WORKING WITH A LIMITED COLOR PALETTE

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There's no one technique or set of tools for making a monotone portrait, but it does put me in a more familiar mindset. I started in traditional fine arts, drawing portraits in pencil or charcoal, so many of the techniques of adding shadow and highlight were brought over when I moved into illustration. I would say I like working in black-and-white more than working in color.

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The Kevin Eldon drawing at the left is a full body drawing using Copic's various shades of gray markers. Below, the Feynman, Rovelli, and Blessed drawings may look similar but are done with India ink and paint brush. Below that are seven portraits I did using nothing but one green marker on waxy paper, which I shifted to blues and purples after I scanned it in. And below that are five portraits done in Faber-Castell markers on paper (with exception of Michael Smiley, which was done on waxy paper, as you can tell by the backgound texture).