In the Boat

This commission piece has been a difficult one. Working from an old dark 4x6 photograph, it was hard for me to see any detail on the tiny faces.  So, I approached those areas as masses of light and dark.  Adding more of the boat and water at the bottom edge, aided the composition in bringing the focus up a little.  I've used my water soluble 8B graphite for most of the work, but have also used a mechanical pencil and a dark black ink pencil, too.  I seldom use a mechanical pencil, but felt I had to just to define the woman's face.  Additionally, I graphed this one out due to the small size of both reference and finished portrait size.  This is about as small as I'll work with graphite on portraits.  Larger is definitely easier to attain a good likeness.  So, I'm letting this one rest to look with fresh eyes in the morning!  Painting number 2745 in 2745 days.