How to draw a portrait with a pencil for beginners. Pencil Portrait Drawing Basics

where to start drawing a portrait of a person in stages? how to learn to draw a person's face. How to correctly lay penumbra and achieve the desired similarity in portraits with a pencil. How to shade a portrait. Artists will tellWORKSHOPPORTRET-ART.

Most of the portrait artists working in the "pencil" technique worked in various schools, where they studied the skill of depicting a person. All artists, based on their education, have created for themselves their own basis of how to work on the creation of a portrait. In this article, we will share our own secrets of the most common drawing technique.

getting started and building the head

The artists of our workshop work with mechanical pencils, because they provide cleanliness during work, unlike classic pencils, they do not need to be sharpened for a long time, they allow you to deal with small details much faster. To draw a portrait with high quality, we need a “nag”, this is such an artistic eraser with which you can correct your mistakes and not spoil the portrait. For drawing with a mechanical pencil, we need rods. We recommend using refills with softness HB, B, 2B, 4B and 7B (where B means soft and H means hard). Now we need to take an ordinary A4 sheet and place it under your working hand so that it covers the surface that you have already shaded.

First of all, you must study the photograph, namely the general view of the head, how it is rotated relative to the horizontal and vertical. To draw a portrait of a person with a pencil correctly, we need to know some features of the structure of the skull. This can be seen in any anatomical atlas. Based on the shape of the head of the person you are depicting, you need to draw on paper with light lines the general contour of the hair, the oval of the face and mark the line of the lips, nose and its height, eyes and eyebrows.

work with planes

Now that the general lines have been drawn, we can proceed to the analysis of the planes of the face. We must mark the height of the nose with a plane (if desired, it can be shaded to see the volume, this can be done with all areas that are in shadow), the plane of the cheekbone, which is closest to us, the plane of the lips and the plane of the eyes, connecting with the eyebrows. At this stage, we do not draw the face with smooth lines, we try to outline the geometric features of the person's face very easily.

face detail

At this stage of work, we take a nag and, drawing it along the plane of the sheet, remove the top layer of the pencil, that is, we make the lines drawn before almost invisible. This is the difference between drawing portraits from a photograph and academic portraits, in the second case, the construction lines are drawn and remain in the final form of the portrait, which can make it dirty. It doesn't suit us. After we made the construction lines invisible where it was needed, we begin to draw out all the features of the face, round them up and give the face a resemblance to a photograph. In order to achieve similarity, you can measure the dimensions and their relationship to other face sizes, thereby selecting the optimal proportions. For example, how much the width of the nose fits in the width of the face, etc. You can measure anything, there are no restrictions.

hatching start

For hatching, you must finish all construction and erase all unnecessary lines in the drawing, because. after you start laying the tone, you will not have the opportunity to do it neatly. There are no uniform hatching rules, each artist does it in the way that is convenient for him. This may depend on how you are used to holding a pencil / pen, whether you are right-handed or left-handed, etc. We advise you to start hatching from the darkest areas of the portrait. Since you can build on them later without darkening your skin, clothes and eyes too much.

semitone elaboration

Next, we must move to halftones, that is, to tone the skin of the face, hair and clothes, if it is not black, since black clothes should most often be emphasized (even if the clothes are white, there will definitely be a penumbra on them, to identify relief and texture). At this stage, we should not wipe anything with nags (unless we put a stain or smeared something). It is worth starting an intensive hatching of halftones (if you are right-handed), from the upper left corner of the sheet, so as not to smear with your hand what you have already done, and accordingly, if you are left-handed, everything needs to be done in a mirror. At this stage, minor work on the background of the portrait is allowed.

working with lighting

When you're done with the shading, you should have an almost finished portrait, but it won't look 3D. Don't worry, one of the most enjoyable steps in drawing a portrait with a pencil is when you highlight the lightest areas of the face. Most often this is the tip of the nose, the whites of the eyes, the upper part of the cheekbones, the superciliary arches, the lower lip and in some cases the chin. Also, with the help of a nag, you can draw folds on the lips and small wrinkles that will make your portrait more alive. Hair needs to be lightened on the largest fractures of the forms, then they seem shiny and alive.

darkening the depths and cleaning

After highlighting, you need to darken again the places where you need to show space, these can be: neck, hair edge, ears, folds in the hair, background. With the help of this darkening, we will feel that the person we are drawing is not “glued” to the sheet, but is looking from there. This is a very important factor in creating a pencil portrait.

