Face study

Jan 14, 2017

Every face is different. This pretty one here, has been sketched with a 5b Faber-castell pencil, A4 size.

When you first look at a photo or a live face, the first thing you need to notice is the overall form. How it looks. Is it pretty? Before getting into technical aspects, take it easy.

What direction is the reference looking? How high?

What is he/she feeling?

Everybody has their unique way to start portraits. I almost always start with an outline of the shape of face. Once I get it pretty accurate to the real photo, I look for basic features.

I break the face into three equal parts (forehead- eyebrow, eyebrow- base of nose, base of nose-chin)

Once I have those lines in place, I draw eye socket roughly and place eyes, eyelids and pupil to help with details. Eyes are often one eye apart. Then, shape of nose, then lips and finally I look if the face resembles the reference  I do hair last.

Having lighter lines while drawing proportions and darkening those lines helps to get the contrast, and more realistic drawings.