'ashes' drawing process

I created this drawing as a follow up to a style experiment I've been working on sporadically over the last year.

Being the third iteration of this series, I wanted to add in a little more variation in a way that I felt could tie the existing pieces together, as well as give myself a bit more freedom for further pieces.

While both of my previous drawings features half-covered faces, swords, and had a landscape orientation, I wanted to try to fill out this world a bit.

I settled on a close up shot of hands holding a candle.

My first step was putting together this reference photo using a piece of scrap printer paper.

Since this felt like a pretty simple concept, I went right in sketching it out on my paper.

Normally I don't add this level of detail in the sketch phase, but I wanted to put in more than I would naturally incorporate in a composition.

Then I brush in the outlined area with a thin layer of graphite powder. I try to keep it as even as I can, or at least focus the heavier spots in naturally shaded areas.

Next I'm throwing on some initial shading, distinguishing the forms and getting an idea of the overall lighting.

Cleaning up the smoke, I'm going in with a softer pencil and building up the contrast.

To finish up, I've cleaned up the smoke a bit more, added ash on the fingertips, and all-around evened out the values throughout the drawing.

Here are the final drawings together