Our portrait is ready. But you will definitely have some unnecessary strokes or stains from your fingers, because they will be smeared with a pencil (by the way, in order to avoid a dirty portrait, we advise you to wash your hands several times and dry them well), so you should take the nag for the last once and wipe everything that is visually unpleasant to you. Even with the absolute similarity of a portrait with a photograph, we always leave room for creativity, you are not obliged to redraw what you don’t want to draw on the portrait, you can create and invent new clothes, hair color, eyes, etc. The photo does not always turn out to be successful in all respects, therefore, we think out, correct and do what the photographer could not do due to the specifics of his work, namely, to create the perfect image.

With love and awe, Workshop

drawing a portrait For a novice artist, it seems an incredibly difficult undertaking. Often beginners rush to create a portrait without learning its basic principles and techniques. Each face drawing ends in disappointment, which can lead to an absolute loss of interest. Do not give up, because every portrait painter started by learning the basic rules, practiced them, made dozens of mistakes and eventually achieved positive results. Now we will analyze drawing a portrait with a pencil, its features and rules. They will help to achieve the correctness, and most importantly, the realism and high quality of the portrait.

There are three main positions in which a face can be placed in a portrait.

1. Full face- the direct position of the head, in which the entire face and its features are fully visible. The head is not tilted, so the ears are not fully visible.

2. Profile- the lateral position of the head, in which only half of the face is visible. This is the left or right part, on which the eye, ear, half of the nose and mouth are located.

3. three quarters- this is the position between full face and profile. Usually one of the sides of the face is completely visible, and on the other side only parts of the face are slightly visible.

Features of the position in profile and full face, their standard parameters

Full face:

1. The pupils are located strictly in the middle of the face. If you divide the face horizontally into two parts, you can see that the eyes will be at the level of the line, or rather, the pupils.
2. The tip of the nose is in the middle of the face, between the eyebrows and the chin.
3. The line of the mouth is located between the tip of the nose and the chin.
4. The height from the hairline to the edge of the top of the head is equal to the height from the pupils to the tip of the nose.
5. The width of the face is measured by the width of five eyes horizontally. Height from chin to lower lip - with one eye (vertically deployed).
6. The upper part of the ear is at eye level, and the lower part is at the tip of the nose.

Profile:

1. The ear is in the midline, which divides the head in half.
2. The base of the nose is located in the middle of the face.

Let's talk about the parts of the face. Each person has their own individual shape and size, but the construction is similar for everyone. We will analyze what structure certain parts have and how to do it correctly.

Eye:

1. Its corners have different heights. Usually the outer part is higher than the inner.
2. The iris is not fully visible when a person looks straight ahead. Fully visible only when a person looks down.
3. The lashes on top are longer than the ones on the bottom.
4. Always draw the iris and pupil. The eye looks quite artificial and cartoonish when one of these parts is not there.

Nose:

1. In full face, the tip and wings of the nose are clearly visible, and the trunk is only depicted with the help of shadows.
2. If you depict the nose in profile, then only the outline of one side and the nostril are visible.
3. A difficult angle is considered to be three-quarters. Here you need to be careful so that the nose is natural. This view combines "full face" and "profile", so it is important to evenly highlight the contour, wings and tip.

