Portrait Drawing Progression Demo

To start, I loosely block in the shapes with pencil and powdered graphite.

Here is a step-by step demo showing how I develop a portrait graphite/charcoal drawing.

Here, I start to develop the face of the portrait, working toward getting the likeness.

Once I feel comfortable with the face, I move down to the hand, arms and shoulders toning in form and capturing the shadow play of lights and darks from the sunlit window. I am using graphite pencils as well as powdered graphite.

Here the fabric layers of tulle of the ballerina's dress are developed. 
For the contrasting darks in the eyes and hair, I am using charcoal pencil.

At this stage I am refining and tweaking everything making fine adjustments.  To help with the highlights of the skirt I sharpen up the edges of the fabric with an eraser.

Here is the finished drawing!

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