Pencil portrait: That Newlywed Glow

Most of the artwork I feature on this blog are digital paintings. However, for the last 6 years I have also run an Etsy shop called drawworm, where I offer custom pencil portraits. This pencil portrait was a commission from that shop.

These ridiculously good-looking lovebirds got married a few weeks ago, and their friend ordered this portrait as a wedding gift.

This was the photo the customer sent me. It is really a joy to work from a lovely photograph of lovely people - I loved drawing that gorgeous long, curly hair! As you can see, I cropped the image to focus more on the couple's faces. I used an 11x14" sized paper.

Using powdered graphite, I added a toned background behind them, to contrast with their very light hair. Then I used the eraser to pull out spots of light, kind of a bokeh effect, just to add a bit of magic.

The customer said, "Its so beautiful in person! We were showing it off to everyone before we wrapped it!" Apparently the couple in the portrait, after they got back from their honeymoon and opened their presents, loved it too! Just another day's work for the drawworm!