How to draw a simple portrait. How can novice artists learn to draw portraits of people correctly with a pencil? We draw a portrait of a person with a pencil step by step from different angles: full face, profile and turning the head. Construction of the face, general outline

There are probably no people in the world who have not picked up a brush or a pencil at least once in their lives.

The activity is exciting and interesting, but not easy. And depicting a person on canvas is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks.

Types of portraits

To better understand how to draw a portrait, you should first understand the classification - what are they?

Historical - the painting depicts a person famous in history. Often such images were made according to surviving descriptions of contemporaries.

Costumed - a person appears in some form. This can be either the outfit of a fictional character - the hero of myths, films, comics, books - or the image real personality, as a rule, known. In former times, it was precisely such portraits of the nobility and rulers that were made ceremonial - i.e. in full height, against a bright background, with all the paraphernalia.

But the costume can be more modest, just reflecting the occupation - this is a military, class-social portrait - when trying on the costume of a peasant, merchant, etc. This look was usually half-dress - that is, with a more modest background and not in full height.

Mythological - a fairy-tale creature is painted from a living person.

Costumed, psychological and historical portraits often take the form of a walking portrait or a painting portrait, where the characters are presented in a certain atmosphere and environment.

Psychological - the main goal of the artist is to convey on canvas inner world, the hero's experiences.

Group, pair - depicts a group of people related to each other in some way - for example, a family portrait.

Individual - the entire composition is dedicated to one person.

Self-portrait - the artist paints his face.

Cartoon, caricature, miniature - simple drawings, usually made in pencil, ink or watercolor. Such sketches resemble sketches, since the draftsman captures only the main features of the face without detailed drawing. Caricature and caricature are humorous and satirical in nature with the purpose of ridiculing the object.

From photography - portrait from photo is a fairly new direction, not recognized at first.

Chamber - the most common type. Neutral background, careful drawing of details, the human figure is depicted from the waist, chest or shoulders.

To profile

Half turn

At three quarters

What do you need for drawing?

Before you start drawing lessons, you need to get everything you need. Firstly, this is the work surface.

Ideally, this should be an easel, but for the first time a regular table may be suitable.

Easels come in metal and wood.

It is better to choose one with a stand for accessories.

To secure the sheet to the easel, you need push pins for wooden ones and magnets for metal ones.

Now what we will draw on is the canvas.

The first sketches can be made in a regular album, but for a full-fledged drawing you will need A3 sheets.

For paints, it is advisable to purchase your own type of paper:

• Whatman paper - acrylic, gouache, tempera, oil;
• thick paper for watercolors;
• tinted - for pastel, sanguine, charcoal;
• paper for drawing, whatman paper - for working with a pencil.

Tools:

1. Stationery knife or sharpener. Professional artists To sharpen pencils, a stationery knife is used - this makes the tip of the lead extremely sharp and thin, which allows you to draw clear and even lines. It is not difficult to learn how to sharpen with a knife - you need to move the blade from the wooden base to the tip of the lead on all sides, without pressing too hard on the knife.
2. You need a palette to mix colors.. The best one is plastic, it is easiest to wash off the paint. You can buy it in a store - but plastic lids from cosmetics, etc. will also work as a palette.
3. Brushes. For watercolor - squirrel or columnar. Synthetics, bristles, and natural materials are suitable for gouache and tempera. For acrylic, oil - bristles and synthetics.
4. Palette knife. Spatula for applying and scraping paint, great for acrylics and oils.
5. Bucket for water, rags for brushes and for hands.

Materials:

1. Pencils. You will need a set of art pencils for drawing of different hardnesses.
2. Paints. The most basic ones are gouache and watercolor. Acrylic and tempera are bright and dense and are often recommended for children. Oil technique is the most difficult.
3. Crayons. Pastel - for color works, sanguine and charcoal - for monochromatic drawings.

Where to start learning?

Mothers can teach their children the basics of drawing themselves - it is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The main thing is to devote time to your work every day, and the result will not be long in coming.

