How to learn to draw a portrait:
Language of the body

Table of contents

Language of the body

Body language and mood

With the help of body language, you can give the picture a certain mood. So, it can cause the viewer to feel a certain weather: in the cold, we tremble and even slightly hunch to keep our body warm. With a strong wind, we strain the body, maintaining balance, even lean forward if we go towards the whirlwind. From heat, we show signs of drowsiness.

Watch how the mood is reflected in the posture of people - from anxiety and excitement they take tense, motionless poses, and when resting their body becomes limp and lazy poses.

Groups of people

Sometimes a certain body language appears only in a group of people when it comes to a person’s position in society and his self-esteem. Compare the poses of strong personalities, such as teachers or popular politicians, with the respectful poses of the people around them - pay attention to the aggressive look and claim to leadership. Friendship involves open, laid-back poses, and lovers cling to each other. It is interesting to portray children, as their spontaneity is manifested in a distinct body language. Older people are usually more restrained, and this (together with slow motion) creates a completely different body language.

Frame and composition

Composition does not have to reflect exactly what you see. You may want to place its various elements on paper in a completely different way, or you decide to focus on one person from the whole group. You can even draw it not entirely, but only some part. For example, you can depict only his head, making his eyes a focal point, as in this portrait of a one-year-old baby.

In good compositions, the relationships between the individual elements are brought into harmony, and the main character becomes the focal point. Decide from the start what will become the focal point of your composition.

Frame

Sometimes it is not easy to portray a group of people or even one person. Taking it in a frame, you select some part of the common space, and in it it will be easier for you to decide what to make the focal point. Border methods are shown on the next page.

The frame can be made of two cardboard corners (1) folded at a right angle so that it turns out to be square or rectangular in shape and its size could be changed. You can also cut a cardboard frame the size of your sheet of paper (2). Or even fold it in your hands (3). Place them vertically, palms outward, so that the thumbs touch; at the same time, both fingers should make a right angle with the hand.

Before moving on to complex compositions, practice on simple ones. Make rough sketches, adding details only after you have outlined the main shapes. When experimenting with the frame and composition, resort to the help of photography.

Surrounding details

A nude model on a couch will look strangely “floating” in space if you don’t draw a couch. Some drawings need context; sketching of an art class (below) will be incomplete without a classroom, the walls of which also help to outline the depth of the picture. Remember that the background should supplement the information, and not distract the viewer, so do not overload it with details or texture.