Portrait of a Young Woman with Light Blue Eyes

This is a portrait of a young woman with light blue eyes. The drawing started as a loose pen sketch, which established the placement of the eyes, nose, mouth, hair and surrounding facial features. Complimentary shades of skin toned oil pastels were used to give the face form, with dark brown and black used to create hair and deep shadows. White oil pastel and white gel pen provide the highlights that pull features forward, like the nose, lips and brow. A white paint marker was used to block in the surrounding halo with overlapping strands of hair. Light blue oil pastel fills in the eyes as the young woman gazes forward into the eyes of the viewer.