Lips:

1. The mouth line, which is in the middle, will have a clearer appearance than the lip lines.
2. Draw the lips starting with the top lip because the bottom lip has a more simplified look. It will not be difficult to outline it at the end.
3. The upper lip is usually thinner than the lower.
4. The midline of the mouth will drop slightly towards the edge. Even if a person is depicted with a smile, all the same, at first the corners fall slightly, and then rise again.

If you have ever picked up a simple pencil and drew people, then most likely you know how difficult it is to create a portrait of a person. Indeed, in addition to the general outlines, it is necessary to use three-dimensional graphics, the play of light and shadow. This must be done in order for the flat image to come to life and look the most realistic. However, not everyone knows about the use of such a technique. Therefore, we decided in our article to talk about how to draw portraits of people correctly.

What is a portrait of a person?

Before you start drawing, you need to find out what a portrait is. Basically, this is an image of the head (from the top of the head to the shoulders). A little less often, portraits depict people in full growth. The purpose of such a drawing is to convey as accurately as possible the image that the artist sees in the image of the model. Portraits can be drawn with simple paints, crayons, charcoal.

Every artist knows a person, regardless of the technique used and the tools at hand. In this case, the master performs a drawing using light and shadow. But in order to get a more or less realistic and close to the original portrait, you need to practice. As practice shows, you need to make at least 50-100 drawings.

This is necessary in order to fill your hand and develop your own technique on the canvas.

What are portraits of people?

Before you draw portraits of people, you need to find out what they are. In this case, it all depends on the gender and age of the model with which the portrait is made. For example, images can be female and male, children's. At the same time, they differ from each other. In particular, the male pattern differs from the female one in the coarser presence of a massive chin, in men it is sharper and wider.

In addition, male portraits are characterized by the presence of protruding parts of the face: cheekbones and brow ridges. Women's drawings contain more rounded shapes and smoothed corners in the forehead and chin.

We prepare all the supplies for drawing

At the first stage, it is recommended to prepare a sheet of paper, a few simple pencils with different levels of softness, and an eraser. Experienced artists also use a number of additional tools, such as an electric eraser, which works more gently and does not leave such streaks as a regular eraser. Before you draw portraits of people and make them realistic, you need to carefully follow our instructions step by step.

And, of course, take care of the model or find from which you will draw a portrait.

Choose a simple pattern

If you are just starting to take your first steps in the fine arts, then you should look for photos or pictures that show not too complicated portraits of people. For beginners, drawing pictures made in a difficult technique is undesirable. It is better to choose a photo simpler. As an example, we will explain how to draw a female image.

Define the top and bottom of the image

In the next step, take a sheet of paper, carefully examine your model, study all the details and start drawing. Determine the top of the future sketch and the bottom. Make visual measurements of the face parameters of the image. This must be done so that you get the most accurate picture. Yes, and so that everything fits on your worksheet: hair, forehead, chin, neck and, possibly, shoulders.

Next, we draw a portrait of a person in stages as follows: divide your sheet of paper exactly in half horizontally; repeat the same vertically; you should get four identical squares. In this case, you should not press too hard on the pencil, since all these lines are auxiliary, and will subsequently be erased.

Delimitation of a plane on a sheet

Take a pencil and go to one of the nearest top squares. Split it in half. Do the same with both squares in the lower plane. Then divide the bottom squares in half again.

We outline the oval of the face

Next, we draw a portrait of a person in stages, starting with a sketch. To do this, go to the horizontal line of demarcation on the sheet, and then, stepping back a few centimeters from the beginning of the page, draw the lines of the face. Pull them all the way to the bottom and round off at the end. Moreover, the resulting facial lines should ideally be completely symmetrical. Thus, you will get an oval face, cheeks, cheekbones and chin.

We outline the lines of the nose, forehead and hair

At the next stage of drawing in the middle of the oval of the face, we outline the nose area with two lines. We outline more clearly the chin and lines to the hair area. We make an indent in the forehead area. And then with wave-like movements we draw bangs and hair.

How to draw a portrait of a person with a pencil, using shading and an eraser, we will tell further.

