WIP charcoal study for oil portrait
 

Here is a backward WIP. I used Strathmore charcoal paper series 500 (the backside of the sheet). I love using toned papers, that way the paper color is the mid-tone. Then the charcoal is every shade darker than mid-tone and I use white charcoal for every tone lighter than the mid-tone. I used General's charcoal pencils hb and 4b. Vine charcoal and Faber Castell soft charcoal pencils for the soft lines. I used a #4 tortillion for a little bit of blending and a kneaded eraser for cleaning/blending and erasing. The white charcoal is also General's. On and off it took me about ten hours.
The line drawing was done using and hb charcoal pencil, I used a black and white photo and I did a lot of squinting to just get down the basic positive and negative shapes. Almost looking like a traced image. Half of the time was just doing the base drawing.

What you've done is looking good, Gerry. Please continue to show us your progress.

Completed portrait study
 

I completed the charcoal study and I am currently working on the oil painting.