Training stages:

1. First of all, you need to try to work with all the materials. Each of them has its own composition, texture, and characteristics - a gouache stroke lays down tightly, watercolor stains spread smoothly, a soft pencil draws a thick, rich line and is easily smeared, a hard pencil almost scratches the sheet. Take an album or notebook and try everything there is to your heart's content.
2. The next step is to learn how to hold a brush and pencil correctly. There are all sorts of options on this topic, but everyone keeps it the way it is convenient for him. One general rule: the pencil does not need to be held like a pen when writing, so that your hand does not block the drawing. In this case, the instrument should “fly” in the hand - up and down, and in all directions. Therefore, we pinch not at the base, but a little lower, almost in the middle, while the index finger and thumb rest freely on the cone.
3. Now about how to draw with a simple pencil:
   • First we just draw the lines. Straight, oblique, wave, semicircle - gradually the lines will come out clear and confident. The main thing here is training.
     
     
   • Hatch. First, we draw strokes in one direction, then in different ones, and then we combine, for example, vertical and horizontal, but without overlapping one on top of the other, but place them perpendicular to each other. The next step is to draw simple geometric shapes.
     
   • . The concept of perspective is that objects become narrower as they move away from a certain point towards the horizon. The ability to draw in perspective is necessary when you need to depict a figure sideways or turning its head. It is not difficult to see it in the surrounding environment: it could be a corridor, a room, a street. If you pay attention, you will notice that all the lines run diagonally from the viewer and connect at one point. To get acquainted with a perspective image in practice, we start with the simplest: a road, a corridor, etc., and then we also draw geometric shapes.
     
4. We mix different paints on the palette to obtain shades. It is believed that there are only three primary colors - red, yellow, blue, and all other colors are shades, the result of mixing. When working with paints, with the exception of watercolors, we use white.
5. Finally, you can try drawing a face. We copy from pictures - at first from the simplest, cartoon ones, gradually moving on to more complex ones.

Learning to draw a portrait - a step-by-step guide for beginners

In this lesson we will draw a woman's face. This drawing scheme is universal; you can use it to make a portrait of both a boy and a girl.

Construction of the head and general outline:

Working with planes

Now let's draw the planes in the form of geometric shapes. Let's start with the nose - outline the back and wings of the nose with a rectangle. Then we select the plane of the cheekbones in the shape of a trapezoid, and mark the eyes and lips with a circle.

We broke future drawing to the main parts. You can draw the forehead, eyebrows and chin in the same way.

Face detailing - eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, ears

Eyes and eyebrows:

1. Draw the contours of the upper and lower eyelids. Please note that the eyelids are different from each other, draw very carefully so as not to miss a single detail.
2. We draw the entire iris - that is, and the part that is hidden by the upper eyelid.
3. We denote the pupil and glare (reflected light).
4. We move on to shading the mirror surface of the eye. We leave the highlight unpainted. The iris of the eye is darker at the outer edge and along the contour - in the center and at the pupil it is lighter.
5. We work on the eyelids and the area around the eye. We designate shadows - on the crease upper eyelid, lower, at the bridge of the nose. The ciliary edge of the lower eyelid remains light, and the white of the eye is darker along the contour at the edge of the eyelid. The shadow from the upper eyelid partly falls on the eyeball.
6. We create volume using a stroke, painting the entire area - from the eyebrows to the lower eyelid.
7. Drawing eyebrows. We draw the main line and start drawing from it soft pencil every hair, all in one direction. We also draw eyelashes.

1. Outline the main parts - the back, wings of the nose, nostrils. Draw the outer and inner edges of the nostrils in detail.
2. Mark the shadows. Conventionally divide all planes into three - shadow, transition, light part (we don’t shade it).
3. Detailed shading.

1. Let's sketch general outline. First of all, let's draw a line between the lips. To do this, draw three circles - two at the bottom, close to each other, in place of the lower lip, and one at the top, in the middle between the lower ones, so that the circle falls into the hole between them. The line where all three circles connect will be the line between the lips. We trace the contour of the lips in circles, draw in the corners, and give the upper lip the shape of a bow. Don't forget that the lower lip is slightly larger than the upper lip.
2. Shading. The upper lip is always darker. Pay attention to the side shadows.
3. We give volume using shading, working out in detail the corners, side shadows and the line between the lips.

1. We carefully draw all the parts - curls, ear canal, fossa, lobe.
2. We apply shadows and do shading, especially concentrating on small details, transitions from light to shadow - the ear is the most difficult in this regard.

