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Yasmin88 — Self Portrait in pencil
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Published: 2012-06-12 16:24:36 +0000 UTC; Views: 2752; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 0
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Description
2B, 4B and 9B pencils on A4 drawing paper.Sketched from life. I tried to study a kinda dramatic light in front of a mirror with the shutters closed in my room to make it dark and daylight coming from the window of the next room through the door. I was hoping for better results but I guess this is OK .
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Comments: 42
very nice! i loved the shading on the left side!
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Great portrait.
I see you use a 9B but your darkest values are not even close to black.
perhaps the darkest values got lost during the scanning/photographing of your drawing.
In that case, you can adjust the values to match the actual values in your drawing with any photo editing software (GIMP, PS, ACDSee,...)
If this is close to what your actual drawing looks, squinting helps to get your values right. Don't be afraid to go dark.
Good work, keep it up!
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Thanks for the tip 
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save a copy in your editing software, then you can do what you want with it and if it becomes a mess you can just delete it, save another copy and start all over again
About values and watercolor... the fact that values are important in every composition is regardless to any medium used, even for watercolor and color pensils counts that if your work lack tonal contrast, it will lack depth and the composition will most likely be less interesting to a viewer.
Check out John Singer Sargent if you have the time, he was an excellent watercolor painter and you will find that he often used dark values in his watercolors. Don't let anyone convince you that you cannot add an opaque white paint (gouache or acrylic for example) on top of a watercolor piece. Sargent did it, and if he can, so can anyone
When sketching, try to only draw the shadows from the start on and don't focus on the lit areas. You can always erase when afterwards you seem to have gone too dark in some areas.
We all have the natural tendency to be too focussed on the lit areas when drawing or painting, but it's great shadows that make great art.
Don't be afraid to screw up, the worst thing that can happen is that you have a drawing that doesn't look as good as you intended, but the lessens you learn by screwing up are worth a lot because you take that knowledge with you when you create your next works. I think once you dare to go really dark where needed, your work will look very solid and strong.
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Thank you so much for taking your time to give me this piece of advice; I really appreciate it 
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Have I told you that this is awesome??
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I think you chose good lighting.. great drawing!!
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Thank you 
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Nice line work
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Thank you
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the shadows look very nice i like the mouth and nose
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it is very nice ! your pencil is great , the shadows and light are placed nicely and... you look so kind and beautiful in this picture
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youre very welcome
and i wanted to write *your pencil skill is great* sorry
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