For this drawing, the phone is not shown directly as the main subject, but its effect is. I focused on a cropped face lit from below, the way a phone screen lights someone in the dark. The extreme crop matters because the full identity is missing. You only get part of the face, mainly the nose, mouth, cheek, and shadow. That makes the image feel private, but also slightly uncomfortable, like the viewer is too close. I was thinking about how screens shape self image, especially when people are constantly seeing themselves through cameras, reflections, and front facing views. The face is still human, but the lighting makes it feel distorted and separated from a normal environment.

The drawing depended mostly on value and edge control. I used graphite layering, starting lighter and slowly moving into darker pencils so the face would not become too harsh too quickly. The shadows had to carry the mood, especially the dark area on the left side and under the jaw. I used blending to create the screen glow across the cheek and mouth, then used stronger contrast around the lips, nostril, and edge of the face to keep the image from becoming too soft. The dark background isolates the head and makes the light feel like it is coming from below rather than from a normal room. I also had to be careful with the cheek transition because if it was too rough, the face looked unfinished instead of lit by a screen.

This drawing made me pay more attention to how lighting changes the feeling of a face. The expression is not exaggerated, but the crop and the upward glow make it feel tense. I learned that mood can come from technical choices like contrast, cropping, and where the light source sits, not just from the subject’s expression. It also made me think about how much of a person can be removed before the image starts to feel incomplete on purpose. The missing parts of the face are not mistakes in this one. They help show how screen use can turn self image into fragments. A cheek, a mouth, a shadow, a glow. That was a different kind of drawing problem than just making a face look accurate.