Portrait Illustration- Juliet

For our next major Illustration assignment, we were to create a portrait of anyone! I originally planned to create it with watercolour but soon discovered that we dont really get along. Im sure if I apply myself to it, we can resolve our issues and work it out :P
But, I really really wanted to do traditional graphite on the ole' paper. What a good feeling that was! I took this photo at the beginning of this year, she's my cousins daughter and has the most magnificent eyes I have ever seen. She's just gorgeous and I really wanted to capture that in the drawing. The first sketch I did was ok, borderline horrendous but I used a method that our lecture suggested, drawing in grids. So round three, I was set to go! Im glad I tried the grid method although I do feel like I was cheating a little bit... if my life drawing teacher saw the grids, she might just have an aneurysm...
I also went into the art shop and purchased paper smudging things, been wanting to try that for ages and Im glad I did!

Overall, I'm really happy with the finished product! There are some inconsistancies with the mouth but I think it adds character as I believe its not meant to be perfect, otherwise I could stick with the photo! That's about it, hope you like it!