Draw a portrait with a pencil. Drawing lessons

As you know, in order for a person to look like himself in a portrait, you need to correctly convey the proportions of the face. The recognition of the picture and the transfer of character depend on this. But before setting such serious tasks, novice artists must first learn how to draw a human head correctly. To help beginners, various methods and schemes are created. IN academic drawing students hone their skills in drawing a plaster head, study plastic anatomy. Without these skills, mastery will not work. And there are no such "miracle techniques" in which a person masterfully draws a portrait the first time. However, to help beginners, I want to offer a simple circuit which will help to initial stage learning. In this head drawing scheme, there are a few simple principles that will help to understand the essence. If a novice artist learns how to apply them in a drawing, then the question will never arise: “Where to start drawing a portrait or a plaster head?”. Drawing a human head will be much easier and beginners will feel much more confident. So what do you need to learn?

1. The shape of the head is more like an egg than a ball. From the side of the chin, the head is narrower, from the side of the back of the head - wider.

2. Eye level is located approximately in the middle of the head.

3. The level of the tip of the nose is approximately in the middle between the eyebrows and the chin.

4. Lips will be located approximately slightly above the middle between the tip of the nose and the chin.

5. To make it easier to draw, always draw a midline or axis of symmetry. This line divides the drawing of the head in half. It will be easier for you to draw the left and right sides of the head evenly. The axis of symmetry will help to avoid curvature in the drawing, when either the right eye is not in its place relative to the left, or something similar is obtained.

Well, in conclusion, I will add that the above patterns are approximate. Each person has his own unique face: someone has a shorter and higher nose, someone has lower and wider eyes ... The transfer of character depends on these features. But no matter how different our faces and characters may be, the laws of the “rule of the middle” are the foundation on which the portrait of a particular person is “built”.

Alexey Epishin

three-quarter turn

Draw a portrait of a young woman

For everything to work out the way it should, you need to start with the basics. Let's try to figure out how to draw a portrait with a pencil - for this we will draw a portrait of a young woman with large expressive eyes.

First you need to make a blank - it will be a circle divided into 4 equal parts and a small elongated part from the bottom. Approximately in the middle of the lower half of the circle, we outline two ovals - the eyes. It is important that the distance between the eyes is equal to the length of the eye itself, and the distance from the edge of the face to the outer corner of the eyes is half this length. Immediately sketch out the line of the mouth - it will be below the circle, at a distance equal to the width of the eye.

Let's add the upper eyelids and eyebrows. The eyebrow should have a curve. It is best to follow this rule: the beginning of the eyebrow should be at the level of the inner corner of the eye, the end - slightly diagonally from the outer.

And now let's deal with the nose - it will be on the bottom of the circle.

And the mouth is on the same strip just below the circle, which we noted in advance.

When drawing lips, it is important to remember that the lower lip should be slightly fuller than the upper. Also, do not make the lip line perfectly straight - it has a kind of bend. And we also outline basic form ears. The lower part of the ear will be approximately in line with the nose, and the upper part will be in line with the upper eyelid.

Let's work on the eyes in more detail. It is important to remember here that there should be a bright spot on the iris - a highlight, and the upper lash line is slightly more expressive than the lower one.

Let's draw other contours. At this stage, all auxiliary lines are also wiped. You also need to draw the ears - cartilage, lobe, etc.

It remains to depict the hair. In no case should you make them a monolithic block - it looks very unnatural. Separate hairs should be visible, laid with slight carelessness. You can also add a little volume: for this, we very easily stroke the shadow part of the face.

Great, our portrait is completely ready. For more details, you can watch this video:

How to draw a male look - the main nuances

If in the previous section we learned how to draw female portrait step by step, now we will practice creating a male portrait.

Let's start with the eyes. They should be fairly elongated and be at a distance of one more eye from each other:

Then we'll add the eyebrows. You should not make them one solid line - the eyebrows consist of individual hairs, often growing at random.

Let's work with the eyes in more detail: make the lash line more expressive and slightly darken the iris. On the iris we leave a small white spot - a highlight. You also need to depict the nose: to choose the correct height, set aside a distance from the eyes that is one and a half times greater than the length of the eye.

Now the mouth. It is located just below the nose. As for the width, then you need to focus on the pupils. Mentally lower vertical lines from the pupils down - this distance will be the line of the mouth.

A little shade is what is needed now. Shade the shadow side of the nose and upper lip.

Now we need to outline the oval of the face and ears. Let's not forget that this male portrait- Cheekbones should be clearly defined.

Now hair. You don’t need to make them “one size fits all” - the direction of the hair on the head can be very different. It is best to draw individual hairs, and not try to make the hairstyle a monolithic piece.

