Learn How to Draw - Portrait Drawing Step by Step

Holding a small piece of conté with my finger tips I block-in the major dark pattern of the portrait drawing using the broad side of the conté crayon.

An easy way to determine the primary light/dark pattern is to squint down your eyes so you no longer see the facial features.

It is important that your major dark pattern is only one value. You do not want to start differentiating the range of dark values at this point. The key is to always work from general to specific.

A common error that most artists make as they learn to draw is to focus on the details or a specific area, such as the eyes, too soon. A rule to remember as you learn to draw is: you can never be to simple. There is beauty in simplicity.

Now the real fun begins. Using my fingers (make sure that they are oil free) I stump down the blocked-in conté so that it is smoothed out and ground into the paper. This stumping-in is not a willy-nilly madness but a careful modeling of form. The result will not be particularly pretty and that’s OK.

Using a clean kneaded eraser (in fact, one that has never been used with another medium such as charcoal, graphite, etc.) the lights are first painted out and the forms of the features are further suggested. Ideally you want to be painting out the lights with a sculptural sensibility.

As you learn to draw and model form this idea of drawing with a sculptural sensibility will take on a greater clarity as you achieve ever more subtle, yet strong, plastic form in your portrait drawing.