Including a hand in your portraits adds a significant measure of excitement but can quickly destroy an otherwise fine portrait if done incorrectly.

The goal is to integrate the hand so that it is not only proportionally and gestural right, but is in agreement in personality with the expression of the face.

For example, an agreeable facial expression juxtaposed with a clenched fist may not yield the effect you want unless you intend to add an ironic twist to your portrait. On the other hand, a hand supporting the head goes very well with a stern scowling expression.

First, absolute beginners should not be trying to render both the hand and portrait together. Things will quickly get muddled. The lesson for the absolute beginner here is to get an appreciation of the significance of acquiring a solid foundation of your craft.

In a view where a hand supports the head there exists a faint forward tilt because the subject is a little bit hunched and leaning forward. For the artist, this situation translates into the presence of a faintly foreshortened and reclined portrait. In the hand/skull case this means that the chin is somewhat receding relative to the forehead.

As always, you should start with the all encompassing arabesque, which in this case, includes the hand and the shoulder. If you first draw the skull and then attach the hand to it you are really asking for problems. The hand and the head will lack harmony and will give the awkward impression that they are two distinct objects that are coincidentally next to each other.

When sketching the construct be aware of the negative as well as the positive spaces. Also, do not pre-measure any aspects of the complete arabesque. It should be drawn with as much fluidity as possible without losing your sense of proportion. Draw first then verify.

Further build upon the construct by situating the face, hand, and shoulder landmark
s and proportions. The internal architecture of the complete arabesque is initiated by blocking-in the primedarks and painting out the lights with a kneaded eraser.

What you are doing is to set the stage for rendering the facial features, the hand, and the shoulder. The hand must be situated and proportioned in accordance with the skull and the facial features. The compression of the jaw into the palm must also be reckoned with.

Using a sharp pencil you can now further develop the tone and form with cross-hatching, stumping down, and erasing. In this, you will be going back and forth hoping that you know when to quit. Rendering is about making decisions, i.e., knowing what to build up and, just as significant, knowing what to leave out.

In the hand/head situation you have to be extra careful how far you develop the hand. The hand should be seen as a prop, that is, a supporting element that should not be part of the focus. Do not feel compelled to finish every element in your drawing. Everything in sketching is about equilibrium and communicating your meaning directly to the viewer’s eye.

In closing, it is essential to see the hand and the shoulder as parts of one whole. Starting your drawing with drawing the construct will aid you greatly with maintaining this cohesion. Treat the hand and shoulder as props that surround the face. This means that you should draw them in a subordinate role.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: pencil portrait course.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits.

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To produce interesting fluid portraits that breathe life you must understand the effect of the spine on the skull and shoulders.

To realize a relaxed feeling in your portraits quite often you will need to render the head tilted. Most people when they are at ease will view with their head slightly tilted. In this article we will point out what to look for and how to tackle the slanted skull.

In the tilted head pose the subject will show a clear change of bearing from the action of the torso to the tilt of the head. Also take note of where the shoulders are. The model’s shoulders will approximately be aligned with the base of the nose.

With this information in mind, the first step is to gauge the angle of the head’s tilt (from the base of the chin to the top of the skull) before striking the arabesque. To do this hold up your pencil (or a knitting needle) at arm’s length, closing one eye, and adjust the angle of the held pencil so that it corresponds to the angle of the tilt. Keeping your arm straight and locked you can now transpose this angle onto the sketch.

Now that the angle of the tilt is established you can draw the arabesque and validate the height/width proportion.

The axis of the features is perpendicular to the tilted facial angle. A common trend while sketching is to straighten out the features so that they are horizontal to the paper. Be on the lookout for this and ever on-guard because this tendency is subtle and is constantly trying to sneak into the drawing.

It is not a recommended practice to position all of the features at this stage. It is actually more proper to first fix the brow line and the base of the nose and work from there.

When the head is tilted you should also be aware of the effect that gravity has on the face. The flesh, especially on the underside of the jaw, will be slightly pulled down. This effect is quite delicate but for those of you who are advanced portraitists you should capture this in your initial arabesque. If you are a novice just put this information away for future reference.

Take note, also, of the neck. The essential visible neck muscle is extended. Its companion is shortened. This opposite muscle action is referred to as abduction/adduction. This action of the neck always renders a beautiful effect.

