Learn How to Draw - Portrait Drawing Step by Step

Now that the foundation is set the portrait drawing progresses quickly. The features are readily articulated and the light/dark pattern is developed into its relative values of lights and darks.

The forms are now too small to be stumped down with my finger. Instead I use a small number of paper stumps (tortillons) to push and pull the forms into shape. I use the stumps like paint brushes.

This is an additive/substractive process. I add in a shape of conté, manipulate it with the stump and then remove some it with my kneaded eraser. It is a back and forth process. And this is the real benefit of when you learn to draw from my DVD workshops; you actually get to see how form is pulled and manipulated into a coherent whole. Books cannot relate this process and, except in very rare cases, there is not sufficient time to demonstrate this in the class-room.

Finishing the portrait is more than the articulation of details such as the nostrils. It is striving for the full value stretch of darks and lights. Most artists quit their drawings too soon afraid that they will overwork them. There is a valid point to this fear, but there is also the issue of failing to discover as you learn to draw just how far you can go.

Frankly, I think that it is better to lose a few, perhaps a good many, drawings by pushing them far beyond their limits. You’ll soon learn where the precipice’s edge is.