watercolor portrait sketches

Before doing each portrait in paint, I sketch them out and then trace them onto watercolor paper. These are the four original sketches that I did for my watercolor portraits. Going from left to right, top to bottom, they are my sister, college friend Mia, mother, and father. The shading and marks help to remind me of certain things when I paint, some of them look particularly older than they really are. Like my mother's face in the sketch looks more like my grandmother. So she's not that old.