In a drawing class I took recently the instructor urged us not to be too self-critical... to be accepting of whatever we might produce as we went through the process of developing our drawing skills. I certainly don't expect perfection from myself... I learned long ago that perfection is a counterproductive expectation. In my early career I was a draftsman, then a mechanical engineer and a CAD software developer. Those life experiences, and perhaps my natural sense of spacial reasoning seems to make it very difficult for me to let go of my need for accurate proportions... not "perfect", but reasonably accurate. So I resolved to concoct a process by which I could use a photo to provide a simple framework upon which I could hang a sketch. I realize some people may think of my "process" as "cheating"... Still I find it satisfying... So I am going to share the process with you, perhaps you will find it to be something you enjoy as well.

I started with this photo...

Then, in Photoshop I used the brush tool in a contrasting color to outline some of the main features on a separate layer...

Next I removed the underlying photo and converted my outline to black and white...

Then I printed the outline in a barely visible faded version...

Finally, I drew the sketch by hand with a pencil on paper over the top of the faintly printed outline...