Self Portrait Progress: Using Rubens' Mark

The self portrait has most certainly proved a much greater challenge than the artist copy, though not for all the reasons I would have expected. The gridding and sketching proportions went smoothly, but it didn't take long for me to realize what was going to be the biggest obstacle of the project: the value. Compared to my original drawing, the image I chose is extremely darker, and learning to extrapolate what darkness should look like from the smallest details of Rubens' drawing has been a struggle. However, after looking at a few of his other drawings and etchings, I started to get a better feel for how to cover larger areas of darkness, particularly through adding a base layer of shading, then progressively hatching/crosshatching.

Apart from the challenge of the darker values, I think the lighter parts, particularly the hand, have turned out well. I'm cautiously optimistic to work the lighter features of my face. I also look forward to experimenting with loose hatching throughout the background.