Portrait Drawing
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.
Objectives:
You will explore, experiment, and learn the basic elements for drawing a portrait.
Materials:
Laptop, device to take a photo, printer, paper, pencils, erasers
Process:
Objectives:
You will explore, experiment, and learn the basic elements for drawing a portrait.
Materials:
Laptop, device to take a photo, printer, paper, pencils, erasers
Process:
- Look at these portraits.
- What do these portraits have in common? How are they different? What stands out in each? What can you tell about the subject from their portrait?
- Take a front view photo of the person you want to draw a portrait of. Print a B&W copy. This will be the reference photo for your drawing.
- Think about the portraits you viewed. What can you add to your portrait to tell others about your subject?
- This handout illustrates the basic proportions of a portrait. It will help you get the facial features in the right place.
- Lightly draw the facial grid on your printed photo and on your paper. Remember draw lightly so you can erase the lines once you get the features in place.
- Take your time. Work slowly and carefully.
- Proceed through these handouts as you work on each facial feature of your drawing. Be careful to refer to your photo as a reference.
- The key to being able to draw realistically is drawing what you SEE, not what you are used to doing to create that feature. Most people start drawing eyes by drawing an almond shape, then adding the circle inside and eyelashes. That’s a great start, but that’s not really how the eye is shaped. Our eye is an odd oval shape, with smaller triangle shapes at the corners. To try and train you to see what is there as opposed to what you think is there, try drawing an eye upside down on a practice sheet of paper. Start by drawing the shapes you see and work from there. Once you feel comfortable drawing eyes, add the eyes to your portrait.
- These pictures may also help you draw eyes.
- On the grid for your portrait you should have that center line going down through the nose and lip area. This handout will help you draw the nose. Practice on scrap paper first. Once you feel comfortable, work on your portrait. Remember to draw light until you get it right.
- This picture may also help you draw a nose.
- Watch this video on drawing a mouth.
- This picture may also help you draw a mouth.
- Depending on the hair, you may need to draw ears on your portrait. Use this handout to help you.
- Finally, this website will help you draw hair.
Rubric:
Standards:
VA:912.C.2.1
VA:912.C.3.1
VA:912.F.3.4
VA:912.0.1.1
VA.912.S.2.2
VA.912.C.3.10
VA:912.C.2.1
VA:912.C.3.1
VA:912.F.3.4
VA:912.0.1.1
VA.912.S.2.2
VA.912.C.3.10