How to draw a portrait with a simple pencil. How to Draw a Face: Basics and Proportions

If you have never painted a portrait before, do as Van Gogh did - paint yourself! Armed with a drawing pad or even office paper taped to hardboard, a Comte pencil or a piece of grape charcoal (a soft pencil will do) and a mirror, sit in front of the mirror and take a close look at your features. Arrange your workplace so that the light falls on one side. If you are right-handed, the light source should be on your left and slightly above you.

Find a piece of paper larger than your head so that your drawing is the same size as the subject being portrayed, in this case, yourself. Keep your head straight while drawing. Use your eyes, not your head, to look down at the paper. Don't turn your head from side to side. There are several approaches that artists use. I'll start with the approach of my favorite portrait painter, Richard Schmid: look at one of your eyes. Study it carefully. First, you will draw the eye and gradually move away from it, matching the proportions and measuring carefully.

See how the upper eyelid compares to the lower. Is there a noticeable crease above the eyeball or not? Are the eyebrows thick or sparse, curved, straight or sloping? Using very light pressure, draw an oval on the paper, roughly representing the proportions and shape of your left eye.

Don't worry about the rest of the head, hair, or neck for now, but leave room for them on paper for later. For the first time, drawing a face is easier when looking directly at a mirror. Most of the faces are quite symmetrical, but still not quite. Pay attention to the distance from the right to the left eye. Using the width of the eye as the base unit of measurement, measure the width of the space between the eyes and carefully draw the outline, eyelid and iris of the left eye, then mark the space between the eyes, then draw the outline and details of the right eye. Mark the direction and width of the eyebrows.

Draw a very light vertical line down the center of the space between the eyes down to the bottom of the chin and up to the hairline. This will help your drawing stay symmetrical.

Measure the width of the eye and compare this distance with the distance between the inner corner of the eye and the lower edge of the nose. Make a short light line at the edge of the nose. Match the width of the eye with the width of the nose. Make marks indicating the width of the nose on both sides of the vertical line. Then match the distance between the edge of the nose and the dividing line of the lips. Check out these proportions! Their correct calculation provides a good portrait and similarity.

Find the width of the cheekbones and mark them with a light mark, then move to the side towards the ears. Ears are very difficult to draw, for each person they are completely unique. The top of the ear is usually somewhere around the level of the eyebrows, but again, look carefully before you draw. Each person's face is unique!

Describe the features of the chin and jawbone.

Mark the height and width of the hair and carefully draw its outlines, adding tone in terms of lightness or darkness of the hair. Don't worry about the details! When you look at someone's hair, you notice color and shape, not individual hairs. The same should be true for your drawing.

Once you have the proportions in place, take a look at the highlights and shadows on the object. Lightly shade the dark areas to get a sense of volume. Work on the darkest areas first - usually the iris. Leave white curved spot of light on the iris. Note that the eyeball is curved and that one side of the eyeball is somewhat shaded. Look carefully at the proportions and location of the light spots.

Pay attention to the shape and proportions of the upper and lower eyelids. Don't worry about the lashes - they can be lightly outlined later with a darker line.

I outline the shape of the skull and the curves of the flesh that covers it, gradually shading the sides of the face and jaw, the eye sockets, the depression in the skull above the eyes, then highlight the lighter areas in the tone of the hair.

Lightly shade the shady side of the nose and try to capture its unique shape, especially the tip. This is another characteristic feature of the face.

A portrait is usually an image of a face, or a face and the upper body to the shoulders or to the waist. Sometimes the portrait is drawn in full growth. It often happens that a child wants to draw someone's portrait. Your relative or friend, for example. But you need to have some skills in drawing a portrait, otherwise it will turn out clumsily and incorrectly. We have already taught you how to draw a portrait of your mother in general terms. Now here we will learn how to draw a portrait of a girl in stages with a pencil. In the same way, following our tips, you can draw anyone's portrait. The principles of drawing are the same. So, to business!

Stage 1. Draw a sheet of paper into four identical squares. To do this, we divide a sheet of paper into equal segments from above, below and from the sides and connect the points together with two straight lines intersecting at right angles. It turned out four squares. In them we will draw parts of the portrait.

Stage 2. Then we divide the upper left square by another segment into two identical rectangles. In the two lower squares, we draw three straight lines at the same distance from each other: one goes the entire width of the squares, the other two lines are only in the lower left square.

