Easy pencil portrait. How to draw a person's face

A portrait conveys not only the external characteristics of the face, but also reflects inner world a person, his attitude to reality and emotional state at a certain point in time. In fact, a portrait is like any other conversation piece, is the arrangement of lines, shapes and colors on canvas or paper so that their final combination repeats the shape human face.

Sounds almost like magic? In order to correctly place those same lines, shapes and shades on paper, you must first study the proportions of a person’s face (when drawing a portrait, they must be observed without fail) and their dependence on movements, direction and shape of the head.

What is a portrait?

Regardless of skill level, working on it is intimidating for any artist. The remarkable painter John Singer Sargent gave the portrait two characteristics that every artist would agree with:

“Every time I paint a portrait, especially a commissioned one, I lose a friend.”
“A portrait is a painting in which the lips end up looking somehow wrong.”

Portrait is one of the most difficult genres of drawing and painting. The reason is that the artist often works to order, and pressure from outside interferes with creative process. The portrait as envisioned by the customer often differs from what the artist creates. In addition, working on the image of a human face requires special knowledge and a fair amount of patience.

Why study proportions

Proportions are needed in order to understand how objects are located relative to each other in size, plane and intermediate relationships. If even a small amount of realism is important for a portrait, this cannot be achieved without knowing the proportions. On the other side, abstract portraits no one canceled.

Knowing proportions helps convey not only facial features, but also human emotions and facial expressions. Knowing the change dependency appearance From the position of the head, the emotional state of the model and lighting, the artist can transfer the character and mood of a person onto the canvas, thereby creating an object of art. But for this you need to know the correct proportions of the face and be able to build a composition in accordance with the rules.

Ideal proportions

During High Renaissance Raphael created paintings that were considered the standard of perfection. Virtually all of today's perfect proportions originate from the oval faces of Raphael's Madonnas.

If you draw a vertical line in the very center of the face and divide it into three parts - from the hairline to the eyebrows, from the eyebrows to the tip of the nose and from the tip of the nose to the chin, then in an ideal face these parts will be equal. The figure below shows the ideal proportions of a person’s face, a diagram for drawing and constructing an ideal oval face, as well as the relationship between the main features. It is worth considering that the ideal male face is characterized by more angular features, but despite this, their basic location corresponds to the presented diagram.

Based on this diagram, the ideal facial proportions when drawing a portrait correspond to the following formula:

BC = CE = EF.
AD = DF.
OR = KL = PK.

Face shape

Correctly constructed proportions of a person’s face when drawing a portrait depend largely on the shape of that face. Raphael created a perfect oval, and nature does not limit perfection to just one geometric shape.

It is probably most convenient to study the construction of proportions and their changes during movement on a perfectly oval face; for this there are many ways and techniques that will be discussed below, but the essence of a portrait is not in creating an ideal, but in depicting a person with all his features and imperfections. That is why it is important to know what the shape of a face can be and how it affects the construction of proportions when drawing portraits.

Rounded face shapes

Long face has rounded hairline and chin shapes. The vertical midline of the face is much longer than the horizontal one. Long faces are usually characterized by a high forehead and long distance between the upper lip and the base of the nose. Typically, the width of the forehead is approximately equal to the width of the cheekbones.

Oval face similar in shape to an egg turned upside down. Its widest part is the cheekbones, then it goes a little less broad forehead and a relatively narrow jaw. The length of an oval face is slightly greater than its width.

Round face characterized by almost equal midlines of the vertical and horizontal sections of the face. Wide cheekbones are smoothed by a smooth, rounded jawline.

Angular face shapes

Rectangular face characterized by a wide jaw, emphasized by an angular chin and a straight hairline. The midline of the vertical section is much longer than the horizontal one. The width of the forehead of a person with a rectangular face is approximately equal to the width of the cheekbones.

Triangular It differs from the heart-shaped one only in the hair growth line; in the triangular one it is straight. Characteristic This face shape has high cheekbones and a very narrow, sharp chin, while the cheekbones are almost as wide as the forehead. Vertical line sections triangular face usually slightly longer than horizontal.

