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Writer's pictureKevin Roeckl

Cheri and Larry portrait in progress 8 - The right color hair

Continuing work on “Cheri and Larry”.... 

I'm starting on Larry now, beginning with his brown hair. Like Cheri’s hair, that part of the assignment was a bit of a challenge. In the few photos I have of him, Larry’s hair looks almost black. But Cheri told me it was much lighter, a medium brown. 


1

I put in hair highlights first, then add the darker browns in around them: the shadowed spaces between the locks of hair. I also run a light-brown pencil (raw umber) softly “over” the highlights, blending the pencil colors a bit so there won’t be too much contrast between the lights and darks. 

Detail of the man's and woman's faces in a colored pencil portrait, in progress

2

Continuing on across the hairstyle, left to right, doing the highlights first, then the darks, then blending and softening with mid-tone browns. These are the brown and grey pencils I’m using. 


Detail of the man's face and hair in a colored pencil portrait in progress, with pencils

I had to do the upper edge of Larry’s forehead as I went, so I have something to anchor the hair to. 


3

In the few photos I have of him, Larry’s hair looks very dark, almost black. But Cheri told me it was much lighter, a medium brown. She sent a photo of their grandson Luke and said, “Luke’s hair is the color of Larry’s hair.” So on my monitor for reference I have photos of Larry that show how he wore his hair, and in the upper right is a photo of Luke for hair color.


A colored pencil portrait in progress, on the work table in Kevin's studio with art materials and reference photos on a monitor

The pencils I’m using for Larry’s hair are directly above where I’m working. The other pencils are the ones I am using for the faces. And off in the upper corner of my work table are the colors I used for Cheri’s lips. I don’t  need those for a while, until I get to Larry’s mouth. At the far right is my trusty, hard-working, electric pencil-sharpener. 


Double portrait of Cheri McNealy and her beloved late husband Larry McNealy, in progress.

🎨  Prismacolor pencil on "Felt Grey" Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

20 x 24 inches.


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