Stage 3. In the two lower squares, starting from the lower midpoint, draw up the contours of the face: left and right. These lines should be perfectly symmetrical to each other. They go along the lower left and lower right squares and cross the median line. It turns out an oval - the lower part of the face - the chin and cheeks.

Stage 4. Now we denote the line of the nose with two straight lines. We are also starting to do the hair. We draw hair in the upper part of the head. On the right, we make a parting, from which the hair lies in neat waves on the temples and falls on the cheeks almost to the neck line. We draw hair with wavy lines.

Stage 6. Under the eyebrows, we will show almond-shaped elongated eyes. We draw the upper and lower eyelids. Below between the nostrils we show the tip of the nose. It is in the form of small dashes.

Stage 7. On the upper and lower eyelids, draw frequent, curved up and down cilia. Between the centuries we show the eyeballs themselves with pupils. Be sure to make reflections of light in the pupils.

Stage 8. Under the nose, with two small dashes, we will show a small notch that reaches the mouth. The mouth is drawn between the auxiliary lines. Upper lip first, then lower lip. We draw a line between them. The mouth is quite plump, beautiful. Please note that here we also noted the tips of the ears under the strands of hair from the sides of the face.

Stage 9. This is how the black and white version of the portrait should look in general. In this case, a portrait of a young girl. Once again, carefully look at whether you have erased all the auxiliary lines and left only the necessary lines of the portrait itself. You should get a symmetrical face with respect to these very auxiliary lines.

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.

Tools and materials:

1. White sheet of paper.
2. Simple pencil.
3. Eraser.

Stages of work:

Photo 1. With a simple pencil, outline the height and width of the man's face. Each person has a different size, but the average height is one and a half times the width. This is what you need to focus on:

Photo 2. We draw a portrait in full face, so the task is a little easier. We make the right and left sides symmetrical. Let's draw a rounded frontal part, and on top we outline the cheekbones and chin:

Photo 3. On the upper part of the face, draw an oblique line along which we will later place the hair. On the sides we retreat a small distance and fix it (for the ears). Above the forehead, draw a curved line to determine the height of the hair:

Photo 4. Draw a center line across the entire face. It is no secret that it helps in building facial features to make them more even. To find the location of the eyes, you need to divide the entire height of the head in half, which we did by drawing a horizontal line. Now let's add the height of the nose. It is located just above the middle of the lines of the eyes and chin:

Photo 5. Next, draw the width of the mouth. From the extreme corners of the nose we will draw lines expanding to the bottom. And from the chin we draw parallel lines. These four lines intersect approximately halfway between the nose and chin:

Photo 6. Let's draw the nose, defining its width. Adding ears. They will mutely cover the top with hair:

Photo 7. Our man will have wide eyebrows. For now, outline their width with a line. We are not in a hurry to work out their details. Let's draw the shape of the hair and the lower part of the face, softening the lines:

Photo 8. Now we can add the eyes. Here it is important not to darken, so we make the lines light. Shade the eyebrows and draw the nose:

Photo 9. Let's move on to the lips. We make them of medium size with pointed edges. We make the chin rounded:

Photo 10. At this stage, we outline the location of the bristles near the nose:

Photo 11. We select with a simple pencil the main features of the face: contour, eyes, nose:

Photo 12. We start shading the face. First you need to draw the edges of the face:

Photo 13. Now let's lay strokes on both sides of the nose, the upper lip and the inside of the eyes:

Photo 14. Thanks to more pressure on the pencil, select the eyes and eyebrows:

Photo 15. Draw a shadow on the cheekbones, beard and hair:

Photo 16. We continue to increase the saturation of the shadows and work out the details:

Photo 17. From below, draw in simple lines the neck, shoulders and clothes of the guy. We enhance the contrast of the face, highlighting the cheekbones, mouth and eyes:

Hello dear readers of my blog. I'm in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. More recently, I started to get involved in pencil drawing. My buddy is so good at it that I asked him for a couple of lessons. And I also asked him to write an article, specifically for beginners in drawing, such as me, which describes in detail all the stages of drawing. Today, in this article, he shares his tips and secrets.

Before I start, I want to reveal the secret of how my friend learned to draw. He took a video course Draw a portrait from a photo"and the result is on the face. Moreover, the author of the course promises a full refund if you do not learn how to draw. But as my friend says, this is simply not possible! The course is very clear and everything is shown with examples.

