Some of my favourite portraits done in my Heads and Hands class at AAU. They range between 20 minutes and two hours. Charcoals and Conte's on 18x24 newsprint and Mi-Teintes charcoal paper.
I start with an overall shape of the person's head, and then begin placing features according to how they are positioned on their unique face. I'll then sketch over the entire thing lightly with the details of the shapes and then start shading.
I specially love the last girl!! a pleasure