Welcome to my online tutorial. I have written this tutorial at the request of some of my readers who have expressed a desire to learn my technique of drawing portraits. My technique is entirely self-taught: something which I have developed while drawing portraits and working on various commissions. So I have to stress that it is not actually modelled on any other artist's work. Although of course I do look at the art of other people, and I am a great admirer of some of what I see and am inspired hugely by its beauty. 
I will try in my own words to put across  to you how I tackle the complete drawing process and execution of  a portrait from start to finish. And although you will have to bear with me (I am the first to  admit that I am not exactly a "master of words"!) and have no major experience yet(!) of teaching or running a workshop, it excites me to share my knowledge and experience with people who may benefit from it. I hope the descriptions below are easy to follow and that you can comprehend my way of doing things. If you have questions or suggestions regarding the lessons please do not hesitate to write to me. The article below first appeared in the artists newsletter of the UKCPS (June '02), the first actual and official Coloured Pencil Society in the UK. May I thank you all for your interest and encouragement, which is what inspired me and indeed prompted me to write these pages.  I would be delighted to hear from you with your feedback about this tutorial, which is still quite novel to me so I am curious to how it is  received, and if you do have any ideas or suggestions about how we could improve on it then I would love to hear from you. 

Technique for CP
Kimberley's Portrait
Family Portrait

Materials I use:

CP Pencils: Caran d’Ache Prismalo hard pencils or similar (Derwent)
Basic colours I use: Caran d'Ache Prismalo 999-049 dark brown, Prismalo burnt sienna 999-059 or Supracolor II 3888 - 059 (= same shade), Prismalo 999-065 red-brown, Prismalo 999-070 red, Prismalo 999-160 turquoise blue, Prismalo 999-140 ultra marine, Prismalo 999-030 orange, Derwent Studio French Grey 70, Berol Verithin scarlet red 55.
Sharpener: essential! (is used a lot as pencils must be sharp at all times!)
Putty Eraser
Support: heavyweight cartridge paper, 220 gms, or Bristol board , cream white
Large soft brush for getting rid of pencil dust and debris
A piece of clean paper to lean you hands on and to keep your drawing clean 
Tracing paper or light box

Technique:

If using printed photographs I scan them into my computer where the images can be manipulated as needed: e.g. stitching two photographs together, like cutting the head from one photo and paste it onto the body of another.  I can enlarge and zoom in, play about with tonal values in Photoshop to give a more accurate view. The computer is a great and useful tool  to aid me with my drawings.

A rough sketch is first made onto paper and I work out design, colour etc. I then redraw the image in a more detailed form and at the correct size on another sheet, and with the aid of computer and printed digital images (I just use my black and white lazer printer) I work out my final drawing and size (I usually work on A3 or approx. 11.5 x 16”) and leave space for a white border on all sides.)

Next I copy this image either with tracing paper or a light box or table, then transfer the image onto a sheet of good paper or board which you are using for the finished drawing. Choose whichever method you feel most comfortable with for  tracing, of course this will depend on the thickness of the paper/board of your final drawing. Either method is satisfactory, but if  you are using tracing paper the image is drawn onto the final transfer. I draw all outlines with a brown pencil (burnt sienna) which is the actual basis of the drawing.

Continue to page 2