Many aspiring artists dream of learning how to draw portraits with a pencil. This is a whole new level in creativity. Having learned to portray a portrait of a person, it will be possible to easily master watercolor techniques, draw with sanguine and charcoal, as well as oil. Begin by all means with pencil sketches. Confidently manipulating graphic materials, you can achieve incredible similarities with nature.
How to draw a graphic portrait
To draw it, you will need:
- Whatman padded tablet.
- Measuring instrument (ruler).
- Simple pencils of various hardness.
- Eraser.
To depict a high-quality graphic portrait, try to reduce the use of the eraser to a minimum, as it erases the paper, because of this, dirt forms in the picture. After the materials are prepared, the sheet is stretched, we can get to work.
Draw a portrait
We analyze our nature, carefully study it on each side in order to understand the features and form. It is advisable to make preliminary constructive sketches in order to understand the forms and understand them. The nature needs to be drawn from each side, it is necessary to understand its shape, to study its features and each detail separately.
How to draw a graphic portrait in stages
We are located on site with the best overview, prepare materials. Nature must be static. We begin to draw a graphic portrait in stages:
- First you need to make a layout on a sheet.
- We outline the individual parts of the image in general terms.
- We find the rotation and the axis of construction.
- We begin to build the form, alternating from the general to the small details.
- At each of the previous stages, it is necessary to carefully compare the image with nature, check for proportional shape relationships and perspective reductions.
- This stage is hatching. After the construction is completed, you need to start applying the finishing touch, you need to do this carefully and slowly dividing the picture into shadow and light parts.
- We put the finishing touch on the form, thereby adding volume to the portrait, but do not forget about the generality and focus on any one detail.
To make portraits in pencil, you need to analyze and understand your mistakes. Typically, novice artists put too much pressure on a pencil from inexperience. Because of this, the work turns out to be crossed out, that is, the lines are too sharp. The drawing should not be surrounded by a black line, it should harmoniously fit into the format and transmit the forms.
Common mistakes
In attempts to transfer volumes, the artist is too fond of small details, works diligently on them. As a result, the image ceases to be complete. Even a novice artist notices it himself.
Sometimes the problem is that the artist cannot understand how the details that he seeks to work out are arranged. As a result, it is not possible to detail the image, hence the fragmentation appears in the figure, it is also possible to violate the perspective relations, many are trying to make the work coherent, at least due to the tonal elaboration. Working on a specific part and making mistakes in it, the draftsman tries to connect it with the general form, superimposes the layers of graphite one after another. And in the end, he remains disappointed with the result. But in order to draw a high-quality portrait of a person, it’s enough to study every detail.
Parsing flaws
If the artist is faced with the above problems, then he needs to take into account the following: after constructive analysis, the stage of form modeling using hatching has begun, and at this stage some doubts about the continuation of work on the image often begin to bother.
Stop parsing tones and repeat parsing forms. Take a pencil in shape, disassemble the nature on the plane and remember its design. After such a detailed analysis, drawing becomes much easier.
Imagine in your mind what detail comes from, how volume is formed and why this happens. This mental process helps to understand how to distribute chiaroscuro, which area will be immersed in the shadow, where the penumbra is located and where the light falls.
We eliminate defects in stages
If you encounter difficulties in working with the form, you should act in this way:
- We visually divide the form into several planes that create its volume.
- We analyze how the form is arranged, then we build it with the help of conditional planes or with the help of construction lines, you can combine all the methods together.
- If none of the methods help, you need to generalize the picture. It is necessary to assemble all the small parts together using conditional planes.
How to improve the skill
In order for the hand and eye to get used to drawing, it is necessary to make sketches every day that help to understand the nature and improve your skill. Try to capture volumes of nature, as well as planes and aspect ratios. Regularly sketch from nature. You can watch TV and try to capture the pictures you see on the screen. Keep your pen and sketchbook handy. Draw everything you see, take the necessary equipment and make sketches in the subway and at the train stations, where there is a huge crowd of people. Train the skill every day, compare ratios and volumes. To do this, you can use photographs or drawings from books. Learn to focus on general forms and don't get hung up on trifles. Only in such ways can you improve your skills.