This is the process I used to draw the Creature From The Black Lagoon portrait for my art exhibition in 2024. The most important part of drawing is patience. Giving myself the time to spend on a drawing is most difficult but a good practice in being in the here and now.
First, create a rough sketch. This is mainly to make sure the large elements of the drawing are placed correctly on the page and most importantly, that the composition works.
Once I’m happy with the placement i start refining the sketch adding more details.
I usually erase a bit of the original sketch using a kneaded eraser so only “ghost” lines are visible as a guide for the sketch.
More refining and adding some shadows. At this point, I only add the darkest darks. This step also helps keeps things clear. It’s easy to loose ones way in all those lines.
Adding some overall tone to the image. I just tried to get the background values to work. Then, using a tissue, I start smudging the background tone together lightly to make it more even.
Once there is enough graphite on the tissue, I start smudging it all over the drawing as well but try to keep the overall form in mind.
This helps kill the white of the paper and gives me a middle tone to work from.
Not using a 2B, 4B and 6B pencils i refine the tone. Basically working in layer of adding tone and blending with the tissue and a blending stick when needing more control. This is a back and forth process.
Erasing some light areas, blending and adding tone until I’m satisfied with the result.