Hatching and halftones

As already mentioned, the volume depends on the stroke. To draw a beautiful, expressive picture, you need to be good at shading techniques.

Ideally, you need to have a full set of pencils of different softness. This is important not only for the saturation and depth of the shade (soft ones give a dark deep tone, hard ones give light and light lines) - it is also important in technical terms, and for conveying the density and structure of the object.

A sketch is made with a hard pencil without shading, because it is easily overlapped and will not be visible in the final version.

A soft pencil and draws smoothly. It is ideal for shadow, as well as for visually conveying the softness of the depicted nature - it is good for drawing hair and clothes.

The shading technique involves combining strokes different lengths and directions.

All the strokes are applied evenly, neatly, one to the other, the stroke should not be “shaggy” and disorderly, there is no need to apply too many layers of shading in one place - otherwise it will just turn out to be dirt.

To create smooth transitions, for example, to indicate a fold, apply short strokes at the transition point, and use a longer stroke in other places.

When you need to create a transition from dark to light, to create halftones, first we shade the entire plane with the lightest tone, and then paint over the shadow with a softer pencil.

In certain cases, you can lightly shade the transition area with your fingertip - for example, when drawing shadows at the bridge of the nose.

An example of creating a portrait step by step in the photo:

Highlight and darken

There is no dimming hard pencil. To ensure that the stroke is not visible and that the transitions are smooth, the strokes should be very small.

In darker places, we deepen the tone as much as necessary, applying several layers of shading. We either don’t shade the light areas at all, or take the hardest one.

You can also use an eraser to create a highlight.

Video tutorial on drawing a portrait from a photo:

Portraits for sketching

Working with nature is very difficult. Before this, it is advisable to take an already drawn portrait and repeat it on paper. This practice will help you get better at learning the technical side of the work, as well as study the techniques that artists use.

How to learn to draw portraits with paints?

We've figured out how to draw with a pencil. Now we will talk about painting with paints. This video will talk about different techniques, completely different - and about watercolor painting, and about working with oil. Everyone can choose what they like.

Drawing with watercolors. Video tutorial:

Oil painting, basics for beginners. Video tutorial:

In conclusion of the article, it is worth noting that the most important secret to success in drawing is perseverance and daily practice. Don't give up if you don't succeed the first time. Try again and you will definitely succeed in drawing a portrait.

Draw a portrait with a pencil not very difficult as it might seem at first glance. Let us remember that until photography appeared, the ability to draw portraits was a mandatory discipline in school. This article will help you learn how to do this.

When you depict a person's head, you need to make sure that proportions between the mouth, nose, ears and eyes are marked accurately and correctly. Please pay attention special attention structure of the head, evaluate its main features; if you don’t do this, you are unlikely to get a truly worthwhile portrait.

Below are pictures with the proportions of an average head. But this is just a standard. But it is precisely discrepancies with the standard that give a person uniqueness and originality. It is worth comparing it with your model, in what ways they differ and in what ways they converge.

Eyes are the most expressive element portrait, which is why it is necessary to maintain the accuracy of the form and the correct position. Our site would like to point out that the sclera (part of the eyeball) does not need to be made snow-white, it should change color due to the shadow cast by the eyelid and the effect of its own shadow. It is also necessary to pay attention to the glare of light in the lower eyelid, in the inner corner of the eye and on the iris. It is they and the shadows that make the eyes more “alive”.

The pictures below show the spherical structure of the eye, how to correctly show the eyelids on them and the drawing stage itself.

Draw the eyes from different points of view and in different positions. Women's eyes generally have thick and long eyelashes, and eyebrows are thin and well defined. In a child, the iris appears large compared to the eyelid. Over time, older people develop deep wrinkles that start from the corners of the eyes, eyebrows become thick and grow, and the lower eyelids have a baggy appearance.

Ear formed by cartilage tissue. It can look in different variations, but all ears resemble a sea shell, which is practically no different in women and men. In portraits, the ears are either partially or completely hidden by the hair, and their expression depends on how accurately you position them on the sides of the head. See sketch.

