Portrait Drawing Tutorial

Page 1 "Blocking in the Head"

This first page of the portrait drawing tutorial is all

about drawing your block-in.

The block-in is a map of the various information that

you need to complete your portrait drawing.

It addresses proportions, placement and construction

of the head and features, shadow shapes, and even
edge quality.

The block-in is easily the most important part of this

portrait drawing tutorial.

Step one! Decide how large you want your drawing to be on your paper.

Jot down a measurement that will indicate the size of the drawing, such as the height, as I have done here.
As always, you want to work "general to specific".

This means that you start with the largest, most general measurements (such as the height and width), and
then move to incrementally smaller measurements until you get to the smallest, most specific ones.

To figure out the width of the head, I measure the height with my pencil, from the chin to the top of the head,
and then compare it to the width.

I notice that
the width is
slightly
narrower
than the
height, and
indicate this
on my
drawing.
 I begin to map out the general shape of the head.

I draw with light, straight lines so that they are easy to

erase and edit.

Visualising the angles of the head

There aren't many truly straight lines when drawing

something organic (like a person!).

Everywhere you look, you get some degree of

curvature.

However, creating the angles of the head with straight

lines as opposed to curved ones will result in a more
accurate drawing later on.

To help yourself visualise straight lines, extend your

pencil in front of you to see the angles of the head
more clearly.
 I begin to refine the contour of the head by breaking
up the angles into smaller, more accurate segments.

Something I want to emphasize in this portrait drawing tutorial is to look for lines that flow into one another.

For example: the hairline flows right into the line of the shadow being cast onto the neck.

When connected, these lines create a beautiful S-curve.

The more elements you can relate to each other on the face (such as these two lines), the more accurate and
organic-looking your block-in will be.
 Drawing the contour of the profile

As you begin drawing the contour of the profile,

imagine straight lines from which you can measure
certain points on the face.

For example: I can imagine a vertical line originating at

the front of the model's chin.

This helps me see how far the lips, nose, and forehead
extend to the right of the line.

I can also imagine a straight vertical line at the tip of the nose.

This clearly shows me that the forehead almost reaches the line, but not quite. The nose extends to the right
ever so slightly more than the forehead.
Now I know where to draw the forehead in relation to the nose!

You can create these imaginary straight lines anywhere, and use them in any way that they are helpful to you.

Continuing the block-in for this portrait drawing

tutorial!

I now approximately place the ear and the features of

the face.

"Features of the face" refer to the eyes, nose and

mouth.

How did I place the ear?

Since I have already found the approximate location of

the nose, I imagine a horizontal line through the tip of
nose, and look to see how far above this line to place
the ear.

I continue blocking in the large shapes of the face.

During this part of the block-in, I greatly rely on rhythms to help me place and connect all the elements of my
drawing.

Rhythms are curved lines that flow from one element of a picture to another, creating a kind of underlying
structure that connects all the elements in the image.

Read more about rhythms and how to use them here (coming soon)!

Refining the contour of the face

To refine the contour of the face, I again rely on the measuring lines I used earlier.

Remember the vertical line that I imagined at the tip of

the nose?

Look at the shapes created between that line and the

contour of the face.

These are called negative shapes.

"Negative" refers to the space where there is no form.

So, naturally, the "positive" shape would be the shape
of the actual form (the face).

Negative shapes are extremely useful in refining the

contour of the face!

How to use negative shapes:

As you draw, try to forget that you are drawing a face.

Forget that you are drawing a forehead, a nose, lips
and a chin. Instead, look at the negative spaces as
abstract shapes, and draw them this way!

This slight change in perspective might not seem like

much, but it often results in a more accurate drawing.
(Stay tuned for a new page on seeing and drawing
negative shapes! Coming soon!)
Use straight lines to block in the profile of the face, just as you did when you were blocking in the large angles
of the head.

The straight lines help you clearly indicate the high points (the most protruding points) on the profile.

Once I am confident in the placement of the features, I begin constructing them anatomically.

This stage of constructing the features is a combination of what you see and what you know.

You often can't see the construction of the features clearly, so you have to have an idea of what is there in
order to construct it accurately.

Sometimes light can wash out certain information, or hide it in shadow...

You could not be sitting close enough to the model to

see enough detail...

Or perhaps the model has very soft angles that hide

elements of the construction of the face.

In all of these cases, it's important to have an

understanding of head and feature construction so
that you can fill in these visual gaps.

(A portrait drawing tutorial with an emphasis on

constructing the head and features of the face will be
up soon!)
 Voila! Here is my completed block-in for this portrait drawing tutorial.

I have constructed the features, drawn in the shadow shapes, and indicated some of the differences in edge
quality.

I have also left some of the flowing rhythm lines, because they remind me that every element in my picture
relates to something else, and that nothing exists in isolation.

If I keep this in mind as I render the portrait, I am more likely to create an organic-feeling, unified picture.
Portrait Drawing Tutorial
Page 2: Rendering the Portrait
Shading, or rendering, is one of my favorite stages of
drawing faces.

It is so rewarding to see your portrait become

three-dimensional, and slowly come to life.

Now that I have created a block-in for my drawing, I

am ready to work with value.

Before you begin adding value to your drawing,

remember that your block-in is of the utmost
importance.

Take as much time as you need to make sure that it is

accurate.

You shouldn't have to make any drastic changes to the

shadow shapes
or structure of the picture during the value stage!

Rendering your portrait will go smoothly if...

the head and features are well placed and constructed

you have closely observed and drawn in the
shadow shapes, and

you have a good understanding of value.

When you start drawing in the values, the

initial goal is to cover the white of the paper as
quickly as possible.

Why?

Because you can only judge the accuracy of a

value by comparing it to its surrounding
values!