I've met numerous starting artists who wish to get started on right from nothing and draw a portrait of a person they know or someone popular. Drawing great portraits is a lot like the holy grail of drawing. Producing natural and living portraits needs a high skill level next to mastery. Fortunately it is possible to learn these skills much simpler, in case you learn them separately.
The first step is learning to draw the different characteristics of the human face. By separating single characteristics and drawing them separately it is possible to learn faster. You will focus on rigorously practising one feature at a time. And that means you improve your being familiar with and knowledge of the details. Fill several sheets of paper with eyes, noses etc and you'll get a sense how they look and ways in which to draw them. But do not draw too small. Two eyes, mouths or noses on one sheet (A4 or letter sized). That leaves you sufficient space for details.
The next phase means putting together all one has mastered when drawing the characteristics one at a time. You need to place the facial characteristics in right proportionalities, distances and layout so they really fit together and the big picture makes sense. So what's the right structure? There are a few rules that provide help to place the characteristics on the right locations:
* The eyes can be found midway between the top of the head and the chin. This is among the most important lessons to master when drawing portraits. Many (me, too) tend to place the eyes too high, so the portrait gets a flat temple. It seems to be some optical illusion that makes us believe the eyes are placed higher than they are.
* Another trouble with the eyes is their positioning towards the left and the right. In between them there needs to be enough space for exactly an additional eye. The same for the left and right - between each eye and the edge of the face is plenty of space for an additional eye. All in all a human face has enough space for five eyes in a row (although this would look a bit strange).
* As we're positioning a lot of eyes into one face, let's add two more. Now they will help us to put the eyebrows where they belong. The distance between the eyebrows and the eyes is equivalent to the eyes' height
* Then the bottom of the nose is located midway between the eyes and the chin
* Halfway between chin and nose is the mouth
* The mouth's corners can be found below the centre of the eyes. But can easily differ a good deal with there being many individuals with larger or less wide mouths
* The ears' top commences exactly where the eyebrows are and their bottom part may line up with the bottom part of the nose. But these measurements will vary as individuals have many diversely sized and formed ears.
Employing these rules you should be able to place the facial characteristics the right way. But always bear in mind: these measurements and locations are idealized! In reality these measurements will fluctuate somewhat. That is what makes up the character of a human face.
And that is what the key ability for portrait drawing is about. You will need to get good at this 3 rd ability to draw portraits that mimic the original model. Each human face has its own character and looks unique. There's two causes of this:
* Initially the face characteristics itself differ somewhat by contour, color or size (for instance wide vs. small noses, thicker vs. small lips, etc.)
* Second, the structure of the face characteristics differs somewhat from the idealized measurements I showed you previously. The eyes can stand slightly less wide, the chin could possibly be stronger or weaker. Finally this changes the complete structure of the face and gives it character and originality.
The key for drawing resembling and live like portraits is to depict these small differences and bring them to paper. This needs much exercise and a skilled eye. But the more portraits you draw the better you will definitely get and the much more resembling your portraits will appear.
So what on earth think you're waiting for? Start drawing portraits!
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/feed-icon.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites