Portraits

Portraits

Portraits are some of the simplest and most efficient ways of conveying emotion through your drawings. While the learning curve may seem high if you’re just getting into art, they can be extremely rewarding once you start getting the hang of it! Through several doable steps and studies, you too can easily master portraits. Let's get started!

Let's start at the basics: the anatomy fundamentals.

This framework can greatly assist with drawing a face from the front angle, and slightly for a face from the 3/4th’s angle. But, in order to master most angles of the face, you will need to do multiple studies that look like this.

Tip: Angles can get very complicated, so try to first master front facing portraits and the 3/4th’s angle!

The goal of this exercise is to help you visualize the face from any angle by using shapes and structures rather than circles and lines. Practice drawing a simple, square sheet of paper with a line running down the center from as many angles as you can.

Next, add two circles in place of eyes, a triangular 3D cone where the line is in place of the nose, and a horizontal line near the bottom to represent a mouth, like so.

After this point, you can challenge yourself further by adding further dimensions to this piece of paper.You can also practice rendering the paper according to how simple or complex you would want your art style to be! This will help you visualize the face from various angles with ease, and add more dimension to your drawings.

Tip: Think of the face in terms of shapes. Don’t try to jump into the detailing right away. Simplify the structure first, make sure it's anatomically accurate, then start with the details.

Start with the jaw, since its angular shape can be a little easier to begin with. After that, add the rounder head shape to create the coherent structure of a face. I begin with three lines, one horizontal, and two diagonal as shown below. Then I join them to create the jaw. Following this, I draw a half circle at the top. At this point, you can draw a line in the middle to place all the facial features.

An alternative to this would be starting with the head shape by creating a sphere. Then, add a line right in the middle vertically and roughly in the middle horizontally. The horizontal guideline can be used for the eyes: they would be placed above it. From here on out, you can start placing features such as  the nose, the lips and the jaw like so.

The 3/4th’s angle is similar to the front facing angle, but in this case, the head and the nose will be much larger. The line in the middle becomes especially useful here, since it helps you track the direction and rotation of the head. Even though the face is turned, this line still represents the midpoint of the face, through which you can place the rest of the features.

For the side profile, a useful hack can be implemented, especially if you are more familiar with front facing angles. You can start by drawing a front-facing head, then place the side profile within the middle structure of that head. From there, you can adjust the anatomy and facial features as you see fit. Most of the facial proportions remain similar to before; the main differences are the outline of the skull, jaw, and chin.

For the eyes, draw egg shaped ovals with a circle drawn inside. I like to start by drawing two curves and then add further details. In order to give the eyes a more 3D effect, try to think of the eyeball as a sphere that bulges out and the rest of the space there near the eyebrows and under-eyes are all sunken in. This is why the shadows fall under the eyebrows and near the under-eyes. This approach should help you draw eyes in many angles.

One of the easiest ways to draw a nose is to start at the bridge, add the nostrils, and then add whatever details you would like. For example, you could add the ridge of the nose, or you can make it look as sharp or as hooked as you prefer! Again, in order to add more dimension, imagine the nose as a triangular cone similar to the paper method. When you practice drawing this cone from various angles and then add further detail , you’ll be able to perfect the nose.

I like to start with two dots representing the corners of the mouth. Then, I add a line connecting these dots, adjusting the line’s weight, curve, and angle according to the expression the character is making. The inside of the mouth can be slightly tricky, though. I draw an open mouth by filling the majority of the space with dark brown or red and a straight line of white to represent the teeth. Too many details on the teeth are almost always going to feel a little bit unnecessary and can take away from the focus on the face unless you are going for hyper-realism. So, I suggest going with the strip of white (especially for stylized drawings).

Here, I like to start not with individual strands, but with thicker layers. Then, I shade the layers one by one. Below is a demonstration of how I shade hair. First, I add in the base color, then  add the shadow from beneath. Lights and darks in the hair don't appear in straight sections. So, to give it more depth, I shade horizontally.

Then, I add the light source. Usually, this color is just a lighter and more saturated version of the shadow color. Finally, I darken the shadows even more in the deepest parts of the hair, such as where the sections of hair separate.

Whenever starting a portrait, first think about the composition and the focal point of the artwork. This is what draws someone’s attention the first time they look at your piece. Is the focal point for your artwork going to be the lighting, rendering, or expression? Maybe the pose, or an element or object within the artwork? What will the frame consist of? Is there going to be any movement or any particular color scheme?

If these questions seem too hard to answer at first, start by drawing whatever’s on your mind! As you study, observe more artworks, and start practicing more, you will gain these insights yourself.

Here's a few examples of the focal points I’ve chosen for particular artworks.

In the above artwork, you can clearly see how much the lighting affects the overall atmosphere. For this subject, the light acts as a way to make the scene brighter, more vibrant, and more playful. The color palette and the character’s expression play a part in contributing to this scene too. The mix of vibrant greens, blues, and purples makes this pleasing to the eye, carrying warmth in the yellows to soften the image.

Additionally, the way the subject is lit is very important. For instance, illuminating the whole face can create a softer and brighter scene. In this artwork, however, the highly saturated red contrasted with the greenish dark lighting creates a very sharp, poignant and suspenseful scene. Here, I have chosen to illuminate only half his face, creating more shadows. This provides a strong contrast in the lighting, which helps create a dramatic atmosphere. In this way, the color palette and type of lighting you choose has a great impact on your artwork. That is, the contrast in value and hue of the colors you choose plays a great role in the kind of scene you want to create.