Once the arabesque is placed and you are satisfied with its accuracy relative to proportion and shape you can render the features and hatch-in the primary big darks and lights. Keep the value simple. The more complex the lighting arrangement, the more this applies.

The tonal arrangements are worked further, but are still somewhat crude and unresolved. The key concern is the overall light effect.

There are a few items to keep in mind as you prepare to finish the sketch:

1. Ask yourself how far you want to carry the sketch. You can get a real nice effect if you give the shoulders and upper torso an unresolved quality. Remember, sketches are not meant to resemble photographs.

2. As you gain a deeper understanding of the facial structure the trend exists to render what you know rather than what is actually there. So make sure you always pause to observe the life model or the model in the photograph.

In closing, the tilted skull view is special in that the features will be centered on a slanted axis and that the stress in the shoulders will be different from one side to the other. Also the transition from the torso and shoulders to the skull should be carefully inspected.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert sketching teacher. See his work at pencil portraits.

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Posing your model surrounded by a number of props can add much attention, dimension, and appeal to a portrait and goes a long way to describing your model. A prop can add considerably to the composition of the portrait.

Drawing a portrait with a prop, such as a hat or even ear muffs, obliges you to particularly pay attention to the construct.

Quite often the beginning artist will be tempted to approach a prop as a separate element or an afterthought so that rather than complimenting and merging in a supporting role with the model’s face, it looks artificial and overwhelms the model or is incorrectly proportioned or sketched.

In this expose you will learn the professional approach to rendering a supporting item that frames the center of interest even with a supporting element that is bigger than the face.

First, the presence of a prop does not change the approach to sketching the pencil portrait. As with sketching any other portrait, you should employ all your normal basic skills and apply them throughout the normal processes of your rendering effort.

So as always, you begin with the arabesque which in the case where the head and the supporting item overlap will be a “construct” which is a complete arabesque that encompasses not only the shape and proportions of the head but also of the contour of the prop entity where it overlaps with the skull.

In the context of the presence of a prop item that overlaps with the head, the construct becomes of crucial significance. It helps a lot with the maintenance of unity. If you do not sketch from the reference of a construct, the head and the prop will appear as separate structures.

While you work through the subsequent stages of your portrait rendering (proportions, landmarks, blocking-in, blending, etc.) you should constantly be aware of the fact that your supporting item should not overwhelm the face of your model.

The face of your subject should remain the primary focus. Your drawing should not turn into a still life of your prop entity that also happens to show a person’s face in the background.

One trick that can help you with understating of the supporting item is to only sketch the merest of details inside the supporting item. Another one is to soften the values of the prop entity but only if it this appropriate in the context of the overall intent of your drawing.

Again, we cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining the cohesion between your subject and the supporting entity. That is why it is significant that you draw from the construct which already links the model and your supporting entity as one overall object. Of course, this also implies that you do the toning in a similar spirit and not overdo the lines and values that separate the subject and the prop item.

So, in closing, the key considerations when including props items in your drawing are to make sure that the arabesque covers the entire outline of the skull and the props entities.

In addition, make sure that at all times you keep in mind that the supporting entities should never become the focus of your drawing. If you stick to these guidelines, the utilize of props entities should never become a problem for you.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.

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A interesting thing about drawing the profile view is that beginners find it much easier than the other views. Yet, the advanced artist can find the side view quite demanding.

For the advanced draftsperson the test lies in the effort to affect a three-dimensional sculptured look.

Looking at the construct in the side view observe how the skull is broken down into straight lines. Using these architectonic lines suggests a solidity of form.

At first, you should keep the forms plain. Also at this time, do not draw all the profiled features. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. It is very likely that even the most accomplished artist will be off, and

2. Once a line is established the logical center of your brain will consider that relationship as correct one. Therefore, it will look proper to you but everyone else will see the error.

There is a superior way. You start with drawing the arabesque using architectonically straight lines. The principal concerns are fixing the general proportions and shape accurately. At a more advanced level you should also consider rhythm and flow.

Instead of right away incorporating the nose into the arabesque you should utilize the facial angle, i.e., the line from the forehead to the chin that breaks at the base of the nose. The marker reference for the bottom of the nose is the tiny ledge-like protrusion.