And, of course, the head cannot just hang in the air - you need to finish the neck and shoulders.

And then - enhance the shadows. The direction of each new layer of hatching may not coincide with the previous one - do not be afraid of this.

The stubble will add more masculinity, and the glare in the eyes will make the look more alive.

Draw a girl - a guide for beginners

In this section we will learn how to draw a portrait of a young girl. It is absolutely not necessary to be a professional artist for this: now we will figure out how to draw a portrait for beginners.

First of all, let's draw an oval - the general shape of the face.

Then we mark it: we need to draw a vertical axis of symmetry, as well as three horizontal lines - for the eyes, nose and lips. We will also sketch out the basic shape of the ears - in height they will be located approximately between the line of the eyes and nose.

Let's draw the nose in a little more detail - it should be noted its wings, bridge of the nose, front part.

Now the eyes and eyebrows. To do this, you will need two more auxiliary lines located symmetrically on both sides of the main line of the eyes. It is important to remember that the distance between the eyes should be approximately equal to the length of one eye.

Let's add details. It is necessary to draw our girl's hairline, outline the cheekbones, outline the folds near the eyes.

General sketches are done, so you need to carefully wipe all the auxiliary lines and draw the hair. In order for the hairstyle to look natural, do not make all the strands the same, licked - they should lie down a little carelessly, out of order. Earrings can be inserted into the girl's ears.

Now we need to add volume - we shade the shadow parts, strengthen the contours.

We must not forget about the falling shadows: from the hair, from the nose, the shadow on the neck. This is also neatly shaded. The light parts of the hair can be further lightened with an eraser.

We will strengthen the shadow a little more and add light tones on the strands of hair, lower lip, eyes.

Everything, the portrait of the girl is drawn. If you are interested in this lesson, you can additionally watch this video:

Portrait Lesson for Little Artists

Children often like to draw different characters: book or cartoon characters, just abstract people. This lesson will describe in detail how to draw a portrait of a young girl, so that even the most young artist easily cope with this task.

First you need to outline the oval of the face and divide it into 4 parts.

Then - in in general terms set the shape of the eyes, lips, the location of the tip of the nose.

It is necessary to add details: in the eyes we draw an iris, we give more natural form lips, draw a nose.

And now we need to bring the oval of the face more strongly, draw the upper and lower cilia, pupils and eyebrows.

And, of course, what girl can do without beautiful long hair.

In order to make the drawing look more alive, you need to apply some shadows. This should be done very easily and carefully.

That's all - the portrait of the girl is ready. For a more complete understanding of the lesson, it will be useful to watch this video:

Portrait of a man - learn to draw together

Drawing portraits is a rather difficult task, requiring attention, accuracy and precise proportions. And with the help of this lesson we will learn how to draw a portrait of a person.

It’s worth starting with the basics - let’s depict the oval of the face and divide it into three parts. Attention - the top point of these three fragments should be just below the top point of the oval itself - there will be a hairline.

At the separation points, three horizontal lines must be drawn, and then two more. One will be just below the center mark, and another one will be just below the bottom. Also, symmetrically to the axis from the second base of the mark (eyebrow line) to the bottom (nose line), two vertical lines must be drawn - blanks for the front of the nose.

On this blank we draw a nose - with a nose bridge, a small hump and wings. We also mark the eyes - they will be on a line located just below the eyebrow line. In width, it must be conditionally divided into 5 parts - the eyes will be in 2 and 4 parts.

You also need to depict the lips - they will be on the line located under the line of the nose. The width of the mouth will be determined by the middle of the eyes - from the middle of the left to the middle of the right. It is important to note that the lower lip should be slightly wider than the upper.

A little more details: in the eyes we draw the iris and pupil, add volume to the eyebrows.

Now we draw the hair along the already marked lines and start working with the ears.

We are working on the cheekbones - they are especially pronounced in a man. Also draw the neck - it will be quite massive.

Everything, at this stage, you can erase all additional lines. By the way, you can also add a shirt collar to the picture.

Portrait of a girl - three-quarter turn

Before that, we painted faces mostly in full face - that is, a person looks directly at us. Portraits in profile are also quite common - when a person is located sideways to the artist. But much more complex and interesting is the three-quarter turn - a cross between full face and profile. Let's try to depict such an option.

At first, the general forms are an elongated oval extended upwards and axes of symmetry. Unlike the full-face position, the axles will not divide the oval into almost equal parts - they will follow the line of the oval, leaving a little less space on the side of the turn. So far, we are interested in the lines of the eyebrows and eyes.

