Trying something new!

I have been inspired to work on a portrait of my niece, Samantha. My sister in law took this beautiful photo about two years ago and working from this photo has been on my mind ever since. I have my sister in law's permission to draw from her photo and feel confident because I can study Samantha in person whenever I need to because, luckily, she lives in the next town. I love the composition and the way Samantha hides behind the flower with dramatic eyes and my goal is to bring this to life in my portrait.

So, not being a portrait artist, where do I begin? I have Ann Kullberg's book "Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step" as a guide and began the skin tones with colors and values recommended by Ann which is very helpful. My beginning drawing looks awkward because I am trying to accomplish the correct skin colors, tones and values before I begin adding all the other features. As Ann suggests, I have begun with giving the entire face a wash in Cream and Light Peach Prismacolor Pencil. You won't believe how many layers of different pencils are creating the skin thus far and you won't believe how many hours I've spent working on just getting the tones and values correct. But I'm not counting the hours because I've enjoyed every one. Here is a list of all the colors I've used: Cream, Light Peach, Deco Pink Beige, Pink Rose, Peach, Mineral Orange, Rosy Beige, Blush Pink, Clay Rose, Pink, Burnt Ochre, Henna and Prismacolor Lightfast Light Red Oxide. Samantha's skin tones are more pink than orange so I've omitted the some of the yellows and browns Ann suggests in her book. For the darker values and shadowed areas I have chosen my own palette of colors which include Luminance brand Manganese Violet, Prismacolor Dahlia Purple, Prismacolor Chestnut, Periwinkle, Coloursoft Grey Green and Prismacolor Lightfast Cobalt Turquise because she has green in her skin tone shadowed areas. For her bright pink cheeks I used Prismacolor Lightfast Carmine Red and Madder Lake. When you look at the photo of my drawing above, its hard to believe that I've used all those colors!