Draw a portrait from a photo

Drawing something is not easy, but the process of mastering the technique of creating a portrait will go much faster if you take a few tips from this article into service.

After all, as it happens, you seem to draw, erase, draw again, harass "tons" of paper, but there are no results. What is the reason for such failures?

The thing is that when trying to draw the eyes, nose or other parts of the model, beginners lose sight of the fact that the picture should be written from the whole to the particular.

How to draw a portrait with a pencil step by step for beginners? Moving from simple to complex. I'll give you an example. Remember how a man emerges from the fog? First, vague outlines appear. With the disappearance of haze, facial features become clearer. It should also be on paper.

There are three angles: profile, full face and half turn - the so-called three-quarters.

Beginners may be advised to try to paint a portrait of a person sitting in three-quarters or to the side. Then, when the technique of creating a face in a half-turn has been perfected, it will be possible to work on more complex techniques, writing a face full face.

However, if you believe in yourself, you can try to draw a straight sitting person from life.

Where to start?

The frame or basis of the portrait is the oval of the head and the points of location of the eyes, ears, chin, nose, eyebrows. To make it clearer, I will show you how to mark the contours of the face. Take, for example, the portrait of a girl.

What shape of head does she have? ovoid? Round? Oval with a square chin?

You can buy here.

Extend the pencil in your hand, pointing it towards the model. Mark the distance between the top of the head and the chin on paper. Also note the width. Now put all these values ​​on paper using dots, not forgetting about proportions and scale.

To draw from a photo, measure the parameters with a ruler, outline the estimated width and height of the head. Write the shape of the head.

Remember that the width of the head is ¾ of the height. In reality, there may be deviations of 1-2 cm. So, carefully measure the height and width, check their ratio.

The outlines should be light and delicate, barely noticeable. An HB pencil is suitable for this. Now you are ready for the next step.

Many try to master the art of drawing a portrait, but they fail. Either the nose is swollen, like a pig's, or the eyes are too small. It is important at this stage to compare the standard with the original (model or photo).

Each person has his own characteristics. It can be wide cheekbones, a large bulbous nose, deep-set eyes. Look and notice. How do you usually draw? Where do you start your work?

Reference

The golden rule of portrait painters is the so-called standard. A unique masterpiece, that is, a face, is subsequently molded from it.

It included the following components:

1. The segment exactly in the middle between the crown of the head and the chin indicates the line of the eyes.
2. The next line runs in the middle between the eyebrow line and the end of the chin. This is the nose line.
3. Divide the segment between the nose and chin into three parts. The lower border of the upper third is the location of the lips. It can be a little higher or lower, it all depends on the characteristics of the person.
4. To find the brow line, divide the height of your head by three and a half. Half of the three parts indicates the hairline. The second feature behind it is the eyebrow line. The third feature is the line of the nose.

After you have outlined the oval, mark the protruding elements:

• cheekbones;
• chin.

Divide your face in half vertically. In the case of a half turn, see an example.

The line passes and divides the "egg" in half. One half should be smaller than the other, as it is farther away.

chopping head

In professional art schools, beginner portrait painters study the so-called "stump". This is a human head, presented in a simplified version.

We will try to draw a kind of stump of our model in a simple design.

This is the second stage.

Note the characteristics of the person:

• the thickness of the cheekbones, the inflowing and protruding parts of the face, a kind of relief;
• the thickness of the bridge of the nose, the base of the nose;
• the width and height of the eyes, their location;
• thickness and width of the lips;
• eyebrows, their bend, direction, thickness;
• chin shape: triangular, square, etc.

Now, let me show you how to draw eyes.

Spherical mirrors

The eyes are a round sphere. This roundness must be conveyed on the sheet. At the same time, the whites of the eyes are never left white, but set off, adding a nut. To make it clear that the eye has a spherical shape.

Finding the eye is pretty easy. Divide the width of the head into five parts. The 2nd and 4th parts represent the eyes. But these are the proportions for the full face. How to draw eyes in a half turn?

In this case, you simply mark the very eye socket, recess or temporal part of the head and dance from it. Measure the farthest eye, it is smaller in size than the second. Measure the distance between the eyes and mark on paper. Also repeat for the other eye.

Outline the eye with a quadrilateral, marking the width and height with notches.

Look carefully at the model or photo. What is the shape of the eyes of the original? How is the width related to the height of the eye?

Draw line segments showing the position of the eyelids.

