Self Portrait with Dramatic Lighting on

Black paper with white Charcoal pencils

Start with a gray scale drawing to get the feel of shading on this paper.

Use as little line as possible! Rely instead on planes and softly blended zones. The darker the setting, the easier it is to do this. Both of these have light coming from underneath.  This is an unusual approach but it makes for some interesting results and compelling images.

Click here to see samples of the facial features.