Scrunchy #20

I don't believe I have ever drawn a person who was holding a facial expression this extreme! The idea, once again, was crosshatching in one color, and although I didn't plan to do anything but paint his portrait, because I did the drawing first in black ink and because all of his hair was black, I did end up doing quite a lot of inadvertent cross-hatching to achieve that! His hair was thick and black, and I needed to go over and over some parts to get it to feel right.

When I draw people, I almost always begin with the eyes, but this time I started with those thick black expressive eyebrows. It felt like a weird  place to start, but with his screwed-up expression it was the natural place that led outward to everything else. For once, I think the proportions are exactly correct!

Since it was a black and white photo, I decided I would stick to the plan, so I pulled out my trusty Daniel Smith Shadow Violet and did all the details in monochrome. I also went over his hair one more time with the paint, just to get it to feel more dense. I'm sure the faithful cross-hatchers would cry "Cheat!" but I don't care. I only want to capture the likeness, and I think I did that this time. More testing of the ability to draw teeth, too. A good challenge.

#30Faces30Days
Portrait #20—"Scrunchy" on Sktchy
Uniball pen, watercolor, in Bee mixed media sketchbook

P.S. I didn't win the Bean Recipe contest. So this face can represent my reaction to that, as well. 😆