One down...

Yes, I think that looks better. I want to do a few more of these using the same 'scribbling' technique with brush pens. But I want to be braver with the colours.

Not quite there yet...

Looking at the photo shopped image I'm chuffed with how different this drawing has come out. I am conscious of the ochre stone under the coal soot, and of the reflected light on the surface. I'm also playing on the 'cool recedes, warm comes forward' theory.
I do think that the dark areas need to be even darker. What do you guys think?

Solid

The pale grey pen was running out as I scribbled in the right hand pillar, but this meant that as I slowed down the lines were darker, whereas speedy lines were quite faint.

The top left is looking messy and ambiguous, so next I want to work in some colour and emphasise what is foreground and what recedes.

Building up

Ignoring the right side, I worked over the columns on the left, adding some black over the grey. I can start to see roundness. But I want to add colour to deepen the effect; warm and cool tones. I have a set of 'landscape colour' pens, ochre, greens, burnt sienna. I'm not feeling precious about this work so I'm not scared to try out new techniques.

Penshaw in pen

Using the scribbling method I've started to develop to fill in areas of tone & colour, I've made a start on the dark columns of Penshaw. I'm referring to the photo I took, and the 'photo shopped' version, and I'm drawing on the ochre colours I know are under the coal dust to build up the depths I'm after.
This is in it's very early stages yet, but I'm happy with the way it's going. You can still make out the areas I've mapped out with a 2B pencil, with the in fill done in Faber Castell Manga brush pens so far.

... and finally

I think I've done as much as I want to on this. I'm not happy with the effect of the forehead where I tried to correct the shadow. Maybe I should have just left it as it was. Not to worry. Boy, I look miserable. But I'm not really.

Okay, the next self portrait I do will be of a 'happy' me.

I may go back and make the eyes as dark as the jumper. I'm happy with the hair and the ear, and the soft shape of the jumper matches my puffy face (Post-Christmas Bloat would be an apt title for this).

I like the general pose I've used here, and I think the proportions are fine, so I may use this as a basis for a much bigger drawing. This is A3 size, so I may make a start on an A1-sized drawing next.

.. later the same morning....

Here's the next stage. I thought I was finished til I saw it reproduced here. I want to darken the background and correct the size of the mouth. I like the highlight down the side of the face, and darkening the background should make the paper colour on the face appear lighter. I don't want to use the brush pen to do that, but I'm not sure if the paper will take an ink wash. I may use soft pastels and cotton wool. And the shadow on the forehead is now too dark in relation to the rest, so that needs correcting somehow. I'm not sure yet if I'll darken the hair, or leave it sketchy. Mmmm. Time to go back and do some more. Yes, I think I'll continue working on this piece for a while yet.

Taking my time

Today I decided to spend some time working on a single drawing, rather than just rushing a couple off. I started with the black brush pen, on a grey pastel paper (you don't really want me to go into the kitchen to get the actual pen & paper brand details for you I hope). I looked and looked in the mirror before setting pen to paper. I was grabbed by the shadow shape cast on my forehead, so I started rendering that first. Things went quite smoothly as I drew the left eye and then the nose. I paused and measured carefully before placing the right eye. Then I picked up three grey shades of brush pens, and started adding in softer shadows.
Now I've stopped to make a cup of coffee and publish this post. When I go back in a minute I think I'll take some more measurements and mark them out in the palest grey before I continue.
At the same time I'm listening to Brahm's German Requiem, as I'm visiting my older sister in Manchester next weekend to take part in a singing day with her choir, St George's Singers. It's quite a solemn piece of music,; it's a Requiem after all. What I mean is that it's not very dynamic. Some Requiems have dramatic crescendos, but this one seems a bit flat. Quite different to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana which we did last year. Hang on, can I hear raised female voices coming from the kitchen? Maybe it's hotted up a bit. I'll post more later today, I'm sure.

... continued from earlier

Working in soft pastels I built this up quite quickly. I quit when I saw that the proportions were wrong, my face is too long and my eyes too small. So I turned the page and started again.

The second pastel study was much better. The proportions were correct this time and I liked the modelling I'd achieved. The mouth is too far right, the nose is a little too small, and I need to work on the chin, and a million other things that are wrong. But overall, I was happy with it.

Time to change medium, so I stayed with the pastel colour pad I was working in and grabbed the brush pens. I started working in minute detail with the black, then I added the white. Next I worked over this with pale and a medium grey brush pens, adding shadows and modelling, and toning down some of the white.

Although I recognise that the last one I did yesterday would look good on my wall, I'm happiest with the fifth one.