Portrait of an Old Woman Holding Her Hand to Her Head

This is a portrait of an old woman holding her hand to her head. The drawing was initially sketched with a thin black pen. A blue ballpoint pen was used to draw creases and shadows with lines and hatching. The blue pen also fills in the cloth she’s holding to her head with her hand. A black marker was used to accentuate the dark shadows around her face, hair, jawline and the folds of her clothing. Minimal color from markers were applied to her clothing in order to keep focus on her expression. A glow of yellow illuminates the central vertical area of her face. A white gel pen was used to carve out highlights throughout the drawing that were lost in the dense pen lines. The woman’s eyes are closed with an expression of sadness in her brow. Her head is tilted slightly forward and down as she raises a hand with a cloth to her forehead, tending to her distressed emotional state.