A Portriat. The first stage

I'm going to show the stages of a portrait I did from start to finish.

The red dots indicate key measuring points.

Having set up my paper right next to the model working sight size, I line up the horizontal points being:

1.) The top of the hair line (with very little indication, if at all, of the actual top of the hair, or head, seeing as in this case it's going to change with every day the model sits)

2.) The eyebrows. Since using overhead light, the eyes have a cast shadow over them. Keep in mind what you're drawing, a head with a skull underneath it. The sockets of the eyes are set in under the brow line. This creates a large land mark. When squinting down it's the first thing one will see under overhead lighting conditions.

3.) Nose, it casts a shadow down to the lip, which I was not too concerned with finding right away. It might not be seen here but I did make a slight indication of the actual width of the lips in line with where the cast shadow of the eye sockets dropped down from. This is key to see how the face is turning, and subtle shifts of the head.

4.) The Chin. Major bony landmark.

5.) Pit of the neck. It's not going to move unless the whole upper body moves with it, this is good for lining things up and making sure the model is in the right place.

Next I went for the widths, being the side of the face where the cheek bones, or Zygomatic Process forms the larger part of the of the actual face, note though, that this is leading up to the Temporal line of the Parietal bone, which is the widest part of the skull in a front-on portrait. Were the model bald, I would have gotten this point specifically.

The blue lines indicate rhythms of the face where cast and form shadows run through the head, and helps to map out key anatomical points. Rhythms in the body are important to shoot for as rhythms tend to reveal where mapped out landmarks need to be adjusted. If a line can be seen which runs through the entire face, which forms a rhythm, and other points don't match up, it says the drawing needs readjustment.

Just keep in mind that it always needs readjustment. Don't get attached to anything at this point. Change anything which needs it without a thought, and squint down to simplify the forms and impressions constantly.

My materials are:
Firenze cotton charcoal paper
Nitram Fusain charcoal
A regular and black mirror to look at the drawing from different perspectives.
A measuring stick.
Robert Simmons fan brush to soften edges.