The base skin tone has been added in and I am now building up the depth of the features. It always looks kind of muddy at this point as it takes a lot of blending and reapplying graphite to build up the depth. The lip is too wide on top which makes it look too feminine which I will re-work shortly.

More of the skin tone has been built up. The eyes look a little scary! Usually the eyes are the first area I define but the reference photo I am using is poor so I am hoping to get a better quality picture to work from. The mouth is looking better and the first layer of hair has been added.

It has been awhile since I have had a chance to work on this portrait! The skin tone is pretty much finished now for Mike and his eyes have been roughed in. I ll leave the finishing touches until I have more of Karen's portrait completed. I have added more graphite for her skin and need to blend in with a blending stump and chamois.

Karen's portrait is starting to take shape. The mouth is loosely defined and I have roughed in the hair. I darkened her skin tone and blended. Will need to repeat several times.

Karen is really starting to really look like Karen now, even without the eyes drawn in. It is very weird for me to leave the eyes to the end but I am using a poor reference photo and am dreading drawing what I can hardly see ... always get a good reference photo! I have 'roughed up' Mike's skin a little as he was looking much too young, sorry Mike. I have darkened Mike and Karen's skin again. I constantly go back and modify the dark's and lights to compensate for any darks/lights that I have added. It took several layers on Karen's neck to build up the muscle tone. Her cheek that is touching Mike's was too plump so I thinned it out more and I am much happier with the resemblance.

The portrait is nearly complete now. I have let it sit for a bit to get a bit of distance from it. I find it helps give me a better perspective as when I am drawing I tend to get to absorbed into the details. After letting is sit I see that I need to made a few adjustments to Karen's eyes and Mike's mouth. I need to also darken Mike's left eyebrow and the sides of his hair. Karen's neck is lacking depth so I need to also push the dark's and lights a little further even though I can't really see her neck in the reference photo. Mike's shirt needs a bit of shading and I may try to get his jacket a little darker. I will then let it sit a bit more and see if anything else jumps out at me ;-)