How to draw portraits of people. How to draw a person's face

A portrait is a complex form of fine art. It is necessary not only to convey the picture, but also to emphasize the depth of the look, to express emotions, to portray them alive and natural, to endow the character with individual features, facial expressions, inherent in every person “zest”.

We have selected the best free step-by-step video tutorials and instructions for beginner artists that will help you learn how to draw portraits with a pencil, paint or from a photograph from scratch, as well as master the initial skills of portrait painters, pay attention to shortcomings, get your hand in mastering basic techniques at home.

The author of the video, based on a long practice, shares the secrets and skills of depicting a person as similar as possible to himself. Teaches you to pay attention to the proportions, shapes of the parts of the face and the gaps between them, to small deviations from the standard appearance of the average person. He recommends asking yourself questions (what is the geometry of the chin, its size) and mentally answering. You should not start from one photo as a source, it is better that there are several of them and from different angles. The mistake is absolute symmetry. You should not quit work if, after drawing half, there is no obvious resemblance. The material is presented in a simple accessible form, easy to understand.

Working with reference

As a basis, the author takes several pictures of the character from different angles in order to have the most complete picture of him. Starts by drawing a circle - all parts of the face are distributed on its base. It is recommended to always go from the general to the details (from proportions, basic positions of the parts of the face). It is important to look for the distinctive features of a person, to avoid excessive approximation of the work, when the proportions are not fully conveyed. It is undesirable to finish portraits in one go, you can even stretch them out for several days, look from afar, which will allow you to notice flaws. The host explains and demonstrates each step, which makes the video suitable for beginners.

Possible mistakes

Lesya Poplavskaya analyzes typical mistakes - she divides the sheet into two halves and draws an oval: on one half - correct features, on the other - incorrect ones. From the lesson, viewers will learn the rules for marking the face, the location of the lips, the bridge of the nose, the eyebrows of the back and the tip of the nose. Lesya draws attention to the need to work out small details - be sure to build the bridge of the nose, which is often absent, a hole above the upper lip, the back of the nose should be equal to the length of the chin and half of the forehead, it is not recommended to draw eyebrows to the very edge of the face. The lesson lasts half an hour, during which time beginners are given all the basic information in an accessible form.

Young woman

Maria Ponomareva talks in detail about the pencil technique and the nuances in the process, which is based on classical principles. Maria analyzes each detail in detail on a separate piece of paper, then connects everything on a sheet with a circle, finalizes her hair, neck, ears. According to Maria, drawing a portrait is not difficult if you practice and recreate each element separately, connecting the picture at the end. Under the video are links to master classes on the image of individual elements - hairstyles, eyes, nose.

Princess

The author of the RybaKit video channel teaches girls how to create a princess with felt-tip pens and crayons. First, he draws a chin, long hair with bangs, a neck, shoulders and a dress - to the end of the sheet. Then - symmetrical eyes, eyelashes, mouth and eyebrows. The contours are drawn with a black felt-tip pen, after which the details are painted with crayons in accordance with the required color. The result is not at the level of a professional artist, but accessible for drawing by a child.

Profile

Alexander Peleshko, using the example of a man's head, shows in stages how to draw a hero in profile. The head fits into a square. For credibility, you will have to measure vertically and horizontally. The square is vertically divided into zones: three are identical, the fourth is slightly smaller. It is not necessary to do this, but such lines are auxiliary for building the head. The same can be done horizontally. It turns out a kind of markup. Lastly, Alexander adds hair. At the bottom, you can add a neck, a collar of clothes and shoulders.

Watercolor

Elena Goryunova, the owner of a studio in St. Petersburg, gives step-by-step recommendations on watercolor technique. The character is formed from a general image - a contour is applied, the shape of the hairstyle. In the sketch (for contrast), Elena suggests using two line thicknesses, gives a list of necessary materials, which makes it easier for beginners. It is advisable to take a limited palette, which contributes to the harmonious construction of the picture. Before you start applying watercolor, you should practice with a pencil. The video is accompanied by light pleasant music.

By photo

Tatyana Izotova gives general information about the structure of the head, the breakdown of the base oval into parts vertically and horizontally. The future artist must learn to be well versed in all lines, proportions, as they will help to capture the asymmetry that exists in life, the individual characteristics of the model. The next step is drawing from a photo with a practical explanation from the presenter. Periodically, in the course of creativity, you have to double-check all distances. The main thing is not to be afraid of mistakes in order to ultimately achieve positive results.

