I noticed that if I stared at this photo, it appeared that their faces were moving closer to each other. The energy in this picture is amazing!

First things first;

I like to get everything I need laid out on the table before I start on my drawing. The important tools I will need are as follows.

1. Good drawing pad, I use recycled premium paper that is 9X12

2. Kneaded eraser = less cleanup and no residue on paper

3. Mechanical pencil = less mess

4. Tortillions = better shading techniques

5. Drawing tripod = this works better than drawing on the table. You could use a drawing table if you prefer.

You have to start somewhere, so I chose to start on the opposite side to the hand I draw with. As I've stated in my other tutorials, I start on the left side. I'm right handed and this way I don't smudge the paper while I am working on the shading.

In this drawing, Bella was the subject on the left side. So I folded the picture in half so I could focus on drawing Bella. Her eyes are amazing in this picture, so I wanted to take my time and get all of the features as close to the reference photo as I could.

The first thing I do is sketch out an outline of her face and hair. Once I had this complete I begin to sketch in more details of her hair. Once I had most of her hair in place, I added her ear and begin on her right eye. All of the preliminary sketches are lightly drawn, in case I need to erase. I wear my eraser out, that is another reason I suggested using a gummy kneaded type. They are like the "Energizer Bunny" they just keep going and going!

Getting the eyes right are critical to the drawing looking like the reference photo. I will place the reference photo right next to my drawing and compare back and forth as I go along. This way I can make sure I'm including all of the details. I pay particular attention to the folds of skin above and below the eye itself. There's always a darker shadow where the eye socket meets the bridge of the nose, so make sure you get this right. The eyebrows are different on everyone, so look to see where the hair on the brow begins compared to the placement of the eyes.

Once I got the eyes the way I wanted them, I began to move down the face and work on some of the shadows. The shadows are added by just lightly sketching in with the pencil. After I get enough pencil marks in place, I use my tortillions to do the blending. I hold them just like a pencil and it's like coloring a picture with a crayon. That's the best way I can explain it. The tortillionw will hold some of the lead and you can continue to draw and shade by just using the tortillion.

If you look at the reference photo, the faces look very white with not a lot of shadows. That's true, but you have to add shadows in order for the end drawing to look realistic and 3 dimensional.

If you will study the series of drawings in this segment, you will notice where I added darker values. I do this by just comparing to the photo and adding where I see the darker areas appear. I later go back and smooth it out using my tortillions. I have many different sizes of tortillions because some areas are tiny and require a small detailed tip, while others are larger areas and For those I use the larger size.

You can't have "Twilight" without having a "Vampire!"

Edward, the "Vamp" in this photo has a strong presence. He's staring right in to Bella's eyes so you want to get the positioning of the eyes right.

After I finished with Bella, I lightly sketched out the outline of Edward and his jacket. The jacket adds to the drawing, with all of the folds, zippers and buttons. You want to get this kind of detail in the drawing to make it more interesting.

There are some dark shadows between Bella and Edward and that helps to lighten up their appearance.

In the last slide series I was adding more details where ever needed. If you notice you will see the details added in the clothes of both Bella and Edward.

This was a fun drawing to complete. The only problem is that there's so many other photos floating around that I might have to draw some more!

If you have a request or any comments, please leave them below. I do commissioned portraits as well. You can view my website here http://www.soulreflectionsbyjeff.com/