Sketching with watercolor, painting faces, using blocks of color

I sometimes like to start a face by just placing random (well, somewhat random) blocks (or blobs) or color on paper. I let the shapes guide me and give me direction to where place my eyes, how big to make them. Some with the lips, nose and the rest of the features.

I used mostly watercolors to create the shadows around the eyes and blocked in the hair. Then added details with a black Conte pencil.  And because the eyes nedded some highlights, I added them at the end.

This one had only blocks of watercolor applied to the paper in place of the eyes only. Then the rest of the features "appeared". I love smudging pencils, I believe the one I used here is a graphite pencil and conte black pencil. The hair was done last.