This portrait of my dad shows he is serious but still youthfully spirited which is one of the things I love most about him. I used graphite but struggled with the gradient and angle. To do the beard, I started with tonal shading using B and 2B and then switched to sharp 3 and 4B pencils or more details. I used a similar technique on the nose but with lighter values and pulling highlights with a kneadable eraser to achieve the texture.