Mom and Dad

A lesson for children from which they will learn about the main techniques and features using the example of drawing dad and mom. All you need is paper and a pencil. Olga, the host of the video, will explain and show universal techniques for female (mother) and male (dad) images, draw attention to the differences, show how to repeat this or that feature, focusing on the gender of the character - a man has a chin, a wider nose, straight eyebrows and wide, eyelashes are not so long. Dad can have a beard and mustache. The video is intended for children, but the lesson can also be used by adults who are mastering the first steps in this direction.

Oil

Yuri offers a master class on painting a portrait in oil. Talks about colors, palette and materials. Tip: the less experience, the fewer colors you need to use. The main paints are titanium white, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium red. Additionally, you will need a palette knife (thin spatula) for mixing paints, a rag for wiping the palette knife and brushes, nylon hard brushes, special paper for the oil composition. Yuri forms a sketch and only then takes paints. At the same time, he tells what to focus on, how to achieve naturalness and similarity with the original.

Pencil portrait

This type of activity trains perseverance, observation, eye, visual perception, fine motor skills, memory, objective and figurative thinking, diligence, intuition. It is not necessary to become a great artist - the main value is the procedure itself, which allows you to release creative inclinations and find yourself. In addition to the classic approach, there are many options - a pen, crayons, felt-tip pens, charcoal, ink, pen. But masters recommend starting with mastering the pencil before moving on to something more complex.

Today's lesson is devoted to such a type of drawing as a portrait. A portrait is an image of a person or a group of people that exists (or existed) in reality. The main task of the portrait is to repeat the lines of a living face with an artistic interpretation. For example, I took a photo of a wonderful American singer, actress Debbie Ryan. Here is her photo: I will say right away that the portrait is one of the most difficult types of drawing, since we have to convey all the features of a person. If you don’t succeed the first time, don’t be discouraged, people learn from mistakes =). So let's try draw a portrait of this girl step by step with a pencil.

STEP 1. Start drawing with a circle describing the face. On it, apply light strokes where the eyes and nose will be located. STEP 2. Now, with light strokes, sketch out the contours of the real shape of the head. Please note that it has a slightly square shape. Add bangs tilted to the right side like y. STEP 3. Let's move on to the outline of the elements of the face. Sketch thin eyebrows, upper eyelids, and eyelashes with strokes. Then start drawing the nose. The nose is a very important part of a portrait that is sometimes overlooked by beginners. This element can drastically change the entire portrait as a whole. We'll take a closer look in the next lessons. We step further. 4. It remains for us to finish sketching the eyes. Here you need to carefully outline the eyeballs. Add also cilia and upper, lower eyelids. STEP 5. You are almost there. Now we have to draw the mouth. Look closely at her lips. (Do you want to learn how to draw lips correctly? Then read the lesson: How to draw a smile) Draw folds on the skin to show her emotions, a smile. The lips are slightly raised. The edges can be shaded a little with a pencil. STEP 6. The last thing we need to do is a hairstyle. She has long straight hair, slightly wavy. Try to draw with smooth lines, and you can also add some thicker lines to create the effect of voluminous hair. After all that has been done, we erase the auxiliary lines with an eraser, refine the edges. We should get this picture: I hope everything worked out for you. Ask questions about the lesson. Show off your masterpieces! Leave your comments below, write what pencil drawing lessons you still want to see. I recommend taking the following lessons:

drawing a portrait For a novice artist, it seems an incredibly difficult undertaking. Often beginners rush to create a portrait without learning its basic principles and techniques. Each face drawing ends in disappointment, which can lead to an absolute loss of interest. Do not give up, because every portrait painter started by learning the basic rules, practiced them, made dozens of mistakes and eventually achieved positive results. Now we will analyze drawing a portrait with a pencil, its features and rules. They will help to achieve the correctness, and most importantly, the realism and high quality of the portrait.

There are three main positions in which a face can be placed in a portrait.

1. Full face- the direct position of the head, in which the entire face and its features are fully visible. The head is not tilted, so the ears are not fully visible.

2. Profile- the lateral position of the head, in which only half of the face is visible. This is the left or right part, on which the eye, ear, half of the nose and mouth are located.

3. three quarters- this is the position between full face and profile. Usually one of the sides of the face is completely visible, and on the other side only parts of the face are slightly visible.

