Life portrait

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12x9", pencil on paper, 1/13/16

It happened to work out this week that my Wednesday night was free instead of my Tuesday night, so I was able to attend a three-hour portrait drawing session instead of the usual figure session. 

Portraits are so challenging, which is probably why I find them so interesting. As I went along, I was trying really hard to get the full value range, but it just wasn't working out with my pencils and fine grain paper. I guess next time I will have to keep my materials in mind and not try to go so dark if I'm working with the same stuff--probably caused myself some unnecessary frustration. Overall, though, I'm okay with how this went, especially considering I haven't tried to attempt a portrait longer than about 20 minutes in a very long time. It's always a learning experience, and I hope I never stop learning as an artist--though I hear the curve gets more and more gradual as time goes on ;)

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