Another hand based on the Crilley book…

Another hand based on the Crilley book…

This speaks for itself, and is based from the awesome book Mark Crilley’s Ultimate Book of Drawing Hands.

This drawing is based on a photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash which was used in the ArtTutor.com “How to Draw Portraits (in Graphite) by Phil Davies.
I did this portrait using charcoal and graphite.

Ears are something I need to practice as well, mostly because I want to get the inner shapes right on a profile-view.


I have several books on portrait drawing, and drawing facial features. This is practice drawing eyes, and remembering that eye is actually a ball. The eyelids wrap around the spherical shape of the eyeball.

I recently purchased the book Mark Crilley’s Ultimate Book of Drawing Hands, because I have such difficulty drawing hands, particularly fingers. I can look at my left hand and draw it, palm down or palm up, but things like a hand at rest, a hand holding a spoon, a hand on the hip are more challenging.
I think this book will help me — assuming I practice daily.
Here are my first attempts.


This was done in vine charcoal, and was based on a reference photo and lesson in the “Sketching Places Quickly” course by Phil Davies on ArtTutor.com.

Using willow charcoal and some Derwent pastel pencils.

I took the photo of this raven years ago when visiting Yellowstone National Park.
This is one I want to try doing in soft pastels, to show all the silvers and purplish-blues in his black feathers. Therefore, I kept this study quite sketchy.

The reference photo is below.
