Portrait Of David Cook

I started work on this portrait 2/16/10, the reference photo was taken by a friend Kathy when she saw Mr. Cook in concert. Once I saw the photo I knew I had to draw it. I love that dramatic lighting that forms his face, it's been a lot of fun seeing this one slowly come to life.

I started out using my 3b mechanical pencil, a small blending stump, kneaded eraser and a little B pencil.
for the BG I put down some powdered graphite and blended. To get the highlights in his hair I left the white of the paper untouched and drew/colored in around the areas. I put down another layer of the powdered graphite on the BG and then darkened the shadowed areas with a 3b mechanical pencil.

Finished portrait 2/23/10:
12 x 17 Graphite on Illustration Board

Edit 3/4/10: I took a new photo of the drawing, it looks a little better then the scan.

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful comments, I have read each and everyone of them!