How to draw portraits of people in pencil?

If you ever picked up a simple pencil and drew people, then most likely you know how difficult it is to create a portrait of a person. In addition to the general outlines, it is necessary to use volumetric graphics, the play of light and shadow. It is necessary to do this so that the flat image "comes to life" and looks the most realistic. However, not everyone knows about the use of such equipment. Therefore, we decided in our article to talk about how to draw portraits of people correctly.

What is a portrait of a person?

Before you start drawing, you need to find out what a portrait is. Basically this is the image of the head (from the top of the head and up to the shoulders). A little less often in portraits, people are depicted as full-length. The aim of such a drawing is to maximally accurately convey the image that the artist sees in the image of the model. Portraits can be drawn with simple and colored pencils, paints, crayons, charcoal.

Every artist knows how to draw a portrait of a person, regardless of the technique and tools they use. In doing so, the wizard performs a drawing using light and shadow. But in order to get a more or less realistic and close to the original portrait, you need to train. As practice shows, you need to make at least 50-100 drawings.

This is necessary in order to get a hand and develop your own technique for transferring information to the canvas.

What are the portraits of people?

Before drawing portraits of people, it is necessary to find out what they are like. In this case, everything depends on the sex and age of the model with which the portrait is made. For example, images can be female and male, child. At the same time, they differ from each other. In particular, the male pattern differs from the female one by its coarser features, the presence of a massive chin, the lower jaw of the men is more acute and broad.

In addition, male portraits are characterized by the presence of protruding parts of the face: cheekbones and superciliary arches. Women's drawings contain more rounded forms and smoothed corners in the forehead and chin area.

We prepare all the accessories for drawing

At the first stage it is recommended to prepare a sheet of paper, a few simple pencils with different levels of softness, a stub. Experienced artists also use a number of additional tools, for example, an electrostove that works more gently and does not leave such divorces as a regular eraser. Before drawing portraits of people and making realistic ones, you need to carefully follow our instructions step by step.

And, of course, take care of the model or find a picture, a photo from which you will draw a portrait.

Choose a simple sample

If you are just starting to take the first steps in the fine arts, then you should look for photos or pictures that show not too complicated portraits of people. For beginners to draw pictures, made in a complex technique, it is undesirable. It is better to choose a photo easier. As an example, we will describe how to draw a female image.

Determine the top and bottom of the image

In the next step, take a sheet of paper, carefully consider your model, study all the details and proceed to drawing. Determine the top of the future outline and bottom. Make visual measurements of the face of the image. This must be done so that you get the most accurate picture. Yes, and on your worksheet fit everything: hair, forehead, chin, neck and, possibly, shoulders.

Next, we draw a step-by-step portrait of the person as follows: divide your sheet of paper exactly in half horizontally; Repeat the same thing vertically; You should get four identical squares. In this case, do not put too much pressure on the pencil, since all these lines are auxiliary, and will subsequently be erased.

Plane-plane separation

Take the pencil and go to one of the nearest upper squares. Divide it in half. Do the same with both squares in the bottom plane. Then divide the bottom squares in half.

Outline the face oval

Next, we draw a step-by-step portrait of a person, beginning with a sketch of the face oval. To do this, go to the horizontal line of demarcation on the sheet, and then, having stepped away from the beginning of the page a few centimeters, draw the lines of the face. Stretch them to the very bottom and round off at the end. Moreover, the resulting lines of the face should ideally ideally be symmetrical. Thus, you will get an oval face, cheeks, cheekbones and chin.

We outline the lines of the nose, forehead and hair

At the next stage of drawing in the middle of the face oval, we mark the zone of the nose with two lines. We circle the chin and lines to the hair area more clearly. We make an indent in the forehead zone. And then we draw bangs and hair with wavy movements.

About how to draw a portrait of a man with a pencil, using a feather and eraser, we'll talk further.

Drawing eyebrows and wings of the nose

The next step is drawing the eyebrows and wings of the nose. Move the pencil to the top plane of the drawing. Step away from the forehead and cheekbones. Draw eyebrows that resemble two identical and symmetrical, slightly raised arches. Then we move on to draw the nose. To do this, in the middle of the two strips (done in the previous step), draw the upper and lower parts of the nose. The rest of the face is made more precise.

How to draw a portrait of a person using light and shadow, we'll talk later when our picture is completely ready.

Drawing eyes and nostrils

The next step is drawing out the outlines of the eyes and nostrils. To do this, clearly under the eyebrows draw two lines and draw slightly elongated ovals of the eyes. Then inside of them draw pupils, eyelids and eyelashes. Go down to your nose and move your nostrils.

Drawing Lips and Ears

At the final stage of creating a sketch, we make a small droplet-crease underneath our nose and draw the lips. Then draw the ears and part of the neck. The sketch is ready. Will only shade all parts of the face, using a harder pencil and eraser. At the same time in those areas where you are somewhat overdoing the shadow, you can make the white areas with a stub.

Now you know how to draw portraits of people with ordinary pencil.