Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Drawing - The Six Steps of Portrait Drawing
Posted: Thursday, January 15, 2009
by Remi Engels
Remi's Arts
Drawing in general entails 4 distinct steps: line, value, texture, and form. In the special case of pencil portrait sketch we can refine the list of steps to six: form, proportion, anatomy, texture, value, and planes.
In this article we will give a detailed description of each of those pencil portrait sketch steps.
(1) Form or Shape - The illusion of 3-dimensionality in sketching and art in general has been central to Western art for centuries. The carving out of form using line, structure, and value was vital to almost all Renaissance art.
All form in sketching can be reduced to 4 fundamental three-dimensional solids: cones, cylinders, spheres, and bricks. The proper use of these forms together with perspective and value leads to the illusion of three-dimensionality even though the sketch is, in reality, located on a 2-dimensional piece of sketching paper.
In portrait sketching, the arabesque of the skull, the square structure of the skull, and all components within the skull (nose, eyes, etc.) are all 2- and three-dimensional forms that contribute to the overall illusion of three-dimensionality
(2) Proportion - includes all sizing and placements of form. Proportion refers to the concept of relative length and angle size.
Proportion gives answers to these 2 questions:
1. Knowing a defined unit of length, how many units is a particular length?
2. How big is this particular angle?
Answering these 2 questions every time correctly will give a sketch with the correct proportions and placements of all forms.
(3) Anatomy - refers in effect to the underlying structures of bone and muscle of the skull.
It is important to study as much as you can about anatomy. There are many studies available on anatomy for the artist. For a portrait artist it is particularly important to understand the anatomy of the skull, neck, and shoulders.
Anatomy texts unfortunately contain a lot of Latin terms which makes it somewhat complicated to grasp. The idea is to study slowly and a little bit at a time because it can be quite frustrating.
(4) Texture - in portrait sketching expresses the degree of roughness or smoothness of the forms. The texture of a rhino skin, for example, is quite different from that of a cloud.
There are several methods and tricks to help you with the creation of the proper textures. Creating textures gives you the opportunity to be very creative and to use each possible type of score you can make with a pencil. In portrait sketching textures occur in spots such as hair, clothing, and skin.
(5) Tone - refers to the variations in light or dark of the pencil marks and hatchings. Powerful portrait drawings employ the complete palette of contrasting lights and darks. Starting artists often fail to achieve this full "stretch" of value, resulting in retiring, washed-out drawings.
(6) Planes - create the sculptural sensibility of a portrait. The skull has numerous planes each with a unique direction and therefore with a different value.
The goal is to think of the surface of the skull as a set of distinct planes with a certain direction relative to the light source. You should try to identify each of the planes and sketch its correct form and value.
The correct handling of planes adds very much to the likeness of your subject as well as the illusion of three-dimensionality.
Author Bio:
Do you want to study the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: Remi's Pencil Portrait Drawing Course . Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert sketch teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: http://www.remipencilportraits.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Really great tips for even the occassional doodler to follow and use.Thanks Robert. Always good to hear somebody gets some use out of the articles I write :)
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