The height of an adult's ear is approximately equal to the length of the nose. Adults have smaller ears relative to their heads than children. In older people, the ears become longer due to weakening and thinning of the cartilage tissue.

Nose It's quite difficult to portray correctly because it is in front of the face, and therefore its shape changes quite a lot depending on the point of view. Try to define areas of light and shadow (usually the maximum amount of light is at the tip of the nose and the bridge of the nose, with the most intense shadow at the base of the nostrils), try to convey only this contrast so that your drawing is not overloaded (unless the nose is a key feature faces).

After the eyes we draw mouth. It is the second most expressive element in the portrait. The pinkish tint of the lips is a consequence of the transition between the skin and the mucous membrane. When you draw lips, you should make sure that you have correctly defined the transition boundary. The lips are located on the semi-cylindrical surface of the jaw bones. The sketches presented below indicate the main features of the labial morphology. Our site would like to point out that the upper lip is thinner.

These sketches present you with variations of smiles that are usually drawn in portraits. The lips of old people are thin and covered with a large number of vertical folds.

Video lessons

Drawing beautifully is the dream of many people. Probably everyone in childhood drew something with crayons or pencils, but over time, internal blocks formed, doubts about your abilities and you left your dream, never realized. To learn how to draw, all you need to do is just start and believe that your dreams will come true.

How to learn to draw portraits with a pencil

Let's start learning artistic arts. First, let's clarify what is meant by this concept. A portrait is an image or description of a person using various artistic means. With its help, you can reflect a person’s character and emphasize beauty. appearance, this is a whole science. There are different portrait formats:
Historical - depicts figures of the past, based on supporting materials.
Retrospective – depicts people after death.
A portrait is a painting – a subject image in combination with the surrounding world, things, motives.
Family portrait – with family members.
Self-portrait – complex genre, requiring a special approach.
Costume portrait – a person is depicted as someone else.
There are also types of portrait genres themselves:
Representative or ceremonial - involves a full-length image of a person. These could be paintings with a man on a horse, or in a military image.
Chamber - a painting with a waist-length or shoulder-length portrait, with a simple background.

How to learn to draw a portrait step by step

It is very difficult for beginners who are far from the art of art to immediately master all the subtleties, and this is not necessary in the first stages. It is necessary to practice on individual parts of the face, get better at it, and only then proceed to the portrait itself. The easiest way is to take a primitive image female face with direct placement. Draw the outline of the face, which one it belongs to - an oval, a circle, etc. All actions at this stage should be easy, since we are only determining the geometric features of the face. Divide it into four parts, draw vertical and horizontal lines strictly in the middle, mark the lower part of the first line with five small serifs, draw them slightly noticeable, then you will need to erase them. Now we determine the location of the future eyes, placing dots on a horizontal line. Remember that their distance is equal to the length of one eye, then the borders of the eyelids, and add to the upper eyelashes, now the arches of the eyebrows. We go lower and on the vertical, draw the arc of the tip of the nose, determine its height, you can add a little volume and shade it. A little lower, the reverse arc, is the mouth.
The earlobes should be at the same level as the nose, sketch out the outline of the hairline. To give realistic volume, shade your lips and hair with a pencil, highlighting the dark, bright places, adding shadows and highlights. But this is not enough volume; now it is necessary to highlight individual elements. Namely, nasolabial folds, whites, upper cheeks, area above the eyebrows, and sometimes the chin. An eraser and a piece of soft cloth are suitable for this. To give it more life, draw some small wrinkles. Make several portraits of the same person in this way. You will see how your technique changes and your drawing transforms.

