Practice (still in progress)

For the last couple of days, I've been doing some practice work based on a sketch/study by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of his muse that he did for one of his paintings.  The first two images below were the result. 

The darker one was done with a black Stabilo Aquarellable pencil and then activated with water.  The pencil was difficult to work with, and I wasn't able to get the detail I wanted.  That effort, I consider to have been unsuccessful while it informed me that I don't like that pencil to work with -- at least not right now.  The second one with the watercolor framing the face was done with a combination of two mechanical pencils (one with HB and the other with 2B lead).  This was a bit better, but in both images I couldn't get the 'Rossetti style' mouth/lips right.  

My effort in the bottom photo was based on the actual painting Rossetti did -- that his study had been for.  How did I figure that out?  Because as I started drawing her from the painting, I recognized I had drawn her in a similar position earlier.  The face position has been tilted somewhat in the painting so less of it is visible compared with the study.  For this third effort, the mouth/lips are beginning to look closer to his muse's appearance.  I'm still working on filling it in with color (excluding the face and neck/back) and will post it when done.  

Tonight's post is intended to show that a sketch may not work the first time, the second time, or maybe several times.  But it is the continued effort that helps one to 'see' more in the reference image and capture more of it on our paper or canvas.  Rossetti's muse had a particular look, and as you can see -- I've been able to come closer to that look after having done multiple drawings.  None of these is a perfect imitation.  That said, each however is my version of what I was able to see and draw at the moment they were created and with the tools I was using.