Square shape typical for faces with low, wide cheekbones and an angular chin. The length of a square face is equal to its width.

Trapezoid defined by a wide jaw, low cheekbones and a narrow forehead. Usually on such a face the chin is angular and wide, and the cheekbones are much wider than the forehead.

Diamond shape The face is given a proportionally narrow forehead and chin, the latter usually being pointed. High cheekbones are the most wide part diamond-shaped face, and its horizontal section is much smaller than the vertical one.

Correct facial structure

Correct construction when drawing a portrait is based on measuring the model’s facial features and the distance between them. Each portrait is individual, just as no two faces are absolutely identical, with the exception of twins. Formulas for calculating proportions provide only basic advice, following which you can make the drawing process much easier.

For creating own characters or drawing faces from memory, it is extremely important to know the correct representation of proportions. It is important to remember here that the shape of the head is much more complex than an inverted egg or an oval, and therefore it is worth following rules to avoid eyes on the forehead or a mouth that is too small.

Face outline

First, draw a circle - this will be the wide part of the skull. As you know, the main facial features take place under the circle. To roughly determine their location, we divide the circle in half vertically and continue the line down so that the lower outline of the circle divides it exactly in half. The bottom of the line will be the chin. From the sides of the circle to the “chin” you need to draw lines that will become the preliminary outlines of the cheekbones and cheeks.

If the portrait is drawn from the model’s face or from memory, then you can use a few light lines to correct the shape, determine the approximate width of the chin and hairline. It is worth noting that the hair in the portrait will occupy some part of the circle that was drawn at the very beginning.

Eyes and eyebrows

At the base of the circle we draw a horizontal line, perpendicular to the first. The eyes are located on this line. Exactly on it, not higher, no matter how much you would like! The horizontal line must be divided into five equal parts - each of them is equal to the width of the eye. The central part may be slightly wider. The eyes are located on the sides of it. To further calculate the proportions, it is best to indicate where the pupils will be located.

To determine how high above the eyes your eyebrows should be, you need to divide the circle into four equal parts, from bottom to top. By horizontal line, passing directly above the eyes, the eyebrows will be located.

Nose and lips

The vertical line of the lower part of the face should be divided in half. Mark the middle where the base of the nose should be. The width of the nose can be easily determined by drawing parallel lines down from the inner corners of the eyes.

The remaining part - from the nose to the chin - must be divided in half again. The midline coincides with the line of the mouth, that is, the upper lip is located directly above it, and the lower lip is located below it. The width of the mouth can be calculated by drawing parallel lines down from the middle of the pupils. The width of the chin is usually equal to the width of the nose.

Constructing the proportions of the human face described above is a simplified method and is suitable for ideal faces, of which there are not many in nature.

From the translator: It was quite difficult for me to translate the text word for word from one language to another while maintaining the consonance of the speech; after all, I am not a translator, therefore, I took some liberties in constructing phrases and selecting synonyms to make the lesson more digestible and understandable. But main meaning, of course, has not changed. If you want to read the original, there is a link to the page with the lesson below.

The main tools for digital painting in Photoshop are:

If you are registered on deviantArt, please place the page with brushes in your favorites if you plan to use them.

Drawing the base

I always start with the face, using a large, round, very soft brush. Here are my three standard base colors for leather:

The red color on the skin will appear later: the natural color of the skin also has a red tone, but to add it, I use a separate layer with a darker red color and the “ Soft Light" (Soft light).

Basic brush settings

To draw the basic shapes, I use a large soft brush (Lighting brush, 300 px by Dan LuVisi). Exactly the same as shown in the screenshot. I start drawing with Opacity(Opacity) 100% Very bright color.

Once the base shape is painted in, I scale it down Opacity(Opacity) to 5-20% , A Flow(press) until 20% and I draw dark color shadows that I chose for the skin. Low opacity and pressure allow you to do very smooth transitions from one color to another.

It takes me a few minutes to create a basic form of a girl's profile. All parts of the face are drawn, but now they are quite simplified and abstract. Now the face looks slightly dark, but I use very bright colors only at the end of the drawing.

