How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs - Lee Hammond
Oct 28, 2009 Book Reviews
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, easy to follow guide to drawing portraits, How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs is it!
Lee Hammond’s book will take you from complete beginner to confident portrait artist in no time flat, something to which I can attest first hand!
When I first became interested in drawing, I didn’t take any lessons or go to classes. I taught myself through a combination of online tutorials and books from the library. This particular book is one that stands out in my memory as having a huge impact on my drawing ability.
More recently, I’ve signed this book out from the library again. I have a tentatively scheduled drawing class coming up and wanted some inspiration on how to start my lessons.
As I flipped through Lifelike Portraits, I was amazed at how much information I had retained and internalized. Much of my own drawing process comes from this book!
Since I’m a pack rat and have kept all of my sketchbooks, I can show you exactly how this book affected my drawing! On the left is a typical drawing of a face out of my imagination. Only a few pages later in my sketchbook, and after reading Hammond’s book cover to cover, I drew the girl on the right (who happens to be Liv Tyler). Still not a stellar representation, but a huge improvement on my previous portraits!
This book will take you right from the very beginning, starting with drawing tools and shading techniques, to individual lessons on each facial feature, different types of hair, and even how to draw clothes!
The entire drawing process is broken down into manageable chunks that are easy to learn, and each technique is clearly illustrated through Hammond’s own examples and portraits.
If there is a book that is more easy to follow, full of more information and more able to teach portrait drawing, I have not found it!
Hammond has also written other drawing books including Lifelike Drawing In Colored Pencil, Drawing Realistic Pets from Photographs, Paint People in Acrylic, and many more!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to get started with portrait drawing, or anyone who is wanting to take their portraiture to the next level!
Portrait Giveaway Completed!
Oct 26, 2009 On my Easel
Rossi’s, portrait is all finished! She was the winner of my portrait giveaway. I hope she likes it! You can also check out a work in progress shot.
This is a 5″ x 7″ drawing, all graphite on 3-ply bristol paper.
How to Draw a Portrait - Tutorial Part 1
Oct 25, 2009 Drawing, Tutorials
As a follow-up on my post about tips for drawing realistic portraits, here is a tutorial that will take you through all the steps. Portrait drawing can be very overwhelming at first: figuring out where to start, what to do next, and how to integrate all the little details… You will need to develop a process that you’re comfortable with, one that works for you. This is an example of how I approach portrait drawing, meant to help you find your own way. I find it’s best to start with the most challenging part, the face, and then work on the other details. This tutorial will give you strategies for learning how to draw realistically.
My reference today comes from my good friend Jocelyn. Aside from being gorgeous herself, she also takes some gorgeous photos. Check out her Flickr if you have a chance.
Start with your grid. You’ll notice that I’ve done a finer grid just for the face. This is to give myself a few more points of reference when drawing the facial features. Every millimeter counts when you’re drawing the eyes, nose and mouth, and the finer the grid the easier it will be to get the right placement.
When you do your line drawing, remember to outline everything you can see: the facial features, the contours of the head and body, the highlights, the shadows and any other subtle variation in tone you can see. Having these lines to guide your shading will be a huge help! Use a hard pencil, like a 2H pencil, for this part and press very lightly; you don’t want these lines to show through your drawing! When you’re done, erase the gridlines. As you can see, I don’t worry too much about erasing every little bit. As long as the lines are light, they will be obscured by your shading.
Now we start shading! At this point, I usually focus on the face and ignore everything else. Resist the urge to start with the eyes. Your shading can sometimes point out problems with the placement of the eyes, so first work on shading the rest of the face. Use a 2H again to shade the base skin tone. Shade everything but the brightest highlights. Don’t press any harder for the shadows, just spend more time going over that area to build up more layers of graphite.
Use your blending stick to smooth out your pencil strokes. If this is looking too dark to you, remember that the only areas we want to be as white as the paper are the highlights, which in this image are small areas on the cheeks, chin, nose and forehead. You can also see that I’ve blended some graphite into the area under the bangs. When I do the hair, we will be able to see skin showing through, not white paper.
