This portrait of King Tut was done in graphite on watercolour paper. The texture of this paper allows a lot of light speckles to shine through creating a pleasing effect. I made a conscious effort to direct the eye of the viewer to Tut's eyes. So I have down played the darks of the head dress at the bottom and the false beard in order to direct attention to the eyes. I have also made the darks of the head dress that are above the eye, darker as they move into the picture. Again I'm trying to direct the viewer's eye. I created the darks by adding more layers of lightly applied graphite rather than by pressing harder with the pencil. I find that creating darks this way gives them much more subtlety and life. Pressing too hard will damage the surface of the paper and gives a very flat dark. This particular portrait with it's wonderful design elements and strong value contrast would make a lovely painting. I certainly plan to try this at some point.
P.S. I would love to have some comments. Just click on the 'comments' link below this post. Another window will open and chose 'Comment as > anonymous', write your comment, then click 'post comment' and that's all there is to it.
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