BEHIND-THE-SCENES: Drawing a Face-A-Day

When drawing the faces for my Face-A-Day Project, I use a black felt pen to draw a continuous, contour line.

I usually start with the eyes, or the eye area . . . 

I draw a light pencil line from corner to corner, on both the reference pic and the watercolor paper, to give me some reference angles.

I don't draw the face with pencil first, and there's no erasing with a pen, so sometimes I draw a "wrong" line.  Obviously, I can't use this technique when I'm doing a portrait commission.

Even though I try not to lift my pen, I occasionally do.  But, I try to pick up where I left off, and connect the lines.

Then, voila!  Sometimes I'm pleased with the result -- sometimes, not.  But, it's always an enjoyable experience, and I learn something with each face.