Using your B now, go in and add another layer of darker shadows. Here I have shaded around the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the left forehead and the shadows down the right side of the face. You can also block in the shapes of the eyes at this point, but lightly in case you need to make any changes. When you blend, you want a smooth transition between the shadow and the midtone, but be careful that your shadows don’t grow in the blending.
At this point, you can start adding some detail to the eyes. First, double check that they are in the right position. You can do this by comparing your drawing with your reference. You can also do this by looking at your drawing in a mirror, or scanning your drawing into the computer and overlaying it with a transparent copy of your reference. Still using your B, add more dimention to the eyes by drawing the corners, the iris and the pupil. Also draw in the fold of the eyelid. Don’t forget to include a highlight and the tear ducts! Carefully blend your marks and blend into the whites, creating a shadow under the lash line.
Next, use a 2B to define the darkest shadows. They include the ones around the nose, eyes and mouth. I’ve also added some extra shading on the right by the eye and cheekbone, as well as under the chin. Be careful blending: this pencil is quite soft and it will be easy to blend. You don’t want your shadows to expand.
For the finishing touches, use your kneaded eraser to pull out some lighter areas and clean up your highlights. You may also need to go back in with your pencil to touch up certain areas. Pay close attention to your reference at this point because it’s often these little touches that make all the difference. I’ve adjusted the highlight on the end of the nose as well as added highlights around the lips.
So we’re done the face now. In part two we will continue with the hair and the body. To get notified when the second part is ready, you can sign up for an email subscription. This lets you keep up with Learn to… Art! by receiving updates in your email inbox!
Portrait Giveaway - Work in Progress 2
Oct 22, 2009 On my Easel
Half done!
Rossi’s portrait is coming along nicely!
I’ve been working really hard on this, trying out a new technique. It involves lots of layering, and starting out with a harder pencil. The result is much smoother shading!
The eyes were quite tricky because of the angles and the shadows, but after much tweaking, I’m happy with it!
Enjoy!
How to Draw a Portrait
Oct 21, 2009 Drawing
I’ve covered all the separate elements of portrait drawing, ears, nose, eyes, mouth, and hair; now it’s time for some tips on drawing a whole realistic portrait! This will be followed by a tutorial to walk you through the entire process.
- Keep proportions in mind; there is as much head above the eyes as below, and no matter what angle you’re drawing the face at, the nose will line up with the centre of the mouth and between the eyes.
- Start with a line drawing to get the placement of the facial features and the shadows. The patterns of light and dark around the face are as important as the eyes, nose and mouth.
- At the line drawing stage, check your drawing for accuracy. You can hold it up in front of a mirror to look for awkward areas, or you can scan it into the computer and overlay the drawing with a transparent version of your reference.
- The more accurate your line drawing, the better your final drawing will be.
- Try to use some kind of a reference, no matter how closely you follow it. Until you get a lot of experience, you will be able to draw more realistically with a reference image.
- If you’re using a grid, it can be helpful to use a finer grid for the facial features. Divide your squares in half again to help get the proper placement of the eyes, etc.
- Remember to draw what you see; often when we draw a face at an angle, one of the eyes seems to slope too sharply upwards. What you see is more accurate than what you think it should look like.
- To get the proper angle of the eyes, use a ruler and line it up with the corners of the eye on your reference image. Hold the ruler in place, and slide your drawing under the ruler until it lines up with the eye on your drawing. Use the ruler as a guide to mark the corners of the eye. Now you know you have the right angle, you can draw the shape of the eye.
- Shade slowly and don’t try to rush it. If you build up layers of dark, your shading will be more smooth.
- Try to create a range of lights and darks from the white of the paper in highlights to a dark 2B for the shadows and a smooth gradation in between.
- Avoid drawing lines around the facial features; instead, use shadows to define shapes.
- Shade your skin tone up into the hairline a little bit, then draw the hair on top. This give you a base for your hair to grow on, and let the skin show through the individual hairs.
If this was helpful to you, subscribe to my RSS feed and get updated when I add the tutorial!
Tags: art tips, better drawings, portraits
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email