How to learn to draw portraits with a pencil for beginners

Human nature is designed in such a way that we always need to create and express our emotions. There is no need to be afraid of the lack of any skills; no one will judge you, because you are just learning. So, you will need:
An album or notebook specifically for drawing. The fact is that the structure of special paper helps to carefully shade pencil lines.
Take any pencil; for a beginner, its type is not particularly important. Typically, for portraits, a pencil with leads thirty-five millimeters thick is used.
An eraser for adjusting images.
It is necessary to practice every day, without exception. Place a piece of paper in front of you, take a deep breath and smile. After all, without a positive attitude, little happens. First of all, if you have already chosen a model, perhaps it is just a photo of someone, take a good look at it. Each artist has his own style and after time, a technique is developed. Everyone starts differently, try with the eyes, since the portrait and other parts of the face are built in relation to them. Mark the pupil, highlight the iris and the shape of the eye section. Shade it with light pressing movements, as if drawing an expanding ring. Add veins, strings in the pupils and light reflections to the eye. Draw a voluminous eyelid and eyelashes coming from it. At the same time, draw the second eye in a similar way. Once you have the eyes ready, it’s easier to draw the shape of the face; add strands of hair at the same time if you want to make them fall slightly. Gradually adding light touches of shadow, we move on to the nose and mouth. For synchronicity and simplification, you can make light auxiliary lines. Emphasize facial features, prominent cheekbones, forehead, moles. Be sure to add highlights and touches of shadow. Do not ignore the small features that distinguish the person being portrayed.

How to draw hair with a pencil

This is a very important component of the portrait, especially if it is female. Starting from the finished face, mark the places where the strands lie and how. Highlight dark and light areas by reflecting light. Then, using shading, changing the pressure and the angle of the pencil, give them color. When drawing hair, you don't need to move backwards or forwards, go only in one direction. Having painted over all the hair, you can add darker ones, but at the same time, leave a small space between them, this will highlight individual strands for realism. Just don’t overdo it with pressure; blondes need to be painted over lightly. Very important factor, make a living drawing, so don't forget about depth. Hair needs to be lightened at the largest breaks in shape, bends, it will look shiny. A portrait is a universal gift, pleasant and suitable for absolutely everyone.
Having learned to perform it competently, you will be able to bring joy not only to yourself. In the future, if you get carried away, purchase more professional tools; in the first stages, this is unnecessary. Don't be discouraged when it's difficult at first; there's no need to give up. And you must agree how pleasant it is to achieve your goals by developing your talents.

Drawing a portrait- This is one of the most difficult types fine arts. To learn to draw correctly portrait of a man, It will take you a lot of effort and time. The difficulty of such a drawing is that you will need to convey the emotional state of the person, his depth of gaze, facial expressions, smile, thoughtfulness, etc. To do this, you need to very accurately and correctly draw the shape of the lips, eyes, nose and other features of his face.

How to draw a portrait of a person with a regular pencil?

Learn simple and ordinary drawing technique faces are possible independently. All you need to do is draw a face step by step with a simple pencil. Don't be upset if you can't draw a portrait the first time.

1. Construction of the face, general outline

In order for the portrait to come out correctly, you need to very accurately draw the contour of the face, the construction of the face. Try to repeat this oval of a person's face on your paper. If you don't succeed, try again and again until you get the contour of the correct shape.

2. Main parts of the face and their markings

Draw a straight line in the center horizontal line, which divides the portrait into two parts. Draw a parallel line a little lower. From the center of the bottom line, you will need to draw perpendicular line, and also mark where the tip of the nose will be on the person’s face.
When you draw these lines Don't press too hard on the pencil and don't forget to draw the ears.

3. The main part of the portrait is the eyes

Drawing eyes is a very discreet and neat job. Sharpen the pencil sharper and draw smooth, oval lines for the eyes. Next, draw the line of the mouth, pupils and the initial contours of the hair.

4. Drawing the contours of the mouth, eyebrows and lips

First, try to draw the easiest thing - eyebrows and hair outline. Now let's draw a slightly more complex element- lips. Let's draw the lower lip, since it's easier to draw; you shouldn't draw too thick lips. The upper lip should be a mirror image of the lower.

At the tip of the nose, draw a checkmark and two small arcs along the edges. Next, from the right eyebrow, draw a line that easily deviates to the right.

Now take an eraser and remove from your portrait extra contour lines. This is what you should get:

5. Final stage

At this stage you will need to make the drawing three-dimensional, that is add shadows and contrasts. On the hair and face most of areas need to be shaded thickly and dark color- this will give the face depth and greater realism.

Now you know how easily and in several steps you can draw a portrait of a person. Good luck to you!

In addition to the fact that drawing portraits is a wonderful hobby that can preserve memories of dear and close people in the artist’s life, it is also a form of income. Indeed, talented craftsmen significantly increase their income by doing what they love and honing their skills.

