Here's a crusty rendition of country singer Willie Nelson. It was late and I wanted to draw this fast so I thought someone with 'craggy' features might go the quickest. It did work out that way - no need to make someone look beautiful, just locate the features and get them down.
I worked on this one upside down at times. This is a great way to just draw abstract shapes without knowing what they really are. When drawing anything, but especially portraits it's easy (and usually ineffective) to draw our preconceived notions of what things look like. My memory banks tell me that an eye looks like this, mouths like this, ears like this etc.
It's best to just see shapes accurately and get that down on paper, and sometime that is best done when you don't know what you are drawing. Turning the reference photo and sketchpad over makes all those known shapes into abstract shapes. this isn't a nose it's just a pattern of odd shapes and shades. Our minds haven't seen many upside down eyes, mouths and ears so it just gives up on trying to 'plug something in' allowing the artist to simply draw what he/she sees. It's amazing how after doing this you turn the sketchpad right side up again and discover that you've drawn a very accurate picture!
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