Coloured pencil portrait - Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Hello, dear readers! Today I'm going to show you another sample of hyperrealism, this time a portrait of the beautiful indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan made using coloured pencils - actually my first portrait of this kind.

This drawing is extremely detailed, including the traditional indian jewellery which is quite rich in colours and shapes. The A4 size drawing took me 4 days to complete, which means up to 25 hours of work. I didn't use a professional brand of pencils or something like that - just the common ones as you all have at home.

What I like most about this drawing, apart from its complexity which creates that 'real' look, is the feeling inspired by the beautiful subject of the portrait: the mystery of the magical indian traditions and their exquisite culture. You may not instantly recognise Aishwarya in the drawing, but this is because I made this artwork as an entry for a popular drawing contest on Instagram which required portraits of celebrities 'with a twist' (adding something creative and original was essential). If you have an Instagram account you can find all the entries with the hashtag #twistedceleb. If you'd like to pay a visit to my profile, my username is @ely_monique. There you can find more samples of drawings and their evolution, but also various makeup styles and ideas...    

This piece has been highly appreciated by everyone, but I'm eager to hear your opinion as well, so please leave a comment and tell me what you think. :)

 Below there can be seen the tiny details of the skin texture:

 

 

Progress of the hand:

Progress of the jewellery:

 

 Hair & jewellery - detail:

 That's the finished drawing (the appearance of the colours may differ in the photos taken during the evolution because of the light, but these ones show the drawing as it is in reality)