Then you can outline the line of hair growth, mouth and begin to draw the nose. As can be seen, its left wing is almost imperceptible, and the left part of the back of the nose is much smaller than the right.

Now the eyes - they are quite large in the girl, with a wide upper eyelid.

Now we draw eyebrows. They are quite thin and widely spaced.

Let's take care of the mouth and chin. The mouth will be small, slightly open. Also at this stage, the lower eyelids will be depicted - they are also wide, which makes it seem that the eyes are a little bulging.

Add strands of flowing long hair.

Everything, now our sketch is ready. We got a real forest nymph - alert, graceful and very beautiful. In order to understand the lesson better, you can watch this video:

Learning to draw a portrait of a teenage girl

The face of an adult is quite noticeably different from the face of a child or teenager in terms of proportions. Therefore, for the full, multifaceted development of you as an artist, it is important to learn how to draw portraits not only of adults, but also of adolescents and children.

First, draw a circle and divide it into 4 equal parts.

On the central line we will make the basic shape for the eyes and eyebrows, and in the lower part - for the nose and mouth. On the sides, at a height from the eyebrows to the nose, there will be ears.

The nose in children is usually quite wide, without a pronounced back.

And the lips are quite plump. As for the width, the line of the mouth should be between the two pupils. For convenience, you can even draw vertical lines down from them. And don't forget about the crease above the upper lip.

Now we will slightly lengthen the oval of the face and start drawing the hair.

Hair should fall in waves, separate large strands. And in these large strands it is necessary to draw individual hairs. Also at this stage, you can erase all auxiliary lines and start working with shadows.

Shading should be easy and very neat. You should remember not only about natural shadows, but also about falling ones.

Everything, now our drawing is completely and completely ready. You can see more nuances and small details here in this video:

where to start drawing a portrait of a person in stages? how to learn to draw a person's face. How to correctly lay penumbra and achieve the desired similarity in portraits with a pencil. How to shade a portrait. Artists will tellWORKSHOPPORTRET-ART.

Most of the portrait artists working in the "pencil" technique worked in various schools, where they studied the skill of depicting a person. All artists, based on their education, have created for themselves their own basis of how to work on the creation of a portrait. In this article, we will share our own secrets of the most common drawing technique.

getting started and building the head

The artists of our workshop work with mechanical pencils, because they provide cleanliness during work, unlike classic pencils, they do not need to be sharpened for a long time, they allow you to deal with small details much faster. To draw a portrait with high quality, we need a “nag”, this is such an artistic eraser with which you can correct your mistakes and not spoil the portrait. For drawing mechanical pencil we need rods. We recommend using refills with softness HB, B, 2B, 4B and 7B (where B means soft and H means hard). Now we need to take an ordinary A4 sheet and place it under your working hand so that it covers the surface that you have already shaded.

First of all, you must study photography, namely general form head, as it is rotated relative to the horizontal and vertical. To draw a portrait of a person with a pencil correctly, we need to know some features of the structure of the skull. This can be seen in any anatomical atlas. Based on the shape of the head of the person you are depicting, you need to apply light lines on paper general outline hair, face oval and outline the line of the lips, nose and its height, eyes and eyebrows.

work with planes

Now that common lines applied, we can proceed to the analysis of the planes of the face. We must mark the height of the nose with a plane (if desired, it can be shaded to see the volume, this can be done with all areas that are in shadow), the plane of the cheekbone, which is closest to us, the plane of the lips and the plane of the eyes, connecting with the eyebrows. At this stage, we do not draw the face with smooth lines, we try to outline the geometric features of the person's face very easily.

face detail

At this stage of work, we take a nag and, drawing it along the plane of the sheet, remove upper layer pencil, that is, we make the lines drawn before almost invisible. This is the difference between drawing portraits from a photograph academic portraits, in the second case, the construction lines are hovering and will remain in the final form of the portrait, which can make it look dirty. It doesn't suit us. After we made the construction lines invisible where it was needed, we begin to draw out all the features of the face, round them up and give the face a resemblance to a photograph. In order to achieve similarity, you can measure the dimensions and their relationship to other face sizes, thereby selecting the optimal proportions. For example, how much the width of the nose fits in the width of the face, etc. You can measure anything, there are no restrictions.

hatching start

For hatching, you must finish all construction and erase all unnecessary lines in the drawing, because. after you start laying the tone, you will not have the opportunity to do it neatly. There are no uniform hatching rules, each artist does it in the way that is convenient for him. This may depend on how you are used to holding a pencil / pen, whether you are right-handed or left-handed, etc. We advise you to start hatching from the darkest areas of the portrait. Since you can build on them later without darkening your skin, clothes and eyes too much.