At this stage of the painting, I'm still using the same soft brush, but with a smaller radius.

Now make the drawing smaller

It is very important to periodically look at your work from afar. Never work all the time 200% increase! You can put a light on your nose when 200% magnification and calculate that “ everything looks great“, but when you zoom out the picture, it turns out that everything together looks just terrible, because the lighting of the nose does not match the lighting of the picture as a whole.

Brilliant eyes

Never forget about the reflexes in your eyes. The eyes are naturally moist and shiny (glossy), and therefore we need to draw a few reflexes on them to make them look realistic.

The iris pattern can be drawn using a tool (Finger Tool).

Brows

To draw eyebrows, I use a tool (Finger Tool). IN Photoshop CS4 you can rotate your workspace. It's easier for me to draw from top to bottom, so I rotate the drawing in a way that is more convenient for me.

Here are my settings for the finger tool when drawing eyebrows:

- Hard brush(Hard brush) with 3 px radius;

- Threshold(Threshold): 95 - 98% ;

- Brush properties:active; Size-Jitter(Size fluctuation) 0% - Pen Pressure(Pen pressure).

Let's put a little red on...

It's time to add some red to your skin. For this I will use a separate layer with the setting " Soft light" (Soft light). Now just add some dark red tone like what I used:

Drawing hair

To start, I draw the basic shape of the hair on a new layer. There is nothing simpler... :-)

Use your finger!

The second step in this difficult process is to spread the hair beyond the basic shape. Once again I'm using the brush created by Dan LuVisi. You can view all of his brushes at: //adonihs.deviantart.com/art/My-Brush-Pack-118954791. I used a hair brush while smearing with the Finger Tool. And this is what happened to me.

Shadows

Don't forget to put a shadow between your scalp and your hair, otherwise you'll never achieve realism!

First I drew shadows on the skin brown, and in the darkest places I used black. In general, I do not recommend using only black eyeshadow, as this will make your skin look dirty.

Hair detailing

What brush did I use in this screenshot? Right! Hair brush Dana LuVisi :-)

True, with minor changes different from the original. My brush settings for Offset(Shift) changed to 1% and I draw with it with low values Opacity/Flow(Opacity/Pressure). Well, of course, now we use the tool (), and not the finger, since we need to draw details and not smudge.

Fine hairs

As you can see in this picture, I use very thin brush for drawing hair (and I draw on a new layer!). We just take the regular one tough(hard) brush with any dark color close to the hair color and paint with it. I usually use hard brush(hard brush) in 3 px with fairly high values Opacity(Opacity) and Flow(Press).

Let's use blur!

The hair that I drew a little earlier is now quite blurry in this drawing. In order to achieve this result, you need to select (Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur). I also used an eraser to slightly erase some parts of the fine hairs, as I think it looks more realistic this way. The brush I used for the eraser was large and soft with opacity 30% and pressing 30% (big, soft eraser with 30% opacity, 20% flow).

Now let's brighten them up!

Now I create a new layer to highlight the strands with white using a hard standard brush with opacity 80% , pressing 50% and radius 3 px (hard standard brush with 80% opacity, 50% flow and 3 px radius). This may take quite some time...

Use white color throughout your hair! Once you're done, take a big soft eraser with 30% opacity and set the opacity to 30% , for example, and erase what you drew from the darkest areas. But not completely!

Final shine

The last step will make your hair look absolutely gorgeous. I learned this trick completely by accident. I was just lucky. A few months ago I was painting a portrait and chose the wrong tool, but the result was much better than I expected and the hair looked much more realistic.

Once you are done drawing the hair, merge all the resulting hair layers into one. But don't forget to save before doing this.

Now let's select the Tool () and select the Texture layer brush Dana LuVisi(we will also use this brush to paint the pores on the girl's skin, but a little later). Set the approximate brush size to 130 px and don't set the level high enough Exposure(Exhibitions). The result will look something like the picture.

Drawing skin

In order to draw realistic skin, you need to add some pores to the base. And again we use brushes Dana.

This time - Texture brush(Texture brush). I usually use a radius of 130 px, but this depends solely on the size of your work (my standard work is 100 x 80 cm - 150 dpi).

