Step 7
When you’re done with the hair, you can start detailing the eyes, nose and lips
Step 8
Just continue adding details using the hand positions and toning techniques mentioned on the previous chapters. Add shadows and darken outlines to create depth.
Step 9
For the finishing touches, what you can do is add a bit of highlight. I’m sure you’re asking how to do that considering we’re only using a pencil. What I do is, I lightly shade the area around the part I want to add the highlight then using my eraser, I slightly “draw” the highlight parts. Some artists call this the reverse drawing technique, by erasing parts of the graphite you can create highlights, another way of doing this is by again shading around the area of the highlight, but this time completely avoiding it.
Drawing the human face and its expressions have been around for centuries and was mostly reserved for the wealthy and the nobility in the olden times. Nowadays, this popular form of art is still very much alive and evolving. As a beginner, here are some useful tips to start you with portrait drawing. Here’s a few more useful information to create a portrait drawing:
Ready your materials
When starting out, you need not buy expensive art supplies first. You only need to buy the basics which are the following (arranged according to importance):
- Paper or Drawing Pad
- Pencil set
- Eraser
- Blending stump
- Ruler
- Sharpener
Of course quality usually comes with a price so better stick to the known brands like Faber Castell and Pentel. You can also start off with an A3 or A4 sized paper or drawing pad with a paper weight of 200 g/m₂. Choose between an ordinary rubber eraser and putty rubber.
It is also best to work on a room with enough light, preferably daylight, and a hard solid surface.
Start with the specifics
Learn to draw the different features of the face first, one at a time. Try to perfect the details of the eyes, nose, lips, and ears and practice drawing the variations of each feature, like thin and thick lips, small and big eyes, or narrow and broad nose. You can practice with photographs or a live model.