At the same time, the lower eyelid is never made dark. Take a closer look at how to depict the thickness of the lower eyelid. It is a tone darker than the whites of the eyes.

Nose

Now let's start creating the plane of the nose. To do this, you need to know several relationships:

1. Draw lines parallel to each other from the corners of the inner eyelid down. Mark the location of the wings of the nose.
2. When creating a face in a half turn, the second line coming from the far eye will hide behind the bridge of the nose.

Construct a trapezoid at the base of the nose, having previously drawn the lines of the back of the nose. To do this, put a pencil parallel to the vertical axis and remember the angle between the back of the nose and the axis, transfer to paper.

Lips

The location of the lips can be found like this. If you divide the height of the head into 8 parts, then the fifth line down from the crown of the head will be the line of the lips.

Write the mouth as if it were drawn on a cylinder.

The upper lip should be 1/3 of the height of the lips. The width of the lips is equal to the distance between the center of the pupils. In a half turn, measure in the photo and adjust to your scale.

There is another measure of the width of the lips: it is equal to a segment of one and a half eyes.

Ears

How to draw ears, look at the pictures. The ear is located between the brow and nasal lines.

In the ¾ portrait, the man is depicted with one ear, the second ear is “hidden”. Remember, the ear should be tilted towards the head.

It can be determined by drawing a straight line connecting the jugular cavity and the ear. Or simply by attaching a pencil to the photo, measuring the angle of inclination by eye.

memo

And some more rules:

1. If you are painting a waist-deep portrait of a person, determine the axis that bisects the face so that you can locate the eyes, nose and ears, eyebrows, etc. It passes through the jugular cavity or between the collarbones in the center;
2. The width of the head along the line of the eyes is 2/3 of its height;
3. The widest part of the head is the basis for finding the width of the lower jaw (¾ of the larger value).

Detailing

The third stage of creating a portrait includes detailed drawing. Remove extra lines, start to achieve similarity with the photo. At the same time, measure the width of the eyes, nose and other parts and compare them with the width of the face. Draw smooth lines, roundness.

The last final stage is hatching.

Hatch from dark areas gradually moving to the lightest. Lastly, highlight, add highlights to the pupils, the tip of the nose and other parts.

Probably, there are no people in the world who at least once in their life did not pick up a brush or a pencil.

The activity is exciting and interesting, but not easy. And to depict a person on canvas is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks.

Types of portraits

To better understand how to draw a portrait, you first need to understand the classification - what are they?

By genre	By composition	Format
Historical	portrait-painting	Full length
Psychological	Portrait walk	Generational
Costume	parade	By the hips
Mythological	semi-front	Waist-high
Family	Group	Chest
Portrait of a man, woman, children	Doubles	Shoulders
self-portrait	Individual	In a quarter turn
Estate-social	Chamber	Full face
cartoon, caricature, miniature		in profile
By photo		half turn
		At three quarters

Historical - the picture depicts a person known in history. Often such images were made according to the surviving descriptions of contemporaries.

Costumed - a person appears in some way. This can be either an outfit of a fictional character - a hero of myths, films, comics, books - or an image of a real person, usually known. In the old days, it was precisely such portraits of the nobility and rulers that were made ceremonial - that is, in full growth, against a bright background, with all the paraphernalia.

But the costume can be more modest, just reflect the occupation - this is a military, class-social portrait - when trying on the costume of a peasant, merchant, etc. This view was usually semi-ceremonial - that is, with a more modest background and not in full growth.

Mythological - they write a fabulous creature from a living person.

Costumed, psychological and historical portraits often take the form of a walking or painting portrait, where the characters are presented in certain atmospheres and environments.

Psychological - the main goal of the artist is to convey on the canvas the inner world, the experiences of the hero.

Group, pair - a group of persons is depicted, in some way connected with each other - for example, a family portrait.

Individual - the whole composition is dedicated to one person.

Self-portrait - the artist paints his face.

Caricature, caricature, miniature - simple drawings, usually made in pencil, ink or watercolor. Such sketches resemble sketches, since the draftsman draws out only the main features of the face without detailed drawing. The cartoon and caricature are humorous, satirical in nature with the aim of ridiculing the object.

According to photography - a portrait from a photo is a fairly new direction, at first not recognized.

Chamber - the most common type. Neutral background, careful drawing of details, the human figure is depicted to the waist, chest or shoulders.

in profile

half turn

At three quarters

What do you need to draw?

