Here’s a colored pencil portrait I’m working on.  The head is about 4″ square.  It’s on an 8″ x 10″ paper, so there is a lot of white paper around the face.  I have an idea of what I want to do with the background – something funky and abstract!  I was also envisioning tentacles.

First I need to finish the face, before concentrating on the background.  Most of the face is finished; it’s just the lower left side that needs to be completed.

For this portrait, I referenced a photo in a magazine.  I took great liberties with the face – changing the face structure, eye placement, nose size, jaw line and lip construction.  I also took great liberties with the coloring!  The magazine photo was just a normal face with normal coloring.  I wanted to create something more interesting with really hyped-up colors.  So I mostly just referenced the photo for inspiration.  I find it helps to get started – then I just let my imagination take it from there!

This is an idea of what I could possibly do when I finish this current work in progress. I scanned the drawing into Photoshop, then on a whim added the Fulgent Life abstract background, just to see what it would look like. I think it works quite nicely! I have other ideas for how I’ll finish this portrait though, so this version will probably only exist in the digital realms.