In this piece, the subject looks grim and uninviting—it’s clear that this is a dreary scene. The majority of colors used are sharp, not too bright and not too dull, with faint pops of color in a few places. Additionally, the plain white background makes the emotional expression of the character more prominent, encouraging the viewer to focus on subtle visual cues rather than other external elements. This composition of muted hues and vibrant pops of color, when paired with the character’s expression, allows the artwork to communicate mood effectively while still maintaining a visually appealing composition.  You can check out Color Theory 1 and Lighting 1 to learn more about this too!

Similarly, here, the stern side profile makes the subject look very stoic and cold. The bleak landscape adds to the scene as well, emphasizing the frigid atmosphere. The snowy light blue background aligns with that look perfectly by using dull blues and purples and a monotonous color palette. These choices of colors contribute to the gloomy scene that matches his expression. A dash of bright red in the sun and green in his coat makes the painting come alive. Here, it’s clear that the lighting and colors affect the scene to a great extent. As you practice various expressions on characters and try out angles that might seem daunting at first, you could create scenes like this as well.

In the above piece, the highly saturated blue flowers with the red background is the highlight, making the face a visual focal point. The angle, pose, and expression are all very simple, but the circular frame that the flowers form around the face guides the viewer’s eyes towards the face. Additionally, the striking contrast between the warm toned background and the cool toned flowers helps bring out the visual appeal of the piece. This is a way to create elegant yet dramatic scenes just by the color palette and use of elements.

This piece has a similar theme, with flowers wrapped around both of the subject’s hands. Try to explore incorporating different inanimate elements in your drawings to make your subject stand out. For example, you can include beautiful scenery in the background, or the subject could be interacting with an inanimate object like a telephone or instrument. The background can also consist of various doodles, like stars or hearts, which gives the drawing a “sketchbook” feel.

The best way to practice portraits is to draw real life photographs. If you are a beginner, I would highly recommend picking something without harsh and dramatic lighting or intricate elements, such as backgrounds, clothing or complicated expressions. Something with basic studio lighting, front facing or 3/4th’s angle of a face would serve as a great reference.

Below is the reference I’ve chosen.

If you're unsure of where to start, try using reference lines. This is very different from tracing, which is unproductive if you want to understand and draw the facial proportions. Simply tracing over the lines of an image gives you little to no understanding of the face.

Start with a straight line in the middle of the nose, dividing the face into half. This way, you can accurately map out what's on either side of the face and measure distances from other facial features. Next, in less than 10 to 15 straight lines, map out the structure of the face shape and hair. In this stage, all you're really looking at is the angle of these lines and at what point they all converge. You can use this method to block in the neck, shoulders, hands or anything else in the portrait.

During the primary stages, think of how to express your subject in the simplest way. Start with the sketch mapping out everything based on the reference lines. You want to do most of the work regarding the accuracy of the proportions in this stage, as it can get harder to modify them in later stages. Notice how I try to work with straight lines and shapes rather than jumping into the detailing here.

Once you begin rendering, you can start to interact with depth, values, tones and atmosphere. Here, you want to avoid overusing soft brushes and airbrushes, as they tend to make the artwork look muddy and unclear. Instead, block color through hard brushes. As you can see, I began with a few base colors, then started coloring in large sections with analogous (adjacent) colors. If you are not used to color blocking, I suggest taking simple real life objects (like vases or round fruits) and placing them under harsh lighting and try to study the colors. Please check out our video on rendering to learn about this process in depth!

During the rendering phase, look at where the light and shadow fall. Usually the steepest parts of the face—underneath the eyebrows, under or beside the nose, or below the chin and the neck––are covered in shadows. Your understanding of 3D structures in the face plays a huge role in coloring too. Notice how I added minute details like the eyelashes, individual strands of hair, and gloss on the lips, during the very end of the drawing? The last stage is the most appropriate time to add in these details, as all the important elements of the artwork are already appropriately placed.

Above is the reference photo I'm going to be working with, stylized to an anime style portrait.

In this case, I’m going to be working head-down rather than chin-up. So, I start with the sphere, make a line down the middle and a line parallel to the ears. In the first stage, I begin modifying the facial structure to my preferences. Many anime styles use very large and detailed eyes, the upper eyelid greatly thickened with lashes drawn visibly. Only a small line, shadow, or tiny triangle is used to represent the nose. The mouth is also oversimplified to just a line. However, the overall facial symmetry and structure remains intact. You will need lots of 3D real life portrait practice to imitate facial accuracy.

I paint directly over the sketch and don't use line art, but trying line art can dramatically improve anime style drawings. Clean and confident strokes with varied line weight will make artwork look more polished. The rendering phase is similar: I used color blocking to fill in base colors, then I placed the light and shadows with hard brushes. I have increased the saturation and given the painting an orange-ish hue according to my liking, but you can adjust the colors of your artwork to whatever palette you choose. Usually, anime style portraits have the eyes, hair and scene as the focal point, so try to detail these elements as much as you can.

Portraits are very fun and engaging, and are a great starting point for art! Daily practice of 3D anatomy, sketching out structures, studying references, and experimenting with rendering and lighting will steadily improve both drawing and painting skills over time. Consistency and good resources are key.