Learn Pencil Art (Portrait)

1.  Basics

               Hey there, want to learn some art tricks and tips? So your search is over because you are at the right place to learn it.

Let’s start with the basics first.

 

a. Choosing the right pencil

               There are two types of graphite pencils available in the market, these are H and B pencils. Now consider the B pencils. They are available in various shades as 2B, 4B, 6B,……. 2B is the light shaded and harder, 4B  is darker than 2B but smoother. And as the pencils become darker and darker the smoothness increases. And with the H pencils it becomes apposite to the B pencils, means as the shade becomes darker and darker it becomes harder. I usually use B pencils.

b. Choosing the right paper

               Now it comes to select the right paper for your sketch. Always use the paper having some roughness. It causes pencil to add natural texture to your drawing. Use of smooth paper is not suggested because it does not gives the proper texture. Even at the time of shading rough paper is easier to add shades to your drawing.

c. Finding the centre of the paper

               It is the most important thing in every art that you have to find the centre of the paper. If your drawing is distributed equally around the centre then it looks more attractive. Any sketch which is not in accordance with the centre of the paper having nothing on the rest of the paper shows the improper use of the space available for drawing. It is so simple to get the centre, first mark the middle of the parallel edges and connect them again do it with other two edges. Now connect them with a thin line, you will get PLUS sign. The interaction point of that plus sign is your centre.

 

2. Sketching

Here, we are going to see the Portrait sketch. There are two ways to draw a portrait.

• ·        With the use of grids/scales
• ·        Freehand sketch

For now we will see the first method that is with the use of grids/scales. This is the best method for beginners and probably the easiest method for portrait sketch. So, let’s see how to draw the grids/scales or grid lines.

a. How to draw grids/scales

               Take the original photo that you are going to sketch as a portrait. Now, suppose that photo is having dimensions 16×16 cm.

Then mark the edges with 4 cm distance and connect them. You will get each square with 16 cm square area. So, you are having a smaller areas to draw as compared to the whole photo. Take your drawing paper on which you have marked the centre. Suppose you are having the paper with dimensions 12×16 inches. So as our small photo is having every square of 4 cm length and 4 cm width, we can have 2” ×2” (inches) squares on paper. That means our each square will be of 4 inch square.

As we marked the centre of paper, and our photo contains 4 squares in length and 4 squares in width that means to draw the portrait in the middle of the paper 2 squares of each side must lie on left of vertical marked line and below of horizontal marked line and remaining 2 squares must lie on right, up side of the marked lines. It will get clear by the following figures.

     

 

 b. Drawing outline of the object

               Because of the grids it is now easy to draw small parts rather than drawing the whole object. It also gives accuracy to the object and increase perfection. If you are beginner then this is the best method to start with. To make outline of object always use lightest shade pencil ie. 2B because we just want a reference for our next steps. Never darken the outlines. While drawing outline never give pressure on the pencil, keep your hands gentle. If you give pressure on paper the lead of pencil can cause the paper to change its structure and it feels very ugly.

 

c. Adding shades to the drawing

               Now it comes to the most important thing in portrait sketch, that is adding shades to the drawing. There are few steps to add shades.

• ·       First add the base layer all over the drawing using the light shaded pencil. When doing this remember that you should give strokes in one direction only. You can choose any direction either up-down, right-left, or inclined.

 

• ·       After that the strokes must be blended using brush or blending stump. It makes the strokes disappear and gives smooth texture.

 

• ·       For beginners, remember one thing that if the portion is deeper then it must be dark and as it becomes plain the shade will be lighter and lighter.
•     For that, use darker pencils and every time use blending stumps for blending.
• ·       After light shade give darker shades using dark pencil. Starting with lighter shade give layers of darker shades and blend them too. Now we have our face ready.

 

• ·       Most important thing in enhancing the portrait is the highlights. It is just a white portion which gives realistic feel to drawing. How to apply them? Well, it is so simple. You will just need an eraser for that. Again there are various types of eraser available in market. Here we need mono-zero eraser which is having a tip like a marker pen. Because of the tiny tip it is simple to apply highlights even in small places.

 

 

 

               That is all for now. These are the basic steps, tricks and tips for portrait drawing. In next post we will see how to draw hairs, lips and eyes.

 

Comment if you like. See you in the next post.

                                      

                                    KEEP VISITING…………….