Little Boy Portrait Finished

Well he's definitely finished now after much tweaking, mainly on the clothing.  I didn't cover the whole paper down to the bottm, partly because I wanted his face to be the principal focus and partly because ... well, I'm just too lazy!  Trying to get an accurate scan of it, after adjusting for colour and contrast, drove me nuts.  I took it out in the garden to photograph it but that wasn't much better.  I kept seeing greens on the computer image that aren't in the finished drawing.  Eventually I arrived at this image of it.  It's close, but you have to imagine it without those really dark brown shadows to the left and bottom!

This portrait has been a roller coaster ride but I'm glad I saw it through to the end.  Although I am not 'over the moon' about it, it taught me to keep going even through the early ugly stages.  I have a tendency to give up on a drawing when I don't see it looking promising almost immediately.  Of course, some pictures really do turn out cruddy and you wish you hadn't spent so much time on them, but others turn out well and you're glad you did!  I am pleased I stuck with this one because even though there are many bits that could be better, aren't there always!, I feel like I'm moving forwards with my portraits ... and that can't be bad.