Portrait of a Woman Winking

This artwork is a portrait drawing of a woman winking. The drawing started with a colored pencil to create a rough sketch of the face and establish the placement of facial features like the eyes, nose and mouth, along with proportions, lines and shadows. A black pen was used to draw in dark lines and accentuate facial features, deep shadows and wrinkles in the woman’s skin. A pink paint pen was used to fill in her skin color midtones and highlights. Multiple passes of the paint pen over semi-dry areas creates more opaque gradients and textures compared to a single pass that is slightly translucent over the toned tan paper. A yellow oil pastel was used to roughly sketch the suggestion of the woman’s hair. After the paint pen dried a grey marker was used to add soft shadows around the black pen and pink paint pen to give the woman’s face more form and depth. The woman stares intently past the right side of the viewer with her left eye open and brow raised, and right eye closed tightly with her upper lip slightly curled.