Pencil portrait study

This study is the first lesson in my Lets Face It online course.   And already it has lived up to the idea of introducing you to new things and encouraging you to try new things.  While I have used pencils for quite a while, I never ventured into powdered graphite.  I finally figured out the layering techniques and working from the H pencil ranges to the B pencils ranges.  I know too, that at some point, especially when you get into 6B or 8B pencils, you start to create lots of graphite shine.  But I did forget to get smooth you have to build up layers, and I wasn't really patient enough.  Thank good for toilet tissue.

I have been working with charcoal, so going back to the pencil was a bit of a challenge.  Charcoal is simpler, darker and much quickly.  I wanted both smooth and dark and that was something not easily accomplished.  The teacher was frustrated as well to be using pencils, she primarily is a painter.  So trying to get some of the darks the teacher used the powdered graphite and applied it with a brush.    She then proceeded to put in her base like she was painting, using the powdered graphite.  Well, I didn't have any powder, but YouTube to the rescue.  It is really easy to make and actually since you make it with pencils, economical as well as I seem to have a multitude of pencils.  Also forces me to shave off the outer wood layer and expose the leads so that you can draw more correctly with pencils, using them on their sides, not just the points.  

Still am using my proportional divider and it seems like it is getting a bit easier to get all the measurements in.  And result is becoming much closer to likeness.

Thanks much for taking a look and stopping by.