Draw eyebrows and wings of the nose

The next step will be drawing the eyebrows and wings of the nose. Move the pencil to the top plane of the drawing. Step back a little from the forehead and cheekbones. Draw eyebrows resembling two identical and symmetrical, slightly raised arches. Then we move on to drawing the nose. To do this, in the middle of two strips (did them in the previous step), draw the upper and lower parts of the nose. The rest of the face is made clearer.

How to draw a portrait of a person using light and shadow, we'll talk later, when our picture is completely ready.

Draw eyes and nostrils

The next step is to draw the outlines of the eyes and nostrils. To do this, draw two lines clearly under the eyebrows and draw slightly elongated ovals of the eyes. Then draw pupils, eyelids and eyelashes inside them. Go down to the nose and point the nostrils.

Draw lips and ears

At the final stage of creating a sketch, we make a small drop-fold under the nose and draw lips. Next, draw the ears and part of the neck. The sketch is ready. It remains only to shade all parts of the face, using a harder pencil and an eraser. At the same time, in those areas where you overdo it a little with the shadow, you can make white areas with the help of an eraser.

Now you know how to draw portraits of people with a regular pencil.

Dreaming of learning to draw? And look for detailed step by step drawing lessons for emerging artists? I will try to help you in this difficult task and tell you about the many nuances when writing beautiful drawings and portraits in pencil and watercolor! With the help of my step-by-step lessons, not only adults, but also children will be able to master the basics of fine art!
In this section, I publish all my step-by-step drawing lessons, and separately, in the section Drawing lessons for children, I collect simple drawing lessons for beginners. Therefore, if you are just taking the first steps in drawing with a pencil and watercolor, I recommend starting with this section. Be sure to check out all the drawing lessons and tips for artists collected on my blog!

Before you start a full-fledged portrait writing, you need to learn how to draw the details of the face. In today's lesson, we will learn how to draw lips pencil, thanks to a step-by-step description. The lesson is not difficult and is designed for beginners, but do not rush. To achieve a result, namely beautiful draw human lips, you need to carefully follow the rules of construction and shadow.

Almost every person wishes to have their own portrait at home, which is considered one of the most difficult drawings that an artist can draw. Not surprisingly, there is a great demand for this particular type of pattern. Therefore, the duty of a novice and experienced artist is to step by step improve their skills in drawing human facial features, because through the face you can convey not only gender and age, but also the character and temperament of a person. According to their characteristics, portraits are divided into three types: children's, women's and men's. Today we will learn how to draw the last view - male portrait in pencil. It has its own features and secrets, which we will discuss in this step-by-step lesson.

Many people dream of drawing a portrait of their relatives and friends. But before drawing the face as a whole, you need to learn how to draw the details of the face. This lesson for beginner artists is devoted to the question " how to draw a nose". This task is not difficult, you just need to use the information about the construction and overlay of shadows. The shape and size of the nose may vary, but the basic outline remains the same. Let's find out how easy it is draw a nose with a pencil.

Hands are a personal and unique part of the body. Often they can tell about a person's life with their shape and size. For many years people have been studying their lines and structure, trying to read the future along the lines. Today we will learn draw hands with a simple pencil with a step by step tutorial. We will pay special attention to their construction and the imposition of shadows, so that the drawing comes out the most realistic.

Step by step lesson on how to draw a female portrait with a simple pencil. After going through just a few stages, you can understand the main features that are inherent in portrait of a woman and absent in the rest. The face will be located in full face, the hair is pulled back. This is important to know before starting work. Now you can get started.

PHOTO SAMPLE

When I am given the task of painting a picture from a photograph of a portrait, I choose a self-portrait. It is always best to draw from life as and when you can, photographs can sometimes be distorted. However, it's not always possible or convenient to get people to pose, and that's where photography definitely helps. I tried to choose the most interesting photo, I don't really look like myself here, but I really like the bright sunlight here, so I choose this photo! (Fig. 1)

SKETCH

I don’t always start with a sketch, but when I have to draw from a photograph (and, in fact, a self-portrait), it helps to be a little more accurate. Sometimes I start by just sketching the general shapes and lines, but in this case, I just started with a very simple sketch.

