John WIP 10

I tried to go darker and adjust the overall values. Also the skin was made 'dirtier' and I worked on the beard.

John WIP 9

I couldn't leave him alone as I originally intended and so here is the new version.

John WIP 5

This is how he currently looks. I guess I have to leave him at this stage for a couple of days before I can decide how to continue.

John WIP 3

This is what he currently looks like. I admit I was very scared of drawing the beard, but it actually turned out that I am quite happy with it. Of course it is not finished yet :D

John WIP 2

John WIP 1

Unfortunately I didn't scan 'John' before this step.


I started drawing the basic outline and added a soft shading, blended with a blending stump.
The scan has very bad quality so you cannot see the outline (apologizes for this - I'll work on that ;) ).

John

Currently I am working on a portrait of 'John'. This is at least what I call him.

The original picture



The photograph is taken by Lukasz Dunikowski.
He released it here under the Creative Commons license.

This is what Lukasz states:

I spent half an hour wandering around railway station and finally spotted this man on the market square in Krakow. I couldn't make myself to talk to him and ask him to pose. I felt so embarrassed. I followed him for 20 minutes, watching him begging for money, taking food out of trash cans, waiting for the right time. Finally asked him to pose for me and he agreed.
He said he is homeless for last 12 years and an alcoholic too and that he used to be a commando.

I do not want to exactly 'copy' the picture. My intention is, next to developing my pencil/portraiting skills, to draw my impression of him as being more melancholic than 'worn out'.

I will try to post work-in-progress pictures on this subject on a frequent basis, as I proceed with the drawing.