Colored Pencil Portrait of a Light Skinned Man

This is a colored pencil portrait done from a photograph around 2006.

Walter T. Foster How to Draw Books

A long time ago someone asked if I ever drew black people.  When I was a child, the instruction books I referenced had people with caucasian features exclusively.  As a result, most of my drawings had no brown people in them.

Then my Aunt Roxanne made mention of it.  She encouraged me to draw people that look like me and I am very grateful for her support and help to lift my self image and confidence.

Although I want to have experience in drawing a diverse range of people, I find that there is more and more art I like with brown people as subjects.  This and my fascination of hair with spiraled follicles will likely spawn a long series of varying shades of brown people with natural hair.

Does anyone else remember those how to draw books written by Walter T. Foster?  How to Draw Classic Heads and Faces was the one I poured over.  Maybe I could write one called How to Draw Ethnic Heads and Faces.

Colored Pencil Portrait of a Light Skinned Guy

It’s true that I find occasion to draw very light skinned people like the one in this drawing.

This portrait took some time; over ten hours.  It is quite large for a colored pencil painting, and I remember being nervous that I wouldn’t get a likeness.  I enjoy portraits, but there is always a chance that there will be no likeness.  Since the likeness is illusive, it is good practice to make three versions.

Supplies Used to Make This Drawing:

This drawing was made with God given gifts of seeing things that others don’t.

• A gift of an intense love of colors, combinations of colors, and patterns.
• A gift of hypersensitivity to sounds, textures, and light levels.
• A gift of seeing clearly slight differences in color and tone and also feeling vibrations and tones in others.