Find a good reference photo to draw from. I like to find one that shows the subjects' personality. Simon can be a shrewd individual, and honestly, that is what most people like about him. I like him because he tells it the way it is, with no remorse! I see that aspect of him coming out in this photo.

You always want to start with one side and keep your focus there. I'm right handed so I always start on the left side. This way as I lay my hand down on the drawing I don't smear it.

You want to do a brief sketch of the entire picture. Make sure you got the light outline of the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair line. Then all you have to do is go back and begin shading and adding the details you see in the reference photo.

If you notice the first thing I did after the brief sketch was to lay down some heavy shading. I didn't go all the way yet because I can go back later and add more pencil. If you start off too dark and make a mistake it's much harder to erase.

Remember to use a gummy eraser instead of a normal red eraser that crumbles and leaves a mess. The gummy kind doesn't leave any residue on your picture and they are squishy just like real gum, so have some fun making shapes out of them!

After I got a lot of the initial shadowing down on the left side, I began to shift my focus to the eye region.

After I get the left eye the way I want it, I move down to the mouth and stay on the left side of the drawing.

I might go back later, and in this case I did to add more depth. But for now get it close and move on. If you stay too long on one area, you might lose interest and the drawing will never get finished! Some artist will leave the drawing and come back the next day. I personally would go nuts if I tried that. So for me it can be an "all niter" sometimes. I love to finish it the same day, if possible.

I decided to go back and add some darker values to the left side of the face before moving over the nose line. Sometimes you have to just lay the reference photo right on top of the drawing and compare back and forth to see if you have the shadowing right. You will find that most of my drawings have the entire face shading somewhat. I hardly ever do a drawing where something ends up just white. That means I have to continue back over the drawing a few times to keep adding shadows with my pencil. Notice the eyes and cheeks, I darkened them up considerably.

Since the shirt is pretty dark I wanted to get most of the shading and blending finished and out of the way. This can be time consuming. Most people won't care too much about the detail of the clothes, especially if the individual is wearing a T-shirt (Simon's trademark).

When you have to put a lot of dark shadows down on paper you have a few choices. I use a mechanical pencil because it's so much easier and not as messy. The problem with using a mechanical pencil is that the lead is only so dark. So you are faced with building up the values, as I did in this drawing, or switching to an ebony or charcoal pencil. Some artists are fine with this, but to me they don't mix well with a pencil drawing. So I prefer to continue building and darkening the shadows.

After you get the right amount of pencil on the paper you can smooth it together. I use a tortillion, which is nothing more than a tightly rolled piece of paper that resembles a pencil. It even has a point on the end. I just use one of those and smear the pencil marks until smooth.

Ok, so now the air isn't going to draw itself!! It's time to begin focusing on the hair. Remember to stay on the left side for now.

If you will notice, there are some distinct darker areas and some places that are almost white. Start by shading the same direction that the hair goes. It makes it much easier if you do it this way. Once you have it pretty well shaded on that side you can go back and darken up the areas that have the darker shadows.

Even as rich as Simon Cowell is, he has some imperfections on his face!

Now is the time to get the shadows on the chin and wrinkles and any skin areas that are lighter or darker.

I never noticed that Simon had a for real "Kirk Douglas" chin before I did this drawing, have a look for yourself!

I noticed my drawing was making Simons' face to appear fatter than normal. So I had to go back and look at the shadows and make corrections a little later. I thim my drawing was making Somons' chin to more resemble Jay Lenos rather than Kirk Douglas.

This can be tricky!

If you notice, just by adding or subtracting some of the shadows, Simons' face changed and the chin appears to be smaller.

Now it's time to finish up the shirt and neck areas. Once you are finished with all of that, go back over the drawing again and look for places that might have been missed. My drawings aren't perfect, after all I normally take between 2 and 3 hours to finish one. If I took a week or so I could try and make it as lifelike as possible. I get bored easily, so it's not likely I will spend more than one day on any drawing.

The next frame shows the completed drawing. I sign my name and spray a protective coating of clear spray paint. This way the drawing will last for years and it also keeps it from being smudged.

If you want a drawing of a loved one, even pets, let me know. You can see more of my drawings at http://www.soulreflectionsbyjeff.com/

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