Chiaroscuro Portrait Drawing in Pencil

Hey @jason I think you've got the details pretty good on each of the four main details, the eyes, nose and mouth. However, your proportions need to be worked on, it's something that every artist gets stuck on when focusing on the details. I was always taught to "map" what I'm looking at in relation to other details. You can even lay a grid down over your source image if it helps to keep the details in their respective spaces, most artists then carry that over into their later work just in their head. You'll realise that a detail extends until it touches the vertical end of another detail and be able to reproduce that across the whole piece without much set up work. That's the whole idea behind the cliché of the artist holding his thumb up towards his focus, he's measuring down the length of his brush handle so the measurement can be transferred to his painting.

Anyway, that's all I have to say, you've got the details down, it's just about pulling them together with the right placement and proportions. 🙂

@jason, western artists use a mirror to achieve a different perspective and pick out any flaws. I still firmly suggest using a grid if you're trying to get an accurate likeness, when I was at college we used to use a sheet of acetate with a grid drawn on to it and lay it over whatever images we wanted to duplicate. This way as long as you use the same pattern it doesn't matter about the ratio and you can make the copy as big or small as you want. Of course using digital reference means you can just add a grid over it on a separate layer rather than have to find a sheet of plastic and mark lines with a ruler.