Sketch study Traditional attire

Every week I spend 3 hours doing sketching and studying different human faces and how to draw and add values to make it look realistic with just pencils.

This week I ended up studying a Indian lady with a classic traditional saree look so here is how the Sketching went .

As usual Step one is to draw the forms in simplified shapes with a light hand and whisper lines and keep on erasing and redrawing the shapes more detailed until you are left with a refined sketch . Someday sooner I will show you how the process goes for me and how I create refined sketches but till then let's focus here . So as I was finally satisfied with my sketch I finalized it by darkening it with a 2H pencil because hard graphite is almost smudge proof so even if I blend these sketch lines won't go anywhere .

Now to convert this 2d looking sketch into more 3 dimensional I must add shading and values to it .

Starting with I take a 3b pencil and lightly add dark shade to the hair eyes and her eyebrows . Then I blend it all up with a #4 blending stump after this I add more shading with 5b pencil for the hair making it more darker and this time I used 3b pencil to add some shading to the face like where the light was not hitting and her jawline , nose contour also the cheekbones . I also added a subtle shadow under her chin and shaded the neck as well .
Now I grab my Blending stump and start blending the face and the shading becomes more softer by this step I also shadi g her eyelids and some parts of the nose and upper forhead .

By this step I pay attention to her hand and dress so I shaded her puffy sleeves and the drapes of the saree and her blouse so I lightly shaded that .

I found the hair a bit more curly in the original picture so I decided to add some more curly bangs to the front and shaded her clothes by blending them with a stump the falls of the drapes everything needs to be paid attention. Too .

I also added highlights to her hair where the light would hit and same highlights I added to the saree's folds because it's supposed to be a very shiny silk satin like material and finally I shade the lips and her Jhumkas a bit more .

Here is the final result. Tbh I love how her hair turned out . The drapes and clothes need more work I think I need to practice this one more .

That's all for today Thank you for your precious time and support ❤️