The face is lit by bright sunlight, coming from the right hand side of the image, and I'm trying to keep that sense of warm sunlight flooding the face. So each stage of tonal build-up is carefully done, so as not to darken the whole portrait too much.
Using the mechanical pencil I very lightly start adding lines to build the form of the nose. To soften any lines that I don't want showing I use the end of a Q-tip or cotton swab, very gently rubbing the pencil to blend and soften the marks, but always being aware of where the darker build up of pencil is going; I don't want to distort the look of the nose. As I'm blending, if there's too much pencil on the Q-tip I just grab another one. There are different tools you can use for blending; I just find the cotton swabs easiest and they're cheap and plentiful.
When I've done some work on the nose I move back to the forehead.
Again, I'm laying down a subtle layer of pencil and blending using the cotton swab. Any excess pencil that builds up I carefully remove with a putty rubber, and then gently blend again. I move around the face this way, building tone and form a little at a time, so as not to overload any area of the portrait with too much dark pencil. I need to retain that feel of sunlight, so doing a little at a time works best for me.
That's all I've got time for, the sculpting is calling, so this'll have to wait again til tomorrow!
