Stages - #1

As you probably noticed yesterday, both the beginning sketch and the last of the sketch work I did on the drawing of Nick were visible on the same page.  The part you were not able to see was the sequence of stages that the sketch went through to get from beginning to end. 

Because the example on the webcast demonstrated the use of markers, I decided to give it a try with the markers I had scattered in pencil holders and drawers around the studio.  I have never been much into markers, particularly for finish work, but know it is a very popular medium right now and there are a lot of choices flooding the market.  Above is my first attempt to fill in the red lines with available markers.  Since this is not really the first of these drawings I have tried using the red pencil for initial sketching, I will tell you that I am NOT a fan of the red pencil.  Call me old school, but give me a good old graphite pencil ANY DAY!

I continued to go over the fabric fold lines in Nick's darkest clothing with the gray marker (it's a pretty light gray tone,) but when I used the lightest of the skintone markers I have (well, I only have 2,) he looks very, very dark in a hurry.  This is the point at which I know I will be adding a layer (or two, or three, etc. ) of some type of opague paint to add realism so that the image I am rendering resembles the photograph of Nick.