![]() The goal is not to only be able to trace, the goal is to learn to draw it correctly as quickly as possible.ĭo you know how they teach bank tellers to spot counterfeit money? By having them handle the real thing over and over and over so that anything that’s off stands out to them. Instead, practice a combination of tracing and freehanding. Can you learn to draw accurately without tracing? Of course! It just takes a lot longer for most students. If you want to improve your drawing skills and accuracy, draw ACCURATELY! If you keep freehanding and continuously make the same mistakes over and over and over, you’re not improving as quickly as you could AND what’s worse is your brain starts to accept the warped form as “correct”. ![]() For portraits, I prefer either Arches HP watercolor paper (as I’m using here), or Stonehenge, the one that’s sold in individual sheets, the pad performs differently for some reason. The type of paper you use will make a difference too. I do practice burnishing in my work, but only for the final layers where I know I won’t need many more layers. There’s nothing left for the pencil to stick to. If you start off by burnishing (pushing hard with your pencil), the color saturation happens fast, but you limit how many layers you can get given you flatten the tooth of the paper in that process. I add 3-5 layers of pencil, blend with odorless mineral spirits like Gamsol, then add 3-5 more layers, blend, and repeat until it looks good. Keep that pencil sharp so that it gets into the tooth of the paper to avoid the gritty grainy look. Tip #7 There are many ways to achieve the same end result I get, but my preference is to build up multiple light layers. Now I don’t mean just make everything super dark, make sure your bright areas are bright enough too! You want that high contrast in order to sculpt the face. ![]() Use a color match tool to check your values and color, you will be surprised at how dark you should go most of the time. Tip #6 Most people draw overall skin tones far FAR too light. This will make it easier and less overwhelming when you try a full face. Really focus on the small details of these studies. Tip #5 Struggling to make your portraits look realistic? Try breaking down the face into smaller studies and master those first.ĭraw just an eye, nose, ear, or mouth. When I get into the tiny details of the hair, eyes, or other spots that require more precision, I switch over to my higher oil content pencils, the Faber-castell polychromos. Tip #4 Pencil Choicesįor areas I want blended super smooth, I go with my higher wax content pencils like Derwent Drawing, Derwent Lightfast (i know i know, they are listed as more oil based, but performance to me is more wax…which I love them for), or Caran d’Ache luminance. Avoid lines, even in wrinkles! Those too are a combo of shadows and highlights to create the depth in that crease. When we think of drawing, we often think of LINES. ![]() Tip #3 Reality is made up of shapes and shadows, not so much with the lines. This means focusing on the shadows and highlights to sculpt those shapes, not lines and flat planes. We want to create a three-dimensional-looking portrait, not a flat cartoon. Tip # 2 Don’t look at this as a drawing, look at it more as sculpting shapes and shadows. On top of that you learn to focus on your values (lights light enough, darks dark enough) to create form and shape instead of expecting the color to do the work for you. The above amazon links are my amazon affiliate links.Tip # 1 If you’re new to portraits, charcoal the BEST medium to start with.Ĭharcoal is inexpensive compared to other mediums, it’s FAST to work in and easy to fix mistakes. Polychromos: Dark Flesh, Walnut brown, Paynes Grey 30%, Bistre, Burnt Sienna, Mauve Luminance: Burt Ochre 10%, Burnt Sienna 50%, French Grey 10%, French Grey 30%, French Grey 100%, White, sepia 50%, Violet Grey The colors that I used for the skin were: White Stonehenge paper (the individual sheets) … My reference photo is from and was used with permission. For those of you who are unfamiliar with using masking fluid, I will have a tutorial for that in the near future! I’ve used masking fluid and frisket to protect my subject while I airbrushed the background. I’m blending with Mona Lisa Odorless paint thinner on a filbert taklon bristled brush and working on Stonehenge paper. For this tutorial, I’m working in colored pencil using both Luminance and Polychromos colored pencils.
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