Nolon Stacey Fine Art - Graphite Pencil Artist

Every portrait is different but produced using the similar techniques. I will demostrate the techniques I use with this drawing of Lindsay Lohan for my celebrity art publisher Kadinsky Art. This drawing is A3 in size (29.7x42cm) and drawn on Bristol Board using 2B, HB and H mechanical pencils.

I begin by sketching the outline of the face, ensuring the true likeness can be recognized even at this early stage. To achieve a clean look to the drawing, I try to minimise excessive erasing during the shading process, so it is at this stage that amendments to the outline will take place.

When I am happy with the outline, I begin the shading. I always start with the eyes - The eyes are the most important feature for really capturing the subject’s personality.

You will notice that I have used negative drawing for some of the eyelashes. This involves drawing around the individual hairs, and then adding tone so that they appear lighter than the dark of the skin behind. I always include a highlight on the eye ball, even if one is not present in the original reference photo. This adds life and a glacial appearance to the eyes.

Sometimes the reference photo seems to dictate how I progress from here. Commonly, I will work down to the nose and onto the mouth, but, the natural progression with this drawing seems to be to work down the left cheek. As the hand is in front of the face and will be lighter in shade, I have used negative drawing again and drawn around the hand to return to it later.

Once I have the jaw line in place, I move onto the nose and the mouth. That will complete the main features of the face. Once these three features are perfected, shading begins on the rest of the face. On this drawing I have used a circling technique for the skin. This involves using very small, overlapping circles to create the desired tone and texture. This technique is particularly effective for rendering the unevenness of skin, and blending tones so subtly that there is no perceptible transition.

Finally, I begin the hair. Starting with the strands surrounding the face, I then work over the top of the head and down to the ends of the hair. I utilise a number of different techniques for drawing hair, but the most common (and the one used here) is to try and draw each individual strand - or in effect, draw the shadows in between each individual strand and then add tone to the strands. This is one of the more time-consuming methods, but accomplishes far more realistic results.

All that is left now is the hand, wrist and clothing. It is at this stage that I begin to fade the drawing. A unique feature of my portraits is the gradual fading out of the portrait moving away from the face. This makes for a more complete picture and places focus on the main features of the person. This is achieved by using harder grade pencils and lightening the details until it is completely faded out.