A step-by-step guide to drawing portraits.

• If you want to learn how to draw portraits, but have never encountered this type of creativity before, start with yourself. More precisely, start drawing yourself. We are talking about a self-portrait. This is what Van Gogh did - he painted his portraits. In order for you to see the details of your face, pay enough attention to the lighting. For right-handers, for example, the light source should be positioned on the left side and slightly above the artist.
• Create the first drawing on a scale of 1:1. To do this, make sure that the canvas (or other material on which you will paint) is larger than your head so that it can fit completely.
  
• Try not to move your head too much by using eye movements when drawing. By the way, you can start drawing from one of the eyes. Study it carefully, draw it and move on, measuring the proportionality of all the details.
  
• Having chosen the least difficult path in the question of how to draw a portrait (that is, a self-portrait), you still need to pay attention to detail. For example, when drawing an eye, you should pay attention to all the small folds, the thickness of the eyelashes, and the shape. You will have to be objective, although this is not always easy.
  
• When drawing the second eye, do not mindlessly copy the previous element. In the biological world, complete symmetry is very rare. See how your right eye differs from your left, and try to convey these differences in the drawing.
  
• Once the basic unit - the eye - is drawn, use its dimensions to maintain the correct proportions. Using this unit of measurement, you can qualitatively measure the distance between the eyes, the distance from the visible edge of the face.
  
• Pay attention to the height and shape of your eyebrows. They are often what make a person recognizable, so try to convey them objectively.
  
• Keep a mirror behind your easel so that you can look up slightly to see the original at any time. Try not to make unnecessary movements so as not to lose the original angle of the head. Even a slight discrepancy can confuse a beginning artist.
  
• To maintain symmetry, draw a vertical auxiliary line dividing the space between the eyes in half. You will be guided by this line when drawing the nose and lips. But remember that the world does not have to be perfect, and if in real life your nose protrudes to the left of the center line, this feature should be conveyed on paper.
  
• Match the eye width unit to the distance between the bottom of the nose and the inside of the eye. Transfer the resulting correspondence to paper. Next, measure the distance to the upper lip in the same way and determine the size and shape of the lips. In the case of correctly designed proportions, you will already at this stage receive a high level of portrait resemblance.
  
• Next you need to determine and draw the shape and height of the cheekbones and ears. This is not easy, because these are the parts of the human face that are unique and not easily amenable to the brush of a novice master. But if you succeed, then you are undoubtedly ready for subsequent difficulties.
  
• Not everyone can mark the chin and jaw the first time either. Besides the fact that professional drawing of a protruding bone is not an easy task in itself, people tend to idealize their appearance. Not everyone can recognize the excessive squareness of their jaw or the prominence of their chin. However, artists see beauty differently than ordinary people– precisely in these imperfections that distinguish people from each other.
  
• Start drawing the hair. In your first self-portrait, pay attention not to the details, but to the general similarity: height, thickness and shape of the hairstyle. Don't waste time drawing individual strands. At this stage, we do not have such a goal.
  
• Now pay attention to the play of light and shadow. Proceed to darken the desired areas, as well as lighten where necessary. This way you will make the drawing voluminous and natural. Start working with the darkest areas (the iris of the eyes) and then move in descending order, according to the palette - from dark to lighter.
• Try to pay enough attention to the location of the light spots to achieve the greatest naturalness of the picture. Notice even small and seemingly insignificant details.
• Use lightening and darkening to highlight the bones of the skull under the skin so that the person depicted in the portrait is clearly made of flesh and blood, and not of marmalade and ostrich feathers (if you are painting a self-portrait in the classical style, of course).
  
• Shade one of the wings of the nose and try to convey the shape of your organ of touch as correctly as possible. With all its features: size, shape and possible imperfections.
• Also work on the shadows in the nasolabial septum and on the cheekbones and chin. Don't focus too much on the shadow under your lower lip. If you overdo it, you risk distorting the correct understanding of the portrait.
  
• The final touches are light spots and shadows in the neck area. Here is your first self-portrait and it’s ready.
  

What you have read above will help you develop basic skills and come to a general understanding of what is important to pay attention to when drawing a portrait. Perfecting what you just learned will take practice, a lot of practice. And each portrait will turn out better and better.