A plumb-bob is an superb device for rightly placing the base of the nose. A plumb-bob is a length of thread (preferably black carpet thread) that has a weight attached to it. The plumb-bob is made use of to verify vertical alignments (when working with life models) and their relationships to that vertical line. The vertical line is referred to as the plumb-line.

Aligning the plumb-line to the chin allows you more rightly to see the relationship of brow to chin. The brow is set back from the chin. By the way, the entire area of chin and mouth is referred to as the “muzzle”.

Having confirmed that the initial construct and facial angle are correct you can now proceed with establishing the facial proportions, chief anatomical markers, and the hair-line. So, at this stage do not even think about rendering the entire nose. Rendering the nose at this time is a sure prescription for disaster. The angle of the nose and the construction of the tip require a high degree of precision.

Instead, begin to sketch the general light/dark pattern.
The lights are taken out using a putty eraser. The look we are seeking is that of a ghost image. That means, above all, not to add minutia. In addition, work from the general to the specific.

Once the general light/dark pattern is developed then the profiled features can be taken on. employing a very sharp pencil you can draw upwards from the chin to the forehead carefully seeing the form. As you sketch mutter the anatomical terms of each feature that you draw. You would be amazed at how that ilucidates the drawing process. Having an understanding of the facial anatomy will set your portrait drawing miles ahead of those who do not.

The tip of the nose, particularly, demands anatomical reconstruction to get it right.

A common error novices make with the profile view is placing the eye too far forward. The eye sockets are recessed quite significantly into the head. If you drop a plumb-line from the inside corner of the eye you will see that the eye aligns itself with the node of the mouth.

Further drawing and cross-hatching values are accomplished with 2H and 4H pencils. Decideing how far you want to take your sketch is an creative decision you have to make yourself. If you want, you can leave the portrait somewhat unfinished.

In closing, drawing the side view involves the same general principles relevant to any view. In this situation, the construct is particularly significant. The significant thing to recall is not to place the actual full features of the head too early in the process.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.

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The drawing of kids demands freshness and directness of purpose. Unfortunately, there are not too many quick and ready rules. Let us just say that children’s portraits demand a sharp and patient eye.

For those who intend to do professional portraiture the good news is that children’s portraits can be profitable. There are very few artists who can competently sketch kids.

Soft lighting works best for portraits of children. The kid could be looking towards a intense light source. This sort of light source will light up the child’s face and create an introspective facial appearance. The value range goes from light to medium with the eyes really dark.

Addressing the facial proportions of children in a general sense is somewhat of a waste of time. Their facial sizes change dramatically within a time span of six month.

Suffice it to say that the younger the kid is the smaller the face in relation to the skull. The eyes also appear larger although this can be deceiving. A child’s nose can be a nightmare to sketch – there is nothing really to hold onto. And the mouth is extremely faint and sensitive not to mention its constant motion if you render from a model.

If you do want to enumerate some general proportions you can say that whereas an adult face is about half the size of the frontal skull side, a kid’s face is about one-third of that size. Also, observe how small an infant’s neck is compared to the size of the head.

At its widest segment, a baby’s face is about five eye widths wide. The width between the eyes is a little bit more than the width of an eye. Both the mouth and the nose are approximately the same width of an eye. Again, we must stress that these sizes are only a broad rule and individual face proportions can be different. The above broad rules can be made use of for comparison purposes when you do your own careful observations of a particular face.

As always, start your rendering by striking the arabesque and then correcting the height/width proportions as necessary.

After establishing the primary facial proportions (i.e., the brow, nose, mouth, etc.) block-in the major light/dark patterns. Then, stump down the graphite using your fingers or a stump. To render and re-shape the lights make use of a clean kneaded eraser.

Now the features are carefully placed, measured and partially drawn. There are two things to take into account here:

1. Your pencils must be very sharp, and

2. At this time, you should never fully finish a feature. Sketch each feature no more than 50%.

As soon as the features are sized and situated as best you can, you can now further develop them. Do not neglect the hair and sides of the face. All should be advanced together. As you proceed to sketch you should always be on the lookout for mistakes in proportions and tone.

In closing, the basic techniques employed to draw a kid’s portrait are of course always the same. Above, we listed most of the differences in size and shape between an adult skull and that of a child. Your mood when rendering a kid should be one that reflects the innocence and the softness of a kid.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: portrait drawing course.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.

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