Some Sketches

In my spare time, I often sketch portraits using photo references and it's become something that I'm very comfortable with. Here are two I've done recently that I like and have both in-progress and reference photos of. One was a gift, one was just for fun.

Drawing of Orlando Bloom, Pencils and Charcoal, 12" x 18"

 I drew this as a gift for one of my friends who wanted something to put in her room. I did it on a larger scale than I'm used to (sketchbook size) so it was difficult to expand my small-scale technique to fit the paper. However, I was impressed with my ability to do so. I didn't know how to fill the dark areas without arduously filling each portion in with small strokes of a mechanical pencil, so I experimented with charcoal and just smudged it all together. I didn't really know what I was doing. I struggled a bit with the hands and hair, but I'm satisfied with the shading of the face in comparison to the photo. Overall, the face is a bit idealized which bothers me.
 

Rough Sketch of Jemaine Clement, Mechanical Pencils in Moleskine Journal

 This was done in my journal as a result of too much free time and boredom. I also wanted to see how I would do drawing from a photo, and this was one of the first attempts that produced successful results. I struggled a bit with defining the hair, and now it is just one shape, but I like the marks from the pencil and variance of stroke direction and length.