How to Draw a Pencil Portrait

Hello everyone, today I suggest we take a look at a classic in drawing that almost every artist has tried at one point, and some even specialize in it: drawing a pencil portrait.

Through this article, I suggest we look at the necessary equipment, how to choose your reference, and how to create a portrait step by step.

Prepare your pencils, your paper, and most importantly, your creativity! Let's go!

DIFFERENT STYLES OF PORTRAITS

Very often cartoonists assess their own level by comparing their portraits, but this does not make much sense because we all have very different graphic styles.

The same medium and subject are far from implying the same rendering, and that's a good thing! The richness of a draftsman lies partly in their ability to transcribe different visual elements according to their own vision; it's not about denying their technical mistakes, but rather about having a personal style.

As you can see in the various examples below, all these portraits are excellent from a technical point of view and yet very different. Some will lean towards an almost photorealistic reproduction and others towards a more suggestive approach. It's up to you to choose the drawing style that you like the most, and that's how you will have fun and make the most progress.

THE MATERIAL FOR DRAWING A PORTRAIT WITH A PENCIL

The advantage of drawing with a pencil is that the material needed is minimal. Basically, a pencil, an eraser and a sheet of paper are sufficient, but other more specific tools can facilitate the work or improve the output.

1 - Quality Paper: I recommend choosing quality paper, such as bristol board, with a thick grammage. This will allow you to work on a perfectly smooth surface that resists many erasures.

2 - A range of graphite pencils: I also recommend having a range of graphite pencils with different lead grades (at least HB, 2B and 5B) so that you can vary the intensity of the pencil and add more depth to the drawing.

3 - A kneaded eraser: It will be your best ally for blending your construction lines.

4 - A white eraser: Simple and basic, the white eraser is ideal for easy erasing without leaving any marks.

5 - A precision eraser: It allows very small details to be added or errors to be corrected and will be of great help in improving the accuracy of drawings.

6 - The pencil sharpener: We often neglect the pencil sharpener, but having well-sharpened pencils will allow you to be precise and more meticulous in your drawings. However, be careful not to sharpen your pencils with every stroke, as you risk seeing them shrink before your eyes.

CHOOSE YOUR REFERENCE

There is a significant debate about the legitimacy of drawing with or without references, but this is a false debate. If you want to progress, using a reference is essential. We're obviously not talking about tracing, as that would make your learning process much longer, but observing to better understand and reproduce.

However, care must be taken when choosing references, as a bad reference could make the design more difficult to create.

To begin with, I advise you to choose a reference with an easy viewing angle (ideally a 3/4 view) and a fairly straight head orientation (avoid high or low angles, which involve a lot of shortcuts and are much more complicated to execute). I also advise you to make sure that your reference photo does not have too high or insufficient contrast, as this would make your observation work more complex.

WHAT STEPS TO DRAW A PORTRAIT?

I start by choosing my reference as we have just seen. I have chosen a portrait of a young woman in 3/4 view with a face that is neither from above nor below. The portrait is not too contrasted, but still enough to clearly observe all elements and volumes.

I'll start by observing the face and the positioning of the different elements. If you have the possibility of having a duplicate of the reference photo, I invite you to search by drawing on it the various construction lines, the shape of the skull, the line of the forehead, eyes, mouth... This will allow you to work on your analysis and to already know the proportions of the subject well before even starting to draw.

Now I can start by drawing the construction lines. I start by making a circle to outline the shape of the skull at the top of my sheet. I use a rather hard pencil (4H to HB) and I don't press down on the tip so that my line is easy to erase without leaving a mark.

I draw a curve that will delimit the left and right sides of the face following the roundness of the circle. It is with this curve that I will position the nose, mouth and eyes.

Using the 1/3 rule, I position 4 more curves. The upper part corresponds to the hair, then we have the forehead area, the eye and nose area, and the mouth and chin area.

I again use the rule of thirds in the central area corresponding to the eyes and nose to position the curve of the eyes, which will be in the upper third.

