My attempt at a Drew Struzan-style colored pencil portrait. It's no secret that I adore the man's art, especially his looser comps and sketches. So I tried to capture some of that essence with this while retaining my own caligraphy. Or in other words, not trying to be a total imitator and be myself with it. I'm a little more timid than he was with the bold linear marks, but I tried not to shy away from allowing definitive shapes and lines to form, either. It's such a balancing act between keeping the realism (soft edges, more tonal and simplified, etc.) and bringing in more abstraction and linework and detail. I think I struck it pretty well, but my mind always goes towards more subtlety and less bravura for some reason, even though it's the bravura I crave. I guess I don't feel like it'll look realistic enough for my taste if I go too heavy into the linear stuff. But I like it... so... What do y'all think? How could I improve for future works? How can I incorporate more abstraction and linear style rendering without killing the realism or becoming an imitator? Love to hear some people's thoughts on this. Thanks for looking, at any rate!