Before you start drawing lessons, you need to get everything you need. First, it is a work surface.

Ideally, this should be an easel, but for the first time, a regular table may also work.

Easels are metal and wooden.

It is better to choose with a stand for accessories.

To fix the sheet on the easel, you need push pins for wood and magnets for metal.

Now what we will draw on is the canvas.

The first sketches can be done in a regular album, but for a full-fledged drawing, you will need A3 sheets.

For paints, it is advisable to purchase your own type of paper:

• paper - acrylic, gouache, tempera, oil;
• thick watercolor paper;
• tinted - for pastels, sanguine, coal;
• paper for drawing, drawing paper - for working with a pencil.

Instruments:

1. Utility knife or sharpener. Professional artists use a clerical knife to sharpen pencils - this makes the tip of the lead extremely sharp and thin, which allows you to draw clear and even lines. It is not difficult to learn how to sharpen with a knife - you need to draw the blade from the wooden base to the tip of the stylus from all sides, while not pressing hard on the knife.
2. You need a palette to mix colors.. Best of all - plastic, it is easiest to wash off the paint from it. You can buy it in a store - but plastic caps from cosmetics, etc. will also work as a palette.
3. brushes. For watercolor - squirrel or columns. For gouache and tempera, synthetics, bristles, and natural materials are suitable. For acrylic, oil - bristles and synthetics.
4. Palette knife. Spatula for applying and scraping paint, great for acrylics and oils.
5. Bucket for water, rags for brushes and for hands.

Materials:

1. The pencils. You will need a set of art pencils for drawing of different hardness.
2. Paints. The most basic are gouache and watercolor. Acrylic and tempera are distinguished by their brightness and density, they are often recommended for children. The oil technique is the most difficult.
3. Crayons. Pastel - for color work, sanguine and charcoal - for a monochrome drawing.

Where to start learning?

Mothers themselves can teach their child the basics of drawing - this is not so difficult as it seems at first glance. The main thing is to devote time to the matter every day, and the result will not keep you waiting.

Stages of learning:

1. First of all, you need to try to work with all the materials. Each of them has its own composition, texture, features - a gouache stroke lays down tightly, watercolor stains spread smoothly, a soft pencil draws a thick rich line and is easily smeared, a hard one almost scratches the sheet. Take an album or a notebook and try everything there is to your heart's content.
2. The next step is to learn how to hold the brush and pencil correctly. There are all sorts of options on this topic, but everyone holds the way they feel comfortable. One general rule: the pencil should not be held like a pen when writing, so that the hand does not block the drawing. In this case, the tool should “fly” in the hand - both up and down, and in all directions. Therefore, we clamp not at the base, but a little lower, almost in the middle, while the index and thumb lie freely on the cone.
3. Now about how to draw with a simple pencil:
   • First, just draw the lines. Straight lines, obliquely, in a wave, in a semicircle - gradually the lines will come out clear and confident. The main thing here is training.
     
     
   • Hatch. First, we draw the strokes in one direction, then in different ones, and then we combine, for example, vertical and horizontal, but without superimposing one on the other, but placing them perpendicular to each other. The next step is to draw simple geometric shapes.
     
   • . The concept of perspective is that objects narrow as they move away from a certain point towards the horizon. The ability to draw in perspective is necessary when you need to depict a figure sideways or turning the head. It is not difficult to see it in the environment: it can be a corridor, a room, a street. If you pay attention, you can see that all the lines go obliquely from the viewer and connect at one point. To get acquainted with a perspective image in practice, we start with the simplest: a road, a corridor, etc., and then draw geometric shapes in the same way.
     
4. We mix different colors on the palette to get shades. It is believed that there are only three primary colors - red, yellow, blue, and all other colors are shades, the result of mixing. When working with paints, with the exception of watercolors, we use white.
5. Finally, you can try to draw a face. We draw from pictures - at first from the simplest, cartoonish ones, gradually moving on to more complex ones.

Learn to Draw a Portrait - A Step by Step Guide for Beginners

In this lesson we will draw a female face. This drawing scheme is universal, it can be used to make a portrait of both a boy and a girl.

Construction of the head and general contour:

Working with Planes

Now let's draw the planes in the form of geometric shapes. Let's start with the nose - we outline the back and wings of the nose with a rectangle. Then we select the plane of the cheekbones in the form of a trapezoid, circle the eyes and lips.