Create two new layers above the face/body layer and use the texture brush white on one layer and dark/brown on the second. Just cover everything with a lot of dots as you see in the picture.

Why keep pores on a separate layer? Because it will be better for us. Let's assume that we wanted to correct something on our face, let's say, make it darker. We will not darken even the dots. It will look simply terrible! :-)

Now go through the eraser in the same way as we did when erasing thin hairs of curls. Use a large, soft brush with medium opacity and pressure. Wash until you are satisfied with the result and the skin looks realistic. You can also try using the blending mode settings for the layer with pores, for example, (Soft Light) or (Overlay).

Now we need to create a special large pores and moles on the skin. Again, on a new layer, draw large dots different sizes. Once you think there are enough dots, erase them again! :-)

If you compare this image to the previous one, you will notice small light spots on it that make the skin look realistic.

The face is finished.

Introducing new elements

If I just draw a picture of a girl, it won't be as interesting. So I decided to add a few elements that would make my work personal and interesting. I wanted to add a hand that would hold something, but at that moment I didn't know what exactly I wanted to see. I thought for a long time about Wibisono's magnificent works and decided to draw the most believable one. So, I decided to depict a fan and add some Asian/Japanese influences.

I started studying materials on Japan and decided to settle on cherry blossom. I had to work with a lot of layers, so it wasn't difficult for me to change the color of certain elements of the fan. For such operations, I usually use (Image - Adjustments - Hue / Saturation / “Ctrl + U” keys).

Well, now it's time to do a little work on the foreground.

Cloth

The clothes... Let's say this is something like a kimono that I painted in several layers. First I created an abstract shape with shadows and light. Then I used the Smudge Tool

Light

In order to give the work brightness and dynamism, I need to add light. Below are images of my next steps in working with the light. First I made the outline of the hair brighter. For this, I used a large soft brush, slightly larger than standard, on a new layer, along with the “ soft light"(the soft light filter). Next I created several rays of light. To do this I took a hard brush and painted a few large points, and then selected Filter - Blur - Motion Blur () through the menu and changed the layer blending mode to (Overlay).;

Drawing a person on a piece of paper will help you draw friends and acquaintances with ease. Learning this art is not as difficult as it seems at first glance, because everyone made their first sketches in childhood, the main thing is to hone your skills. Before the invention of photography, many people drew portraits, so the main thing to learn is to remember these skills.

How to learn to draw portraits with a pencil? This question is asked by many beginning artists, it’s very simple, no need to finish art institutes, but simply become a student in our drawing studio.

With us you can quickly learn the skills of drawing a portrait. Our specialists work on author's program, which allows you to hone your skills in practice, because this is the main thing in learning to draw with a pencil. We accept people of all ages and it is not necessary to have professional skills, the main thing is the desire to learn how to draw, and we will help you make your dream come true.

How to draw portraits with a pencil?

To start learning how to draw a portrait correctly, you must first choose a special paper that is suitable for pencil sketching. It has a porous structure and strokes fit better on it. And you should choose a soft pencil; if it is hard, then marks will remain on the paper after removing the unnecessary stroke. In our studio you can learn the art of drawing on professional level, and everything will be provided to you necessary tools and equipment for work.

First, you should familiarize yourself with the proportions of the human head. If you immediately look at the face, it seems that the eyes are located at the top of the head, but this is not the case at all, they are located in the middle, and the feeling of incorrect placement creates overload with other details. To correctly depict all the elements, you need to clean slate Draw several vertical and horizontal lines on paper. The eyes will be located along the horizontal line, and the nose along the vertical line.

Step-by-step training in drawing a portrait

First you need Special attention pay attention to the shapes of the parts of the face you are depicting. After all, each person has his own individual characteristics, the eyes can be round or elongated, and the nose can also be different shapes. The main thing is to work out the details, because the portrait should look like a certain person. Then you need to work step by step and learn to draw the following elements:

Eyes – to depict them you need to draw three lines. The pupils will be in the central part. Need to sketch first eyeball and eyes and do not do shading. After depicting the pupil, the eyelids and existing wrinkles are drawn. At the final stage, eyebrows are drawn;
Lips are also drawn in three lines. To make it easier, you need to start with the lower lip, then proceed to the upper part. It is divided in half by a hollow. By adding shadows, you can create folds and bulges;
The nose - they begin to draw it above the upper lip. Artists depict it in the form of a tick. And from this checkmark you draw several large arcs on both sides.

