﻿Drawing "Little Girl Playing With My Dog"

Drawing "Little Girl Playing With My Dog"

1/9/2017

I finished a new drawing! This one is called “Little Girl Playing With My Dog”.

It’s an 11×14 graphite on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper. I took the reference photo while watching the subject play with my dog in a park during a concert. This drawing, like all my drawings, started with an outline made with a 6h pencil.
I used a 2b and a 4b over the girl’s entire face. I lightened some of the 2b with a kneaded eraser and used a tombow mono eraser over the areas I wanted to be very white. I’m finding the tombow mono eraser challenging. Maybe I need to put down more layers of pencil initially and make sure things are really filled in solid before I use it.
While working on this drawing, I held the pencil at times with the back end in the inside of my palm and my pointer finger over the top.While somewhat awkward to get used to to, this holding technique, seemed to give me most control and the smoothest results.
I used a 5b to fill in her right eye and a 3b to fill in her left eye. I used an 8b for the irises and a 6b carbon pencil for her pupils. I used a combination of 2b, 3b, 4b, and 5b, for her brow areas. I used the side of a 5b to make her eyelashes, by making a single swoop down and out. I used 5b and touches of 6b for the crease of her left eyelid.

I filled in her bottom lip with a 5b pencil, careful to leave a space in the middle, which I filled in with a 2b and took out highlights with a tombow mono eraser. I used the 5b for the top lip with touches of 6b along the bottom edge.
I used 4b on top of her teeth and 2b on the bottom, with touches of 5b and 3b in her mouth and in between her teeth.

I used mostly 2b and 4b on her chest, right arm, and right hand. I applied my 2b very lightly at first, then did another layer, pressing slightly harder. I used my 3b for her knuckles and my 6b the crook of her elbow and the edge of her arm. For her other arm, I filled it in with a 2b, lightening it with a kneaded eraser. I used 3b for the place where her left arm met her chest and around her waist. I used 3b under where her arm rested on her shoulder.

I used 8b, 5b and 3b in her hair. I used mostly 5b and 3b for the left side of her hair, with touches of 2b and 6b for the darkest parts. For the top part, I used 5b, 3b, and 2b, careful to follow the shapes I saw in my reference photo.

For her dress, I filled in the whole thing with a 5b pencil, and used a 6b to make the pleats. Every once in awhile I lightened some of the 5b with a kneaded eraser to intensify the folds. For the pattern I used 3b pencil, leaving some areas white.