We have broken the future drawing into main parts. You can draw the forehead, eyebrows and chin in the same way.

Face detail - eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, ears

Eyes and eyebrows:

1. We draw the contours of the upper and lower eyelids. Please note that the eyelids are different from each other, draw very carefully so as not to miss a single detail.
2. We draw the entire iris - that is, the part that is hidden by the upper eyelid.
3. Designate the pupil and glare (reflected light).
4. Let's move on to shading the mirror surface of the eye. We leave the highlight unpainted. The iris is darker at the outer edge and along the contour - in the center and at the pupil it is lighter.
5. We work on the eyelids and the area around the eye. We designate the shadows - on the crease of the upper eyelid, lower, at the bridge of the nose. The ciliary edge of the lower eyelid remains light, and the white of the eye is darker along the contour at the edge of the eyelid. The shadow from the upper eyelid partly falls on the eyeball.
6. We create volume with a stroke, painting over the entire area - from the eyebrows to the lower eyelid.
7. We draw eyebrows. We draw the main line and from it we begin to draw each hair with a soft pencil, all in one direction. We also draw eyelashes.

1. Outline the main parts - the back, wings of the nose, nostrils. Draw in detail the outer and inner edges of the nostrils.
2. Define the shadows. Conditionally divide all planes into three - shadow, transition, light part (we do not hatch it).
3. Detailed shading.

1. Let's sketch a general outline. First of all, draw a line between the lips. To do this, draw three circles - two below, close to each other, in place of the lower lip, and one at the top, in the middle between the lower ones, so that the circle falls into the hole between them. The line where all three circles connect will be the line between the lips. Outline the contour of the lips in circles, finish drawing the corners, give the upper lip the shape of an onion. Do not forget that the lower lip is slightly larger than the upper.
2. We shade. The upper lip is always darker. Pay attention to the side shadows.
3. We give volume with the help of hatching, working out in detail the corners, side shadows and the line between the lips.

1. We carefully draw all the parts - curls, ear canal, fossa, lobe.
2. We apply a shadow and do hatching, especially concentrating on small details, transitions from light to shadow - the ear is the most difficult in this regard.

Hatching and halftones

As already mentioned, the volume depends on the stroke. To draw a beautiful, expressive picture - you need to be good at hatching techniques.

Ideally, you need to have a full set of pencils of different softness. This is important not only for the saturation and depth of the hue (soft ones give a dark deep tone, hard ones give light and light lines) - this is important both in technical terms and for conveying the density and structure of the subject.

A hard pencil sketch is made without shading, because it overlaps easily and will not be visible in the final version.

Soft pencil and draws softly. It is ideal for shadows, as well as for visually conveying the softness of the depicted nature - they are good at drawing hair and clothes.

Hatching technique involves combining strokes of different lengths and directions.

All the strokes are superimposed evenly, neatly, one to another, the stroke should not be “hairy” and chaotic, there is no need to impose too many layers of hatching in one place - otherwise it will just be dirt.

To create smooth transitions, for example, to mark a fold, we impose short strokes at the transition point, in other places using a longer stroke.

When you need to create a transition from dark to light, create halftones - first we stroke the entire plane with the lightest tone, and then paint over the shadow with a softer pencil.

In certain cases, you can slightly shade the transition point with your fingertip - for example, when drawing shadows at the bridge of the nose.

An example of creating a portrait step by step in the photo:

Highlight and darken

Darkening is not done with a hard pencil. In order for the stroke not to be visible and for the transitions to be smooth, the strokes should be very small.

In darker places, deepen the tone as much as necessary by applying several layers of shading. We either don’t stroke light places at all, or we take the hardest one.

You can also use the eraser to create a highlight.

Video tutorial on drawing a portrait from a photo:

Portraits for sketching

Working with nature is very difficult. Before that, it is advisable to take an already drawn portrait and repeat it on paper. This practice will help to fill your hand and learn the technical side of the work, as well as to study the techniques used by artists.

How to learn to paint portraits with paints?

How to draw with a pencil, we have dismantled. Now let's talk about painting with paints. This video will talk about different techniques, completely different - and about watercolor painting, and about working with oil. Everyone can choose what they like.

Drawing in watercolor. Video lesson:

Oil painting basics for beginners. Video lesson:

In conclusion of the article, it is worth noting that the most important secret of success in drawing is perseverance and daily practice. Don't give up if you don't succeed the first time. Try again and draw a portrait for sure.