Portrait in black & white (100x65cm), stage 1

This time I've started working on a large black & white portrait (this is stage 1). Usually, I use a regular pencil or graphite when I work in black & white, but this time I want to use black, white and several grey colored pencils to see if I can create a 'softer' effect.
I hope to have it ready before the end of June, because I would like to enter it for the Derwent Art Prize 2013 competition (closing date July 1st), together with the color portrait I drew recently.

Colored pencil portrait (100x65 cm), stage 1

The largest picture I have made with colored pencils until now! And it is such fun! I hope to make even larger drawings in the future.
This lovely girl is my youngest niece. Besides being a beautiful girl, she has a lovely personality; I hope it shines through enough to do her justice in my drawing.

Portrait drawing in pencil, 24 x 30cm

A very special 10-year old boy asked me to draw a portrait of his great-grandmother, who died recently.
I don't think it occurred to him that I usually charge money for commissioned portraits, and after hearing why he wanted it, I didn't bring the subject up...He wants to give the portrait to his grandmother "so that she won't be so sad anymore about losing her mother".
I'm going to show him the result this afternoon, and I really hope he likes it. Then we'll go out to buy a frame together.