After drawing all these details and sketches, the main difficult work is done. IN final stage shadows are applied to the drawing. This is enough important stage, which is worth paying attention to great attention, because they are the ones who bring the face to life. Particular attention is paid to the eyes, because it is worth refreshing the look, this will greatly decorate the portrait. The final stage will be drawing the oval of the face along with shadows.

The main advantages of studying in the Matita drawing studio

If you have a desire to learn how to draw portraits with a pencil, but have absolutely no skills or experience, this is not a problem. We can quickly teach you all the subtleties and details, and soon your family and friends will admire your portraits. Many people ask the question, why is it better to study in a drawing studio, and not independently from a video lesson? Because when you come to our studio, you get a number of the following advantages:

After complete passage courses you will be given a certificate that confirms the knowledge you have acquired. To try your hand, you can sign up for your first free lesson.

This tutorial shows the stages of drawing a quick sketch portrait. To draw this portrait, you need to know at least the very basics of shading.

Step 1. First you need to draw a sketch, for this we draw the outline of the head and neck, draw auxiliary lines, indicating the direction of the face, the location of the girl’s eyes, nose and lips. The image size is very large, so click on the image and look at the details.

Step 2. Let's roughly understand the perspective. In this stage we draw the eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips and chin. Then we erase all the auxiliary elements.

Step 3. I begin to work in volumes, adjusting the construct as I go. Draw the eyes, apply shadows.

Step 4. We begin to do shading from dark places, smoothly moving towards the illuminated ones.

Step 5. While applying the stroke, I try not to shade it, because the shade often looks like dirty spots. Add dark shadows and move on to drawing the neck.

Step 6. I correct the anatomy with volumes, making it more human. We finish drawing the neck, begin to shade the shoulder and jacket, then move on to the hair.

Step 7. At the end, highlights are added, the perspective is checked again, and details are added.

In today's lesson we will learn how to draw a portrait. Our lesson will consist of several stages. We use exclusively pencil in our portrait. We divide our lesson into stages so as not to miss the slightest detail of the portrait image. Let's get to work, taking with us: a pencil, a sheet of paper and a great desire to create!
Stage 1 consists of drawing a contour consisting of lines with a pencil. The outline is drawn, so to speak, by hand; we remove the extra lines with an eraser!

At the second stage, we apply strokes where there is darkening of the hair; for this we need to use a 3B 0.5 mechanical pencil. We draw in the main directions.

At the third stage, we shade the dark places. We need to look at their direction very carefully and with great attention so that we really get hair, and not some kind of sheaf of straw!

The fourth stage also involves applying strokes in the direction of hair growth. At the same time, it is necessary to lengthen the lines and darken the necessary areas of the portrait:

Fifth stage. Let's work a little on the hair. They must acquire a certain style, for this it is necessary to darken the areas of hair we need. Now we need to apply the strokes very carefully, and we also need to avoid glare. Next tip: for more comfortable shading, rotate your sheet of paper:

Sixth stage. We need to finish the hairstyle. Let's go back and darken the hair layer:

Stage seven includes shading. No matter what, it can be either clean or dirty! Shade the hair in the direction of its growth. Avoid crossing strokes, otherwise your work will look messy and sloppy. You only need to smooth it in the direction!

Stage eight. We continue our training in portrait images. Next you need to work a little with the highlights. We need to “stretch out” the lines where there are highlights; for this we use a sharp eraser. This needs to be done so that the highlights are together with the pencil strokes and lighten the places we need:

The ninth stage is drawing with a pencil with a softness of 3B, or softer, in the darkened areas. We will also add straight hair to the curls of the head and face. However, we won’t touch our face now. We need to get a unique look for the hair, for this we use strokes for individual hairs and various types of pressure.