I sketched a preliminary shape of the jaw, making sure to clearly mark the chin area and not to connect the jawline and the skull line in order to show the volume.

I add the neck sketch by creating a slight curve at the nape of the neck.

I add the construction lines for the shoulders

Now that the basic construction lines are in place, I run a kneaded eraser over the entire design to blur them and create a more detailed sketch. I begin to redefine the contours of the face, marking the hair area and adding volume to the eye area.

I also mark the junction of the collarbones and neck with a small curve.

I begin to draw the different elements of the inside of the face, starting with the eyes. To position them, I still use the 1/3 rule. I draw the left eye first, then leave an empty space equivalent to the size of the right eye before drawing the right eye.

Since my character is tilted by ¾, it is perfectly normal for the left eye to overlap the central axis of the face, with part of the eye hidden by the nose.

I then begin to sketch the other elements, starting with the nose by following the already initiated volume, simplifying its shape with a triangle for the tip. I also sketch the lips. They end about halfway across each eye.

I add the hair. I'll add some construction lines to outline their volume and direction; it will help me to draw them later.

I soften all the strokes with the eraser and then add the missing details to the face. I make sure the lines are as clean and sharp as possible by using a precision eraser.

If you have difficulties, I invite you to read the article Step by Step to draw a nose or the one to learn to draw eyes.

At this stage, I thoroughly compare my sketch to the reference image to correct any details I find incorrect; it’s the key step of my drawing and the best time to correct errors.

ADDING SHADING TO THE DRAWING

Now that I am satisfied with my sketch, I can move on to shading. I start by blurring the construction lines with the eraser. Then I start with the eyes, because I find that the expression gives all the character to the drawing.

Then, I start by applying the shading with an HB pencil and then gradually increase the contrasts using progressively softer pencils from 2B to 6B for the eyelashes.

I work focusing mainly on the shadow of the tip and the nostril.

I add volume to the mouth, starting by adding shadows with a medium pencil, then, as with the eyes, I enhance the contrasts using bolder pencils. To give volume to the mouth, I always work in the direction of the lips, with small curves that go from the upper part of a lip to the lower part. At the end, I use the kneaded eraser to add some highlights.

I add shadows to the whole face, always taking care to think in terms of volume. I then create shadows according to the volume of each part of the face (top to bottom for the forehead, sideways for the temple, in a circle for the chin...). I carefully observe my reference to accurately transcribe the main shadows on the drawing. For this first phase of shading I use pencils ranging from 2H to 2B.

I continue to work on shadows, now focusing on those of the neck and shoulders.

I now add more depth by reworking the most important shadows with bolder pencils (from 4B to 8B). I am careful not to press too hard on the paper, as bold pencils are very difficult to erase. Therefore, I work in small layers until I am satisfied with the contrast.

I can start working on the hair. I proceed section by section to correctly maintain the volume and direction of the hair. I start with the “rolled” part. To do this, I only draw with small lines that I stop towards the middle of the strands; I do this in both directions, then add a contrast at the root with a thicker pencil. It is time-consuming, but will give a shiny and beautiful hair effect.

Once finished, I work on the opposite section, always working from the lightest to the darkest, drawing the locks one after the other.

By repeating the previous steps, I came up with the upper part of the hairstyle. As the young woman in the reference photo has light hair, I make sure to leave as many white areas as possible.

I finish the portrait by doing the bun. I use the same method as for the "twirled" part of the hair, drawing many lines that follow the rounded shape of the bun and stop about halfway, leaving a white area.

Once my portrait is finished, I compare it with the reference photo and make some corrections, if needed, with the pencil or eraser. If you want to preserve your drawing over time, you can add a bit of special pencil fixative spray so that the lines do not fade over time by rubbing against other sheets.

As you may have noticed, I do not provide much detail to the skin and work minimally on the different shades of grey in the face; it is a personal choice but feel free, as mentioned in part 1, to choose the shading method you like best. The most important thing to remember is that as long as your sketch is solid, the main objective is already achieved and secured.

I hope you enjoyed this article! 😊

Writer: Chloé Pouteau