The earlier pencil was an archetypal type pencil which may have been the stylus, appearing like a thin metal stick, often made from lead and used for scratching in papyrus, a very ancient form of early paper. There use was extensive in the ancient Egyptian and Roman civilization. There are different kinds of pencils of which the ones utilized for pencil portraits include: Graphite pencils, Charcoal pencils and colored pencils.
Making portraits in pencil shading or graphite is a truly wonderful art which needs precision and patience topped with skill and method. The effect of a pencil portrait is very classic and natural. The earlier photographs in black and white are very similar in appearance to the portraits in pencil and portraits in charcoal. If you want to give someone a truly wonderful gift, make a pencil portrait for him from his photograph and surprise him by the wonderful gift to be treasured for a lifetime. A pencil portrait can be a personalized gift, Christmas gift as well as any occasion gift.
The technique to portraits in pencil is very much dependent on blending, stumping, structural sculpturing - anatomy , erasing and striking compressed features in the original subject. Firstly you will have to block the tone masses of the portrait and blend the lights with putty eraser.
Once you have blocked-in the major tone masses of your portrait you are ready to blend and "take out" the lights with a putty eraser. Stumping carefully with an intent of blending to produce gradations and halftones and to give a specific tone to softer looking regions. Keeping in mind the structural anatomy and sculpturing blending with tissue or finger tips can produce beautiful results.