"Concurso de dibujo - Temática Realismo" - Retrato de mi cuñada||"Drawing Contest - Realism Theme" - Portrait of my sister-in-law by @manuelxarte [ESP-ENG]

¡Hola! Saludos a todos. Hace una semana vi una publicación sobre un concurso de dibujo realista propuesto por Hive account@luisdraw y decidí participar.

En mi publicación anterior prometí continuar con el realismo en grafito y regresar a mi nivel, aún siento que no lo alcanzo, pero cada vez me siento más cerca de lograrlo.

Hello! Greetings to all. A week ago I saw a post about a realistic drawing contest proposed by Hive account@luisdraw and I decided to participate.
In my previous post I promised to continue with realism in graphite and get back to my level, I still feel that I don't reach it, but every time I feel closer to achieve it.

_{Trabajo finalizado||Work completed}

Today I want to present you this portrait to which I dedicated many hours of work.

_{boceto con lapiz HB||HB pencil sketch}

I started a few days ago with the sketch, I think it took me a couple of hours to feel it was ready.

_{Inicio de sombreado con lápices 2B y 4B||Shading start with 2B and 4B pencils}

The same day I started the shading work on the face area, I don't know if it's habit or insecurity but I always start my realistic portraits the same way, this way I can determine if the face has the right proportions and continue or just discard to start from scratch again.

_{Difuminado en rostro y parte del cuello||Blurring on the face and part of the neck}

Blending is the next step, to give softness and integration to the different shades of gray. I usually use a Faber Castell smudger, although when I apply the first layer I use some cotton, toilet paper or a paper napkin. My recommendation is to never do it with your finger, you will end up ruining the work. Another recommendation is to use gloves or a white paper under the hand you use to draw.

_{Resaltado en diferentes áreas con lápiz 4B||Highlighting in different areas with 4B pencils}

Darken with stronger tone pencils only the areas to highlight, such as: eyes, eyebrows, upper lip, face silhouette, etc... depending on the image you use as a reference. In my case I highlighted with 4B pencil but without pressing all the way down because I don't want to damage the paper.

_{Resaltado con lápiz 6B, sombreado 2B y 4B, difuminado con papel higiénico y difuminador Faber Castell||Highlighting with 6B pencil, 2B and 4B shading, blurring with toilet paper and Faber Castell blender.}

The next day I do shading, blurring and highlighting of the same areas again, I do this to add more detail. When you are tired and continue another day, you start to see details that you were omitting the first time. I followed with the neck and arm shadows and finally add the background of the hair with graphite powder 6B, when I apply this technique I incorporate it on the paper with a medium bristle brush although it can also be done with soft bristles, it is a personal decision.

_{Fondo y sombreado del cabello con polvo de grafito 6B, aplicado con pincel cerdas media||Background and hair shading with graphite powder 6B, applied with medium bristle brush.}

During the course of the week I took a few hours to do what I considered the most complex part, the hair, for which I used an eraser pencil with a brush, 4B and 9B pencils

_{inicio del proceso del cabello usando mayormente lápices 4B y 9B y lapiz borrador con brocha||start of the hair process using mostly 4B and 9B pencils and eraser pencil with brush.}

This work was done in approximately 40 hours over 6 non-consecutive days.

_{Resultado final||final result}

_{Foto real usada para este trabajo||Real photo used for this work}

Thank you very much for reading me, see you next time.