I had done a few mediocre caricatures of myself but this one had to be on full-size 18/24 paper so no freebies for me. My foot drawing was in full color but I had used colored pencils which proved to be very inefficient on such a large canvas. I decided to head down to the local art store and pick up some pastels. They were a little expensive at $79 but I thought the set of 45 would offer the widest array of colors I might need and Xty can use them too. There were cheaper sets available but they didn't have the variety I wanted and cheaper pastels are more filler and less color so they aren't as vibrant. I have now used them on a couple of drawings and they are very bright and blend well. Don't skimp on pastels if you can help it.
The assignment was for a front facing portrait. This is how most of my caricatures have been so it is a fairly easy pose (compared to 3/4 portrait). I have been drawing in a cartoony style for the last couple of months and it definitely shows in my life drawing. I took a quick shot with my webcam and sketched it out lightly with a pencil. Then i got out the pastels and laid down a base color almost exactly the same way as I did it with the computer in the TC post. Next came a layer of deeper pinks and browns for the forehead, cheeks and shadow areas. For the beard shadow I used a bluegreen color and then went over that with a colored pencil for the whiskers. Finally, I did the highlights with white pastel and colored pencil. The hair was done in the same fashion. I had to spend a little time on the eyes to make them look round and used gray pencil to shade under the lids and around the teeth to add depth. The shirt and background were just pastels with some shading and highlights for wrinkles and lighting effects. The eyes are too close together and the nose is exaggerated but it doesn't look too bad.
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