Example 1: Woman from Magazine

Portrait of a Woman
2B pencil on paper

However, when you draw a portrait from life, you need to record the subtle variations of the features which make that individual's face unique. Such an approach was used to build our pencil portrait above.

There are three basic stages in the creation of this image:

1.   Using line drawing to organise the position, shape and proportion of the features.

2.   Using softly shaded tone to create the form and texture of each feature.

3.   Using larger areas of tone to unite all the elements of the portrait.

Most artists make changes at the start of a drawing. Therefore it is important to draw lightly at first, as lightly drawn lines are easier to erase. You begin a portrait with the eyes as they are the main focal point. Take care where you choose to position them on the page as this will affect the overall balance of the portrait. The size and position of the other features are directly related to the scale and placement of the eyes. If you get the correct relationship between the eyes, nose and mouth, you will end up with a good likeness.

The main features are then framed by the outline of the face and hair, while the neck and shoulders form an angular support for the head. The lines of detail in the hair should follow the direction and shape of the locks as they split into different strands. They should be drawn quickly and forcefully to give a natural rhythm and vitality to the shape of the hair.

Tutorial 5: Hair

To draw the hair perfect, smooth and natural, I personally think practicing is a good way to start. You may try to draw different lines and curves with different pencils, strength and angles. I've always liked to draw on a flat drawing board, but in fact I found out that if you put the drawing board up, it is so much easier to take control of what I’m drawing. At first, you may get tired of holding your arms in the air, but once you practice more and get used to the strength and pressure you put on the pencil and paper, everything is fine. With a steady hand, you should be able to draw out natural looking lines.

Step 1- Identified the darkest areas in the section of hair and draw them in with a 3B pencil. Try to look for details inside the darks, a lot of the time there will be lighter hairs passing through the dark areas so draw around those.

Step 2- Located more dark areas and draws them in, again using a 3B but with slightly less pressure. Also draw light guide lines to show where some of the highlights and mid-tones were to go.

Step 3- Begin shading the mid-tone area that was located in step 2 with a B pencil.

Step 4- Fading the mid-tones into the highlight area that was located in step 2. Again using a B pencil but with less pressure than for the mid-tone area.

Step 5- Fade the dark tones towards the top of head into the highlight area with a B pencil. Then shade lightly over the highlight area with an H pencil. Smooth, fluent shading is key here.

Tutorial 4: Eyes

The eyes are in the center of the face, it is the most frequent facial moving organ. The structures of the eyes are opposite to one another which adds difficulties when drawing them. Therefore, the understanding of the physical structure of the eye becomes particularly important.

An eye is formed by the eye ball, upper eyelid and lower eyelid. Eye ball was embedded in the skull within the furrow of the eyes. We can see the exposed part of the eye which is the whites of the eyes, iris and the pupil. Pay special attention to the performance of the eye changes. The upper eyelid creates a darker shade on the lower lid. Iris is a complex dark transparent part and on the black pupil, there’s a tiny and bright highlight. The curved upper and lower eyelid separated into two parts, wrapping the eye balls.

The upper eyelid is thicker and longer than the lower eyelid, it also covers most of the eyeball. Upper eyelid has more lashes than the lower lid which are thicker, denser, longer, and can affect the lighting, reflection on the eye ball. In the performance of the eye, remember to depict as many of these structural features, with particular attention to the size of the eye and the thickness of part of the eyelid.

The shape of the eyelid and position of pupil strongly reflects a person’s emotion and the soul of one. Even if it’s only a small change, you will convey a totally different expression of an eye. Therefore, artists should pay extra attention in observing the changes in the eyes and capture it down.

The performance of the eye cannot be confined to the eye itself, but also should include the performance of other parts around the eye. The eye brow has a structural relationship with the eye. There are changes in the shades of the eyebrow which make the part more interesting when you are drawing the hairs and the shadows.

Tutorial 3: Nose

The nose is located on the central axis and is the most high up part of the face. Nose consists of three parts:

(1)  the composition of the nose, nasal bone and cartilage;

(2)  oval-shaped bulb and the nasal septum below it;

(3)  two outward tilt of the nose and the hollow below the nostrils. On the nose, it looks like a parallelogram which is narrow on top and wide at the bottom. In practising, pay attention to changes in these four parts.

First, let’s talk about the bridge of the nose. This part is in the middle of the nose, formed by the bone and the bottom two cartilages. Similar to the standard parallelogram, there are three distinct sides. Note that there are huge changes in the shape and structure, also pay attention to the sense of volume and the key tone. (More tonal work here)



Secondly, the front of the nose which is all formed by the cartilage. The tip (pointy part) of the nose looks like the shape of a sphere, and the nostrils looks like two hemispheres. This section is the highest point of the face portrait, it’s far from the eyes, so we can treat it as a second focus of the face. (carefully depict the characteristics).



Next part is the floor of the nose which is actually the underside of the nose. Since its shape with lighting has a huge contrast with the rest of the nose, so we mark it as a special section to deal with. This part transits from the tip of the nose surface and the formation of the complex structure of the two nostrils, and form a 90 ° angel or even greater. It makes the whole floor darker, forming a clear boundary line of light and shade. With two irregular nostrils, it produces a complex reflection. During practice, you should depict the clear lines between lights and shades based on the actual changes on the nose.

The nose has the richest sense of volume on a face and it makes a face to create a strong light and shade changes. Meaning that, the use of flexible strength of your arm is needed. It can emphasize the role of light and shade, and also highlight the role of structure; for enhancing the tone, but also weaken the shades. With variation of the shape of noses, it is crucial to define ones characteristic first before starting to draft.

Tutorial 2: Lips

Second part we are going to learn is the lips. The range of motion of the mouth has the largest and most expressive changes on a person’s face. Attached to the upper and lower jaws and teeth, the mouth is a half-cylinder form and it is formed by the upper and lower lips, mouth lines, lip and chin groove.

Upper and lower lips are two opposing W, the upper lip is relatively longer and has a more clear lip line. A nodule in the upper lip out of the top line is the groove between the nose and mouth. This part of the structure from concave to convex, making it more prominent changes in contrast.

Expression of the mouth muscles are very strong, it makes a rich mouth lines and produced changes in the mouth, characterizing a face’s expression.
The structure of the mouth has a close connection with the surrounding facial muscles that are close to the mouth, therefore a small movement of the lips would bring a series of facial changes. Also, lips mostly are red, and there will certainly be a color difference between lips and other parts of the face. Thus, we should pay attention to these lighting and which part should be darker and lighter.

Next post, we are going to talk about NOSE!