Features of the position in profile and full face, their standard parameters

Full face:

1. The pupils are located strictly in the middle of the face. If you divide the face horizontally into two parts, you can see that the eyes will be at the level of the line, or rather, the pupils.
2. The tip of the nose is in the middle of the face, between the eyebrows and the chin.
3. The line of the mouth is located between the tip of the nose and the chin.
4. The height from the hairline to the edge of the top of the head is equal to the height from the pupils to the tip of the nose.
5. The width of the face is measured by the width of five eyes horizontally. Height from chin to lower lip - with one eye (vertically deployed).
6. The upper part of the ear is at eye level, and the lower part is at the tip of the nose.

Profile:

1. The ear is in the midline, which divides the head in half.
2. The base of the nose is located in the middle of the face.

Let's talk about the parts of the face. Each person has their own individual shape and size, but the construction is similar for everyone. We will analyze what structure certain parts have and how to do it correctly.

Eye:

1. Its corners have different heights. Usually the outer part is higher than the inner.
2. The iris is not fully visible when a person looks straight ahead. Fully visible only when a person looks down.
3. The lashes on top are longer than the ones on the bottom.
4. Always draw the iris and pupil. The eye looks quite artificial and cartoonish when one of these parts is not there.

Nose:

1. In full face, the tip and wings of the nose are clearly visible, and the trunk is only depicted with the help of shadows.
2. If you depict the nose in profile, then only the outline of one side and the nostril are visible.
3. A difficult angle is considered to be three-quarters. Here you need to be careful so that the nose is natural. This view combines "full face" and "profile", so it is important to evenly highlight the contour, wings and tip.

Lips:

1. The mouth line, which is in the middle, will have a clearer appearance than the lip lines.
2. Draw the lips starting with the top lip because the bottom lip has a more simplified look. It will not be difficult to outline it at the end.
3. The upper lip is usually thinner than the lower.
4. The midline of the mouth will drop slightly towards the edge. Even if a person is depicted with a smile, all the same, at first the corners fall slightly, and then rise again.

In order to fully learn how to draw portraits with a pencil, you need to learn the basics of drawing and human proportions, as well as devote enough time to practice.

If you are new to drawing, then you should not immediately “throw into the pool with your head” and try to master the entire portrait as a whole. First you need to fill your hand in the performance of individual parts: eyes, nose, mouth, as well as ears and neck. You can learn how to draw all these elements in separate lessons on our website.

Step-by-step description of a portrait of a girl in pencil.

Stage one.

Starting to draw a portrait with a pencil, take a good look at the person being portrayed, determine the shape of the face and cheekbones, trace the slope of the lips and determine which one is wider, how the outer and inner corners of the eyes are located relative to each other. Then we draw an oval suitable in shape to a particular person.

Stage two.

We divide our oval into four parts. To do this, we draw a vertical and horizontal line strictly in the middle. Next, we divide the resulting horizontal parts of the lines in half again, marking them with small serifs. We divide the lower part of the vertical line into five equal parts. Remember that these lines are of an auxiliary nature and when our portrait of a girl with a pencil is almost ready, they will need to be erased, so do not put too much pressure on the pencil when drawing them.

Stage three.

We place the center of each eyeball directly above the dividing points of the parts of the horizontal line. We draw the line of the base of the nose at the second serif from the top of the lower part of the vertical axis, and the line of the mouth - in the region of the second serif from below.

Stage four.

We depict the line of the upper eyelid and draw the lips. It should be remembered that the distance between the eyes is equal to the length of one eye. The earlobes should be at the same level with the demolition. Sketch lines mark the outline of the hair.

Stage five.

We proceed to a more detailed drawing of a portrait of a person with a pencil in stages. We depict the upper border of the upper eyelid and the visible part of the lower eyelid. Add a few eyelashes on each upper eyelid. We draw the lines of the eyebrows and the bridge of the nose.

Stage six.

To add volume to our portrait with a simple pencil, we stroke the lips and hair, highlighting dark and light places, adding shadows.

Thus, by drawing several faces, you will see that they differ from each other. Continue to draw a portrait with a pencil in stages until you achieve the maximum similarity.

This is the second lesson of the Spanish artist Luis Serrano, the first was on drawing a male portrait.

We will be painting a portrait of actress Audrey Hepburn from the legendary film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). For the lesson, we need B, 3B and 6B pencils, an eraser, Canson Marfil paper.

