I started a sketch before this one — and a new detailed pencil portrait — but put those on hold once I picked up my first-ever pad of black paper.

I keep a folder of images on my iPad of ones that I may some day like to draw. Near the top (I guess cuz it’s one of the older finds) is a black and white wallpaper from Skyfall of Daniel Craig, the name of the film, and the image of the villain on the right. I just always loved the silhouette and monochromatic look of the image. Instagram artists can be super inspiring to me too, and when I saw some work done on black paper (or white paper turned black with markers and THEN drawn on top of), I felt it was time to try this image.

I ordered the Strathmore pad of black paper and sat down to try out this one in white colored pencil (I used Faber-Castell and Prismacolor, including one of their “Verithin” ones — so three kinds of white pencils). It’s tough to blend them and erase them, but it was a fun exercise. Also, the image gives Daniel Craig a blue pupil–which I loved–so I tried to replicate that here.

Oh, and I didn’t use a single graphite pencil, which is completely unusual for me and totally out of my comfort zone!