This sketch was done based on a reference from Pinterest, and was an experiment with using pencil on off-white paper, something I have never done. It is a digital piece, but I used only traditional techniques and textures that would be found in traditional art. In making this piece I learned a lot about the highlights on the face that I might have overlooked when working with white paper, and I learned about the importance of grey or midtones when drawing skin. Because traditional graphite pencil is so dark, it’s sometimes hard to capture the softer, flat, midtone shadows and grey values that faces are mostly made of. Using grey paper gives me those midtones as a baseline starting point and changes where I have to shade or highlight in order to capture the subject accurately. This sketch was fun to make and it was fun to experiment with different methods of shading and overall has become one of my favorite sketches in my portfolio.