semitone elaboration

Next, we must move to halftones, that is, to tone the skin of the face, hair and clothes, if it is not black, since black clothes should most often be emphasized (even if the clothes are white, there will definitely be a penumbra on them, to identify relief and texture). At this stage, we should not wipe anything with nags (unless we put a stain or smeared something). It is worth starting an intensive hatching of halftones (if you are right-handed), from the left upper corner sheet, so as not to smear with your hand what you have already done, and accordingly, if you are left-handed, everything needs to be done in a mirror. At this stage, minor work on the background of the portrait is allowed.

working with lighting

When you're done with the shading, you should have an almost finished portrait, but it won't look 3D. Don't worry, one of the most enjoyable steps in drawing a portrait with a pencil is when you highlight the lightest areas of the face. Most often this is the tip of the nose, the whites of the eyes, the upper part of the cheekbones, the superciliary arches, the lower lip and in some cases the chin. Also, with the help of a nag, you can draw folds on the lips and small wrinkles that will make your portrait more alive. Hair needs to be lightened on the largest fractures of the forms, then they seem shiny and alive.

darkening the depths and cleaning

After highlighting, you need to darken again the places where you need to show space, these can be: neck, hair edge, ears, folds in the hair, background. With the help of this darkening, we will feel that the person we are drawing is not “glued” to the sheet, but is looking from there. This is very important factor creating a portrait with a pencil.

Our portrait is ready. But you will definitely have some unnecessary strokes or stains from your fingers, because they will be smeared with a pencil (by the way, in order to avoid a dirty portrait, we advise you to wash your hands several times and dry them well), so you should take the nag in last time and wipe everything that is visually unpleasant to you. Even with the absolute similarity of a portrait with a photograph, we always leave room for creativity, you are not obliged to redraw what you don’t want to draw on the portrait, you can create and invent new clothes, hair color, eyes, etc. The photo does not always turn out to be successful in all respects, therefore, we think out, correct and do what the photographer could not do due to the specifics of his work, namely, to create the perfect image.

With love and awe, Workshop

This lesson from professional artist and you will learn how to draw a female portrait. The lesson is divided into several parts, in which you will see the tools for drawing a portrait and the steps for drawing a face, see drawing hair in detail. Most artists start by sketching a face, but this author another approach, he first starts drawing the eye and gradually moves to other parts of the girl's face. Click on the images, they all have a large extension.

Tools.

Paper .

I use paper Daler Rowney's Bristol Board 250g/m2- Exactly the one in the image, only the sizes vary. It is dense and smooth enough that the shading on it looks softer.

Pencils.

I got a Rotring pencil, I don’t know if it is good or bad compared to others, but it suits me. I use pencils with thick leads 0.35mm(the main work on the portrait was done by him), 0.5mm(usually I use it for drawing hair, not detailed, because a 0.35mm pencil can handle it) and 0.7mm pencil.

Electric eraser.

It erases much cleaner than a regular eraser, and it looks more neat. My choice fell on Derwent Electric Eraser.

Klyachka.

I use a nag from Faber-Castell. A very useful tool, due to the fact that it takes any shape you need. I usually use it to highlight highlights in the eyes, highlight some strands of hair and other fine work.

shading.

It is a stick of paper of different thicknesses pointed at both ends, usually used in places where you need to soften the tone.

How to draw eyes.

I usually start drawing a portrait with the eyes, because in relation to it and its size, I build a portrait and other parts of the face, I can’t say that I do it perfectly, but I try to do it more accurately with each portrait, training my eye. I mark the pupil, outline the iris and outline the shape and size of the eye.

In the second step, I look for the brightest place on the iris in order to tint the entire iris, do not put pressure on the pencil, try to make solid strokes, as if drawing a ring that gradually expands.

The third step is to start shading, adding veins, etc. The main thing is not to get carried away and not make the eyes too dark.

This is what the finished eye looks like. Do not forget that the eyelid has volume, so never draw eyelashes as if they are coming directly from the eye.

In the same way, we draw the second eye, along the way, marking the lines where the hair will lie. Don't forget to click on the picture to enlarge it.

How to draw a portrait. Draw a face and skin.

When both eyes are drawn, it is already easier to draw the shape of the face and notice if there are distortions somewhere. Along the way, I outline the hair and lines of the strands on the right side of the drawing.

In this step I draw the nose and mouth. Try to hatch neatly, and not anyhow. Follow the direction of the strokes. You can gradually add shadows and halftones

At this step, I complete the mouth, draw small parts, like highlights on the lips (if cosmetics are used). After this stage, I usually try to complete the lines of the face so that there are no distortions. And at the next stage, I finally draw the lines of the face, outline the hair, mark the places where the strands and disheveled hair will lie (and it usually doesn’t happen without them).

