If you want to learn how to draw a realistic pencil portrait of someone, you’ll need more than just a bunch of techniques and tricks. You’ll need the right skills and techniques in combination with the ability to see things with clarity and confidence. Drawing a person isn’t easy. This is why so many artists struggle when they try to capture a likeness of another human being on paper. Luckily, we’re going to break down everything you need to know in order to succeed at drawing realistic portraits of people. This article will teach you everything you need to know about drawing realistic portraits in general with specific tips for drawing faces.
You will learn how to see facial features differently, what common pitfalls new artists often make when trying to draw faces, as well as some helpful tips on proportions, light and shadow, shading, and more. If you read through this article thoroughly and take it all in, your drawings will improve immensely from the first moment you put pencil or charcoal to paper!
You’ll need to have the right tools for the job if you want to draw a realistic pencil portrait. For example, you’ll need a nice pencil or charcoal pencil with a soft lead. You don’t want to use a hard lead because it will make it very difficult to shade. This is especially important if you’re planning on drawing someone’s face. You don’t want to press too hard and damage the skin. If you’re going to draw on paper, look for a paper that has a nice tooth to it.
This will allow the pencil or charcoal to transfer to the paper more easily. If you’re going to draw on paper, you’ll also want to choose a thicker paper like bristol paper, sketch paper, or even butcher paper. Thicker paper is easier to erase on and will make it less likely for your pencil to break.
Even if you’re confident in your abilities, it’s a good idea to start with a sketch. You can work from a photo, but a sketch will help you to focus on the basics of proportion, shape, and volume without getting distracted by facial features. You will want to keep the sketch fairly loose and simple. Don’t try to get too detailed at this point because you’ll likely make some mistakes. Instead, focus on making sure all the parts are proportional to one another. Once you have the sketch completed, you can transfer it to a clean piece of paper and use it as a loose guide while you draw the final portrait.
If you’ve never drawn a realistic pencil portrait before, we suggest starting with the face. This will help you to focus on the main features that make up the face and help you to see the face in a different way. This will also help you to get comfortable with drawing the proportions of the face. Once you have the face drawn from profile, it’s time to start drawing facial features.
We recommend using a grid to help you with the process. A grid will help you visualize everything a little bit better and make it easier to make sure everything is in proportion. Once you have all the features drawn, sketch in some very loose lines that indicate where shadows and highlights will go.
Now that you have the face drawn, it’s time to move on to the rest of the body. You don’t want to draw the rest of the body in as much detail as the face, but you still want to make sure everything is proportional.
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