this, one thing I think I did well was the eyebrow hairs. I think I have always struggled with drawing hair, and thats why I wore a hat.