Then I start to draw shadows and midtones on the face to give it some volume.

And finally, I draw everything else that is next to the face (hair, elements of clothing, skin of the neck and shoulders, jewelry) so as not to return to it again.

How to draw hair with a pencil.

Drawing hair, I begin by outlining how the strands lie down, where they have dark places, where they are light, where the hair reflects light. As a rule, a 0.5mm pencil is connected here, because I don’t do strong detailing in my hair. The exceptions are single hairs that have broken out of the strands and disheveled strands.

Then I stroke, periodically changing the pressure and angle of inclination to make the hair look more diverse. When drawing hair, do not move the pencil back and forth, stroke only in one direction, say from top to bottom, so there is less chance that the hair will vary greatly in tone and stand out strongly from the rest. Change the angle occasionally because the hair doesn't lie so flat.

When the light parts of the hair are done, you can add more dark hair, but do not forget to sometimes leave small spaces between them, so the hair will not look like a monotonous mass and you can select individual strands that lie under other strands, or vice versa, above them. And so on, you will most likely be able to draw hair without spending too much effort and time. To lighten some of the hair, use a nag, crumpling it so that it is flat enough to highlight the hair.

, .

Drawing a portrait is an interesting and difficult task. Not every famous artist is able to do it. Basically, artists who draw portraits well are self-taught, who have a well-developed sense of beauty, but even they need to learn a lot. If you draw, for example, a landscape, then it is not at all necessary that it looks like the area that you wanted to depict, the vision of nature that you have is enough. In the case of a portrait, everything is a little different. After all, anyone can compare the portrait with the original and say whether it is similar or not. And not many portrait painters manage to achieve one hundred percent similarity. The secret is that the main thing is not this at all, but to consider in each person that unique thing that distinguishes him from everyone else and depict it on paper.

Don’t be tempted to learn how to draw a portrait of a person right away, after about five portraits you will see progress.

Start by taking a close look at the model. Your task is to find a special feature, and then transfer it to a piece of paper. If you accurately determine the proportions of the parts of the face, then it will already be similar. If you have ever seen cartoons, you have noticed that such an artist only focuses on any part of the face, and it turns out very similar.

Start drawing the person with a pencil. Draw facial features geometric shapes, then mark with a pencil the distance between the eyes, between the mouth and nose, chin and mouth, etc. Observe the dimensions of the parts of the face relative to each other. When you see that the portrait has begun to emerge, you can proceed to the volume and shades.

Portrait drawing algorithm

We offer you a few rules to learn how to draw portraits.

1. Outline the outline of the face, make sure that it does not occupy the entire sheet. But do not make it too small so that it is more convenient to apply the eyes, nose and lips. To make the outline not stand out too much, blend it with your fingers or an eraser.
2. With a mechanical pencil, carefully shade the places where the hair will be, try to hatch in one direction. When shading, be careful with the direction of the hair, it depends on what hairstyle you get. If you act consistently, you will achieve similarity. The hair on the head lies in the same direction, which means we draw them in the same direction. Lengthen the hair lines gradually, stroke some areas several times to get a darkening, like a shadow. Try not to leave a single unshaded area in the hair area.
3. Now is a very important moment. Take a sheet of white paper and gently blend the entire hairstyle, do not press hard and do not go beyond the boundaries. So the hairstyle will turn out whole and will look realistic. Blend in the direction of hair growth.
4. Do not forget about the glare. Take a pointed eraser and draw lines with it in several places. Note that the lines don't have to be perfectly parallel, but they don't have to intersect either. They should sort of blend in with the pencil lines.
5. Now shade the darkest areas on top with a softer pencil.
6. It turns out beautifully if you add a few straight lines or a little wavy hair around the oval of the face. They seem to highlight it. But be careful and do not go to the face while it is not yet drawn.
7. Highlight a few hairs all over the head.
8. Let's start with the eyes, nose and mouth. Remember about the distance between the parts of the face and about the proportions. If a person has big eyes and a small nose, then the eyes in the portrait should be larger than the nose. It's the same with the mouth.
9. Darken the corners of the eyes and lips. With a few dark lines, highlight a few eyelashes especially brightly. Do the same with your eyebrows.
10. Blend the tip of the nose and its borders, the wings of the nose can be darkened.
11. All borders must be shaded.
12. Finish drawing the portrait by highlighting the cheekbones.
13. It is more convenient to turn the sheet, rather than turn yourself.