Another portrait

When I look at my first ever portrait and my most recent of the same subject I have come a long way. The choice of paper for the first sketch was very coarse sketch book paper because it was all very experimental. The coarseness of the paper tends to catch a lot of the graphite of the softer 4B to 8B pencils and graphite making the drawing less sensitive. My more recent sketches are done on high quality drawing paper and I now rarely use more than a 6B pencil and graphite though in this one in some of the darker shadows in the hair around the neck area I did use an 8B, but very sparingly. I like to go back and look at what I have done and how I have progressed. The first drawing is no less important, on the contrary it shows growth and will always be important as that first big, exciting step into portraiture (besides of course the sentimental attachment to the subject).