Im having so much trouble with this...

I am attempting to draw Taylor Swift but I had many difficulties. I am trying to practice getting the tone right on the face before I get into it. I keep getting the tone wrong, too dark all the time. I look through many tutorials and some people use B pencils. I tried that and it was too dark. In this drawing I used prismacolor HB pencil and still too dark. I am also afraid of using something too light.

Second problem I had was i don't know how to draw eyes with eyeliner well. do I draw the outline of the white eyeball first or do i draw the outline of the eyeball and the eyeliner? Please help, very much appreciated!

here are the pictures
http://s1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg570/Ibrahim_Atout/

Anyone want to offer advice?

The only thing i could suggest is practice drawing eyes before actually starting the drawing.. When your satisfied with the practice drawing start on the real drawing. For shading start lightly and go darker till your satisfied. Hope this helped, good luck!

my trouble for this particular drawing is to get the blending right. I tried a lot of stuff. the method above was HB pencil with circular motion then blended with a paper stump.

i'll try and offer advice, but I;m no expert, and everyone has a different way of working. For me, the main tone of the face would be HB. You said it was too dark, but it's down to the pressure you are using. Also, a better quality pencil will help. Try a practice page and try really light circular pressure with a HB, then slowly increase the pressure and see if you an get the right tone. If you are really delicate and careful, you won't need to blend. JKust decrease pressure as you work towards the lighter areas. It really is all about the pressure you apply. I think you can jump 3 or 4 grades with differing pressure. I.E, you can use a HB in place of 2H, HB and 2B if you are confident with the applied pressure.

Good luck.

thanks for the advice so far, I also want to ask, how do i get rid off the texture of the paper to make it look smoother, The texture of the paper looks rough even after blending. I tried googling it but Im not getting what im hoping.

Sounds like you need smoother paper to begin with. Try using Bristol Board, a very smooth, thick white paper that is perfect for graphite.

thank you so much for that! did not know that bristol paper existed! made a huge difference!! ty!

Hey dude I am not going to lie to you I am not the greates at drawing. But I do my share of reading on this forum and in other books, etc. What I would do for they eyes is draw the contour line. So where the eye meets the skin draw that. Now I notice the "eye liner" is a little thicker which you would probably be able to do just by thickening your lines after drawing them in. That is how I would do it at least.

A.) the photo is too blurry to draw from and is too small. -----> large clear photos are the best. blurry = no detailed
B.) hb pencil is way to dark for a skin tone maybe a shadow.----->Try a h1 or an h2 pencil better to draw it too light then too dark since you layer the graphite to achieve the look of tones.
C.) Squares of the grid are too small ----> the larger the photo and the smaller the squares on the grid will make you focus more on the shapes instead of what you are drawing. Cover everything except one row of squares and draw what you see in the square not what you think it should look like but what you see.


Link for large photos of Taylor Swift 1600 × 1200 (3x larger)
http://www.google.com/search?q=taylor+swift&hl=en&prmd=imvnsuol&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=pMBzT-PoCqqw2QWl7tDGDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBIQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=955#q=taylor+swift&hl=en&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsuol&source=lnt&tbs=isz:lt,islt:2mp&sa=X&ei=psBzT-j4G4qO2wWQhpToDg&ved=0CA8QpwUoBA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=31b10b854144238e&biw=1920&bih=955