It is needed in order to correctly measure the main features of the face: eyes, nose, mouth, etc. And another layer just with lines on top of all parts of the face, then duplicated. (Fig. 2-3)

(Straight lines can be drawn by holding down the Shift key while drawing a line with a brush) After that, I roughly finish everything else by eye. You can use special grids if you feel more comfortable, but personally I try not to bother trying to achieve perfection on a basic sketch. At this stage, the drawing looks, of course, lousy, but the base is already ready, so you can move on to coloring!

BRUSHES

There are a huge number of different brushes on the Internet, and although some of them are very good in my opinion, there is nothing better than a regular round brush. This is what I'll be using, the basic hard round brush found in all versions of Photoshop. (Fig. 4)

BASIC COLORS

When it comes to picking colors when drawing from a photo, I think it's best to leave the thought of using the Color picker. Photos can be very mosaic and colors can be distorted, random color picking won't give you a real idea of ​​tones, especially when it comes to skin for example! Therefore, use only your abilities and experiment, trying to achieve the most approximate result, and getting to the point here is not the most important thing.

I will be adding so many different colors during the process that it won't matter in the end. The next step is to add some base tones on a normal layer below the sketch (the sketch layer itself is switched to Multiply mode, which makes it almost transparent). (Fig. 5)

From now on, everything will be drawn on top of the sketch and already applied base colors. In my work, I always merge layers as needed, so I don't have to mess around with too many layers. Most of the time though, I'll be adding new elements on separate layers. I'm not a purist! If something goes wrong, it won't be a disaster for me.

As for whether or not to use many layers in your work, it is entirely up to you, do what is comfortable for you personally. At this point, I start adding basic light spots to better shape the lines of the face. (Fig. 6)

Don't worry if your drawing doesn't look like the original at this stage; it's still too early and everything will look much better along the way. In the meantime, everything looks rather sloppy, the strokes are very noticeable and uneven, but it's all about finding the right colors and shapes. Try not to get hung up on softening the lines of the picture for now.

COLORS

One of the most common questions I get in my address is how do I "know" what colors to choose. To be honest, I don't know, I'm just trying to match them, and pay attention to the environment, and only then choose a particular color. Photography serves as a good assistant and is much easier to work with than relying on your intuition. However, in 90% of cases I am not completely satisfied with the result of the chosen colors and in the end I have to change them. The color palette selected at the very beginning of the work and the one that turns out at the very end are two completely different things. So if you don't like the color you've chosen, don't worry. Photoshop is your friend and it definitely has its upsides. (Fig. 7-8)

One of the invaluable tools for me is Color balance. I usually duplicate the entire image and then adjust the colors if I don't like them, which is absolutely always the case. This tool is very useful if you want to slightly or significantly change the colors of a painting. It will also help a lot to balance the colors if they don't quite go together. (Fig. 9)

You will surely notice how the tones in my drawing change throughout the work. Sometimes I change and undo changes in search of the desired effect. Yes, that's how fickle I am!

DEVELOPMENT

Once the base colors and lights are in place, I spend the rest of the time working on the details. In this process, I rarely get stuck in one area, I jump between different parts of the drawing so that I don’t get bored working on the same one for too long. It also helps when returning to previous sections to notice small flaws and correct them. It is also obvious that the picture has become softer. At the very beginning everything was too rough, but we softened them in the process of development. (Fig. 10-12)

LAYER MODES

In the course of work, I used several different types of layers. These are, basically, modes Normal (Normal) and Overlay (Overlay). I probably don't need to say anything about Normal Mode, but Overlay is a very useful thing. This is a very good way to increase contrast. My sample photo has a very bright light source. Therefore, in the process of drawing, I overlaid a couple of layers in the Overlay mode. I make the right side of the skin of the face much brighter by overlaying the same skin tone but in Overlay mode. It helps a lot to add contrast and glow caused by bright sunlight. This mode also helps to add to this a very bright red/orange that is visible in the contrast of the skin with the light.

