portrait sketches

As with all features of the human face, it is important that we do not draw the preconceived ideas we have about eyes. The eyes are the windows to a person's soul and reflect much of the emotionality and personality of that person. Therefore, they must be drawn exactly how they are.

As soon as you have finished a line drawing of your subject you are ready to start with the shading process. The purpose of shading is to give your subject three-dimensionality. When you are done with shading, your subject should look like it is anchored in space and is not just an object in a plane.

The nose is crucial in relation to the overall scale of all other facial features of your pencil portrait subject. An incorrectly drawn nose will very much affect the likeness of your subject. The nose is also a study in shading and blending.

Tools: Corel Painter and Bamboo tablet

Do you worry that you don't know how to draw from memory? Do you struggle to just pick up a pencil and draw something, anything, without a picture to copy? Don't worry, the majority of us have the same problem. Luckily, there is a simple drawing tip that you can implement to overcome this problem. I thought about what I would do if I was put in the position to draw something on the spot. After some experimenting, I discovered how to draw from memory. There really is an easy solution. All you need to do is to convert your drawing subject into common shapes. As usual, I like to start with a simple example. Let's say you get asked how to draw a chick, here's what you do. Using the mental image of this fluffy little bird, think of its construction as a small circle for the head, and a larger circle for the body. With light strokes, draw the two circles, overlapping each other. The drawing is going to be the side view, which is the easiest way to do this. D...