Third time's a charm

[Alexandra Tyng]

Pat, I look forward to seeing your drawings every time I notice you have a new post. There is such delicacy in the way you handle graphite, and you capture the expressions so well. Congratulations on the connection to the gallery in CT. I hope she gets some commissions for you. (Can't imagine why she wouldn't.)

[Terri Ficenec]

Beautiful Pat! but this is a tease -- I'd love to see some bigger images of it!

[Claudemir Bonfim]

You really captured a beautiful expression. I liked the teeth very much.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

What sort of pencil and paper did you use?

[Patricia Joyce]

I just returned from the post office. Does anyone else get the feeling of lettin go of a "child" when they send their work out to the client? I have a sort of ritual before sending, saying a little prayer as it goes on it way! My family accuses me of being too emotional but for portraiture I think it has great value...

Thank you for your great compliments Alexandra and Terri, they mean allot to me. I haven't figured out how to post a small pic here where you can click to a larger view.

To answer your questions, Claudemir, my favorite graphite pencils are Staedler Mars which I have to order from Dick Blick because can't get them in Cleveland. The paper is a light gray Mi-Teintes, on the smooth side. My approach is a snails pace but I put in very light washes of graphite, slowly building with softer pencils, going no softer than a 6B (advice from Juan Martinez). And I learned from Jimmie Arroya that is softens and make a portrait more cohesive to do another light wash with the harder lead at the end. Currently it takes me over 30 hours to complete a drawing.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Hi Pat,

I just saw this and wanted to chime in as well. Very nice! I like the soft feel and their expressions as well. The client is very lucky!

[Patricia Joyce]

Thank you, Enzie. I tweaked it a bit this morning and took a better ref photo, attached. Now it is on it's way!