Portrait using whiteboard markers

I love surprises! That's why I quickly said yes when I was asked to do a surprise birthday portrait/illustration of our president on her office glass panel! Instead of just posting another finished piece I will show you the steps I did in creating this portrait. I used whiteboard markers on this one. Here are the steps:

STEP1: CREATE A GRID I really don't want to measure my drawings but since this is a portrait it is easier & more practical to use one. I also created a grid on the photo, this acts as your blueprint for the portrait. (make sure that the grids are the same scale on your photo & the canvas)  to the glass panel"

STEP2: SKETCH
Now this is the fun part, after the grueling boring straight lines we can now start the sketching process, since you already created a grid it is easier to track the shapes in the photo. Its like tracing the image into the canvas.

STEP3: COLOR 
Added texture, shadows, & color into the piece, this took a long while to finish since I want the details to stand out, used a combination of hatching & pointilism to add the shadows. In case I haven't stresse dit enough "patience is a virtue!"