jonah!

So remember when I said that Jonah would color his hair yellow if he drew a picture of himself? I knew that because I saw him do it. He used neon yellow. That's some bright hair guys. I do love that he included his belly button prominently though. That's probably my favorite thing about this picture.

You can see below I added some dark and light to the hair. It is darker than I would like, but I could only get so light when going over the neon.

Also, when I thought I was done, I looked at it and it just didn't look right. I stared at it for awhile before realizing I forgot to put in his ears! Artist fail.

In a portrait, I find the eyes and mouth are usually easier than the rest of the face. They are smaller, well defined areas and their shape is easier to individualize. The general face shaping is much more subtle and harder to make it look natural.

A little note on eyes: they always have a reflection in them. If you do not include that, however small, the eyes will look flat. So I start with the outside shape, then I sketch in the iris and pupil, and then I mark where the reflection is before I do any color. The upper lid also makes a shadow on the eye, and don't forget the lashes.