How to learn to draw a portrait:
Head and facial features

Table of contents

Head and facial features

Facial features

Whatever the size of the head or the shape of the face, the relative proportions and location of its features in a particular person are always constant. The relationship between them can be illustrated by dividing the face depicted in the face with a grid (left). Looking at the central vertical axis, you will notice several things: facial features are located symmetrically; eyes are in the middle of the face; eyebrows at the same level with the upper edges of the ears; the fleshy part of the nose has the same width as the distance between the inner corners of the eyes; and so on. Take a closer look at different people and determine how their features are consistent.

Skull

The skull serves as an integral to the shape of the face. The two sketches below illustrate the proportions between the skull and the visible facial features.

Perspective

If you draw faces turned from you at different angles, do not forget to depict their features in perspective. It is difficult to draw continuous curved lines in the future, to facilitate the task it is useful to draw sketches of the head using the block method. For the simplest sketch, you can imagine the head in the form of a box - the cheeks as two sides, and the lower side of the chin, face, nape and crown as the other four sides. For more complex sketches, the head can be represented as a series of planes (bottom right).

Parallel planes and horizontal lines drawn at the level of the nose, eyes, or mouth obey the laws of perspective. For example, that eye that is closer to you will not only appear larger, but also slightly higher than the farthest. If you draw from different angles, then not only some features will be sharply shortened, but also the whole face (bottom right).

To create a realistic portrait requires sharp observation, as well as an understanding of the theory. As always, mastery comes with practice, and no one will become for you a more patient sitter than you yourself. Before going through all of the above stages of creating a picture, in this case your self-portrait, examine your face. Take a look in the mirror and note all the bulges, depressions and lines on it. Your nose projects forward below eye level. Where the fleshy parts surrounding the nostrils meet with the cheeks, a distinct separation line passes. Other curved lines that outline the nose are softer.

When drawing eyes, remember that these are spheres located in the eye sockets of the skull. They seem oval because they are partially covered by eyelids that repeat the bulge of the eyeballs. Turn on the bright light so that the face shapes become sharply embossed.

Be guided by general principles, but do not let them dominate your portrait. Draw what you see, not what the theory dictates to you; in the end, there are no two identical faces - each has its own individual characteristics. But remember that the facial features of all, as a rule, are placed symmetrically.

How to capture emotions

Our feelings are manifested in emotions, and a convincing transfer of emotions in a portrait will tell the viewer more than the most thorough drawing of each hair or skin tone.When painting portraits of friends, try to catch their typical emotions, which express their personality.

The mood is often fleeting, elusive. Compare the two female portraits on these pages; neither of these women shows extreme emotions, both of them are quite calm and thoughtful, and yet a portrait of a smaller format is full of restraint, and a larger one seems a little sad.

Just as you examined your face, studying its features, you can observe in front of the mirror its various expressions.

Accepting a specific facial expression, study how the movement and the changing shape of its features, usually the eyes and mouth, affect the cheeks, lines around the nose and so on.

You will find that a slight change in facial features is enough to accept a variety of expressions. For example, the slightest change in the corners of the mouth in a person with an impassive face gives him an expression of mockery.

Pose

Pose helps reinforce emotions. So, in the drawing of a seated woman (opposite), her inclined figure, her arm propping her head, as it were, confirm the expression of tired meditation on her face.

Children’s emotions

When portraying emotions in children, you do not have to peer into their faces. They show their feelings not so restrained as adults, and changes in the features of the face, eyes, mouth occur quite noticeably.