Portrait Drawing Tutorial

Portrait drawing is an exciting and challenging hobby to pursue. It doesn't matter if you prefer using pencil, charcoal or pastel s, learning to draw portraits will give you a new understanding of how to use a specific medium. Using a few simple techniques an individual can take advantage of any difficulty level of portraits.
In the past year I’ve learned a few methods that can help you draw better pencil portraits.

Step 1

The first thing that I like to do after I get my layout is to start at the eyes and work my way outward on the face.(If you are not sure how to lay out your drawing, try using this grid method.) At this point I have allowed the foreground and hair areas of the drawing to be without value. By doing this it makes it easier for me to make my way around the drawing better by sectioning the areas out.

Step 2

After I am doing drawing the face I move on to the foreground and hair.  It is vitally important to keep the direction of the light source consistent as you are constructing the values of the hair. If you do well at this detail if can have a very large impact on the final outcome of your drawing.

Step 3

After completing the hair I move on to the boy’s collar. I find it best to move from back to front when working on the collar area of this particular drawing. Make sure to be aware of the darker areas of contrast as you do this. So that means that you may need to move to a darker pencil or increase the amount of pressure on you current pencil in order to show these areas of lower light. Be sure to use the same idea when you are drawing the pattern on his shirt so that your drawing will have added depth. Keeping consistent with the same mindset that you used drawing the collar apply that to drawing the sweater now.

Step 4

Going from the back to front, start behind the collar and work toward the viewer. If pay attention to the lower lighted areas of your drawing and imagine where the light will show up on the sweater as you are drawing it. Notice the texture of the sweater. If you use various techniques such as crosshatching and gradation principals you can achieve different texturing affects. Also, if you change the amount of pressure that you use with your pencil as you go this affect is easily achieved.

Step 5

If you will be sure to darken the lower lighted areas and use your kneaded eraser to brighten the lighter areas on your drawing it will start seaming more and more realistic as you go. This gives me more control by helping me to focus the viewer’s eye to where I want it to go on the final drawing. I believe that by doing this you will add character and depth to the finished product. Tip: I have found that if I turn over my drawing and come back to it a few hours later before I put the final touches on it gives me time to refocus and notice any flaws much better. Lastly, I like to go revisit areas on my drawing with a darker pencil so that I can enhance my values. Once you have reached this point it is time to put the signature on the drawing and frame it if you choose to do so. If you would like more tutorials like this one click here: Drawing Artists