Small Portrait Sketch

watercolor, graphite, & charcoal on paper

I didn't finish the persimmon painting today. I had added to my still life a knife resting on the edge of the plate. As the painting progressed I didn't like it so I wiped the image of the knife off and set my board aside. If the persimmon holds up, I'll try again tomorrow. The above portrait is an exercise I do every (or almost) morning in my sketch book: I flip through a book, magazine, paper, whatever is close by until a faces catches my attention and then I do a quick rendition of it.  The idea to do such came from reading a book about drawing by Andrew Loomis.  This year I really want to paint some portraits but I feel I still need lots of practice drawing faces....