Learning to Draw Faces and Portraits
Now Playing: Mastering Portrait Drawing
Being able to consistently achieve a remarkable likeness in your face and portrait drawing can be learned. But there is a skill-set that must be acquired. The first is the ability to 'strike the arabesque', that is the entire outside shape of the head. The arabesque encompasses the overall shape and height/width proportion.



Using a photograph (although it is highly preferable to learn from life) for my reference the 'arabesque' is struck. Accurately striking the arabesque requires training and practice. There are exercises that can be used to quickly train your eye. I teach these skills in my Mastering Portrait Drawing DVD Workshop. It is within the arabesque that the general likeness of the sitter is found.













Once the arabesque has been accurately established the facial proportions can now be fixed. Again, there is a method to accurately placing the facial structures which is taught in the Mastering Portrait Drawing DVD Workshop. Next is the blocking in of the primary light/dark values. Keep it quite simple - one light and one dark. It is quite easy to break them down later. Think in terms of drawing as a sculptural sensibility. That is, 'carve out' the forms.












Having the primary light/dark pattern established makes it much easier to place the facial features, i.e., eyes, nose, mouth, etc. One needs to take care that the features are placed accurately and the correct size. A common mistake is to draw the eyes too large.

An understanding of the anatomy of the head and face is critical to portrait drawing. There is no way around it, if you want to improve and master portrait drawing you must acquire the knowledge of anatomy. What I've done with the Mastering Portrait Drawing DVD Workshop is to succinctly integrate the Constructive Anatomy of the Human Head so that your learning of the anatomy is made more relevant and easier. For the serious student of portrait drawing, owning a skull to draw and study from is an excellent investment. We sell a selection of very fine skulls at Artacademy.com

Once the features have been fixed into place the portrait can now be further resolved tonally.






In this close-up view you can see how I have carved out the eye using both tone and line. Note how dark I've made the white of the eyes. The eyes are recessed into the eye sockets and will invariably fall into shadow. A common error is to render the white of the eyes (the 'sclera') as a gleaming, glow-in-the-dark white.












Crosshatching with both a variety of pencils and kneaded eraser, stumping and smudging, the tonal values are built up and adjusted. This is a labor intensive process but one that I find much joy in. It is here that subtle emotions and expressions can be developed. As an artist I am not interested in just copying the photograph or model - I am searching for a means to express the human condition in all of its myriad forms.






















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