The opacity of layers always varies, it all depends on what level suits best. Constantly experiment with layers and choose what fits! (Fig. 13-14)

The dark side of the face still looks flat compared to the light side. To fix this, I'll be adding a brighter tone to the layer in Overlay mode to emphasize the structure of the face, cheeks, eyebrow area, etc. a little. I chose light green because the colors are very saturated when blended. If I had chosen a skin tone, the result would have been a bright orange. Green, on the other hand, will not lead to such an effect, and will go well with the overall skin tone. (Fig. 15)

TURN!

Another way to control some minor errors is to rotate (Flip) the image. When working with a photograph, I know what the result will be, but it will still not be superfluous to unfold the drawing about once an hour.

Errors are always found, so it's much easier to fix them on the fly... instead of finding out when you're done that everything looks terrible when you pick up and rotate the image! (Image – Image rotation – Rotate horizontally) (Image – Image rotation – Flip canvas horizontally) (Fig. 16)

MIXING

I'm pretty sure the most frequently asked question is about how I mix paint to create smooth transitions from one color to another. This question is always difficult for me to answer because I never mix two colors "actively". My method is to layer color on top, stroke by stroke, in different tones until they are almost invisible. (Fig. 17) I wouldn't recommend washing out the colors; in my opinion, this completely takes the life out of the painting, it ends up looking “dirty”, so don't be afraid if the image is a bit rough, just keep working on it! Choose a tone that will work with both colors to be combined, apply brush strokes and they blend naturally. If you're having trouble, try using a brush with softer edges. While I don't recommend using Airbrushes (again, that's everyone's choice!), soft-edged brushes can help blend the colors. They can also be useful when you need to slightly reduce the opacity of your brush. Sometimes 100% opacity can be overkill. While I almost always change my opacity from 100%, it's all about finding your method that will give you the best results.

HAIR

Using the same standard round brush, create the basic shape of the hair. Then, in the same manner, we begin to impose lighter tones. I don't draw the hair as a group of hairs, instead I create curls and try to reproduce their natural position and formation of strands as accurately as possible. Then I add individual hairs just to give the hairstyle a fluffy effect. (Fig. 18-20)

I added another layer in Overlay mode and filled it with a light brown color that will give the hair a nice sheen from the side where the sunlight hits it. After that comes the process of coloring and repetition. Just keep adding strands, spots of light, and a few individual hairs that stand out from the rest of the hair until you have a finished image.

FINAL STROKE / DETAILS

Adding the finishing touches always takes up most of the entire drawing process for me. It is also a process that cannot be left to the “final” stages. I have been working on the details throughout the entire work on the picture, this is a very smooth process for me and very pleasant, I really love the details! Here, everything superfluous is cut off.

For me, the process of detailing is the process of bringing order to lines, such as, for example, the jawline against a dark background of hair. At this stage, I can also pay more attention to the details of the eyes, eyebrows, nose and lips, etc. I use the same brush, only smaller. And I usually zoom in a lot when I'm working on those details. After these procedures, the image becomes noticeably cleaner and much easier to work with. (fig. 21-22)

CHANGES

You may have noticed that my work has some differences from the original. The first change concerns the hair. In fact, they looked just awful! I haven't really been into drawing hair like this, so use your artist rights. If you think something needs to be changed, change it! In the end, this is just a sample, not an instruction that needs to be followed immediately. Here you will see other changes that have been made. (fig. 23-24)

Below are enlarged clippings. (Fig. 25-26) At this stage, the work is almost completed. I cropped the image a bit and tried to add some brighter colors, pinks and blues, to bring out the blue eyes and the delicate pink tint on the skin. I probably don't need to say that this is not in the sample photo, but I just do it the way I like.