To get a well-drawn portrait, it is necessary, first of all, to draw a good sketch. To do this, we must correctly display all the details of the face and proportions in order to achieve a resemblance to the photo. Only in this way will we achieve the best result. If we make a bad sketch, there will be a high probability that our portrait will not turn out. Draw guide lines to make it easier to sketch.

We make a sketch with a pencil B, trying not to put much pressure on the pencil. We start drawing from the left eye, if you are right-handed (if left-handed, then from the right).

We draw other features of the face, constantly comparing with the original and trying to maintain proportions. Try to erase less with an eraser, because the paper gets dirty and deteriorates.

The similarity of the sketch is not very great, but we see that the main features and proportions are conveyed correctly. After you finish the sketch, take a break and look at it with fresh eyes, if everything suits you, move on.

Step 1. Let's start drawing the eyes. We begin to draw the eye with a 3B pencil, namely the pupil and eyelashes. We draw the eye, which is located on the left hand.

Step 2. Look carefully at the top of the eye, the pupil and the eyeball are darkened up the most. the eyelid always casts a shadow, and because of this, the eye does not look flat. We draw eyelashes. First draw a thick line, then add small strokes with a pencil, imitating eyelashes. Make shadows on top of the eye, as well as in the corner of the eye.

Step 3. We draw the second eye, as well as eyebrows. Then we start drawing the nose. All are drawn with a 3B pencil, unless otherwise noted. He starts painting with the nostrils, trying not to make them too big and enlarged so that the nose does not look like a pig. Apply soft shadows on the right and bottom of the nose to give volume to the nose. Shadows should be soft to convey the tone of the photo. We apply shadows on the face on the right side.

Step 4. We continue to shade the face, apply a shadow under the nose and slightly highlight the notch above the upper lip. Very gently and softly apply the shadow on the cheek on the left side. Then we draw the mouth - this is a difficult task, especially if it is open. Fortunately, her teeth are barely visible, so it will be a little easier for us. First of all, we draw the area inside the mouth, do not enlarge the teeth when drawing. When drawing the inside of the mouth, you can use a softer pencil to give it a darker shade. Then we begin to draw the upper lip, creating shadow transitions.

Step 5. Draw the bottom lip. First, shade the upper and lower area of ​​the lower lip, so that the center is untouched, remaining white. Then, with separate strokes, repeating the shape of the lip, we apply shadows on the lower lip, creating an imitation of a glare.

Step 6. Apply shadow to the chin.

STEP 7. Now let's start drawing the hair, for some people this causes panic. But it is necessary to draw the hair in order to achieve the completeness of the portrait, because. traced facial features and underdrawn hair create a terrible impression, it doesn’t eat well. First we will draw the ear, then we will look at the photo and define the dark areas of the hair, then we will draw them.

Step 8. Then darken the lighter area of ​​the hair with a softer tone, the strokes should be uneven. Then we draw lines between the dark areas to simulate the shine of the hair.

If you look at the top of Audrey's head, you will see the result of these actions. Hair, like everything else, has a shadow, brightness. bumps. A typical mistake for beginners is to draw a lot of hairs without defining dark and light areas of the hair, it turns out something like a hair brush. we make this mistake because we know that hair consists of many hairs, but when we look at them, we don’t see every hair, we see the big picture, they become like a whole, having curls, strands. Draw the rest of the hair based on the above.

Step 9. We draw a bang, then draw an earring with a patch of light in the form of a star.

Step 10. We draw an earring, its details are not clear, because. the image is too contrasty and a lot of detail is lost.

Step 11. We apply a shadow on the neck, it should be dark enough so that it can be seen that this is a shadow.

Step 12 Now let's move on to the hand. Many people hate to draw them because don't understand how. In Audrey, the details of the hands are barely visible, we will draw them that way too. We begin to hatch the back of the hand with a very light tone.

Add soft shadows on the fingers. I put a darker shadow on the joints, lightly mark the nails on the index and middle fingers, without going into details.

Step 13 Draw a cigarette. We apply shadows, focusing on dark and light areas.

Step 14. Now we will draw a necklace, but it is hard to see in the photo, so we will turn on the imagination and vision, without going into details, using sharp shadows, we will draw something similar to a necklace.

Step 15. Draw the dress, making the hatching tone dark. In the lower part we make a smooth transition so that it does not hurt the eyes. Then we apply shadows on the shoulder (the strip on the shoulder is the shadow from the nozzle on the cigarette). And we finish our work. We look at it, if you are more or less happy, we sign the work. We drew Audrey Herburn.