Hi! Thanks for viewing this post 🖤 This ink wash portrait was done with a photo reference I found online @ Flickr by AndrewFPhoto. 

I basically just copied the photo straight-up as some practice for ink wash technique. High contrast black and white photos are the easiest to work with for this style of ink portrait. I begin with a detailed pencil sketch, lightly lining out the areas of heavy shadows and bright highlights. Using a light wash, I start to build the face. Avoid all highlight areas ~ those will remain as empty paper. Continue using darker washes to build the shadows that add depth and character to the face. The final step is going in the darkest areas of the reference with heavy black ink. That’s when the image finally pops! 🖤 OR, when you spill the ink or leave a smudge 🤣

Please scroll through my portrait posts below. Only some of them have notes, but I’m trying to add more. I’m mainly just posting these to get the images to scroll in this fancy carousel here…

For a few days, I will be posting some of my old portrait work. I LOVE doing portraits of people 🖤
A lot of these pieces are made along with classes @ Sktchy.com where I always learn new & useful techniques, and have been very proud of the pieces I’ve created.