Portrait Drawing Fundamentals
Newest
Marco Sordi
3mo
2024/9/6. Good evening everybody. Here's my latest portraiture. Pencil on Kent paper (29.7 x 42 cm). Thanks for any comment or critique. Good night.
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2mo
So smooth! Beautiful drawing
Nicole Guz
3mo
Done on charcoal
Vera Robson
3mo
I think I have somewhat improved at drawing faces, but most importantly I see after going through this course that I need to learn more technical skills, like constructing the planes of the face and improving my approach to shading.
Madiha
3mo
Wow, this looks pretty good. I love her eyes. Art needs practice the more we do the better we get. I am also struggling with this concept as well. Hopefully I'll get better with practice.
Keep up the good work
Gannon Beck
3mo
Nicely done!
You should join us in the daily drawing with timer thread to keep practicing the concepts from this course:
https://www.proko.com/community/topics/daily-drawing-with-timer-challenge
I've been doing regular practice since I finished this course eight months ago and it's made a big difference.
Some of us do zoom calls where we practice figure drawing and portrait drawing. Let me know if you're interested those and I can let you know the times we meet.
@jmwise
5mo
Hi everyone, my biggest struggle with portraits right now is I have the overall proportions of the head correct, but if I place a feature like an eye, nose, mouth, or cheek incorrectly by a millimeter, it ruins the likeness. My eye is trained enough to see it’s wrong, but I don’t know how to get unstuck and place the feature correctly. Any tips on how to practice here is much appreciated. Thanks! -John W.
Marco Sordi
5mo
2024/6/22. Good morning everybody. Here's my latest portrait. ("Incarnato e Panneggio_studio", Carbothello pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper, 21x29.7 cm). It's a study about fabric and skin rendering. My apologies for the low quality of the photo. Thanks for any comment or critique.
Benjamin Roseman
5mo
cool
@amaka45
5mo
WOW!
Marco Sordi
6mo
2024/6/7. Good afternoon everybody. Here's my latest work, a tribute to the greatest musical of all time and to one of my favorite heroines: "The Wicked Witch of the West" (Carbothello pastels pencils and Rembrandt pastels on Pastelmat paper). Thank you for your comments and critique.
Marco Sordi
7mo
2024/4/21. Good morning everybody. Here's my Face Muscles Study. I hope it can be helpful to you too. Thanks and have a good Sunday.
Marco Sordi
8mo
2024/4/5. Good morning everybody. This is not a portrait but since there's no section for head anatomy I hope you don't mind if I post it here. Thanks for any comment or suggestion. Have a good day.
Ernesto Palma
7mo
I had to collect many sources of information on head anadomy and muscles of facial expression. I´m hoping though that in the future Stan decides to make a nice course on it. the amount of information you may want to know is SO VAST though who knows if or when it will happen.
Diana Reid
8mo
Thank you, it a great skull to practice drawing.
Blake Pawlikowski
10mo
Here's my drawing of Morgan. I followed the demo, but focused more on the reference this time. I also paused the video often, especially in the initial layin and made sure I was happy with the placement of everything before I started designing shadow shapes. The tell tale sign for me that this was a better approach was that I didn't have the same issue with the forehead that Stan ran into. I did correct the little protruding brow on the left eye as it was pushing out too far and I also reshaped the chin slightly. I also discovered that taking a photo of my drawings helps me spot things I need to fix. Similar to stepping back to see a drawing from a distance.
I've really enjoyed this course and I'm sure I will reference these lessons as I continue to work on drawing portraits!
@ern1s
10mo
Hi everyone, here's my attempt. Any comments welcome
@drusk
10mo
Everyone here has good suggestions. I do something to check to see how I did with the lay in. I make a copy of the original and draw an outline of the face, eyes mouth and nose. Then do the same to my drawing. Try to size them approximately the same and then compare. The outlines make it very easy to see how different my drawing is from the reference. Seeing what is wrong is the hardest part because sometimes everything is a little off. I find if I can get the lay in right, rendering is easy and usually successful.
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10mo
Hi @ern1s! As perspective and lay-ins were mentioned, I did want to add that going back to most basic structure of the head, a box, always helps me with orienting and laying in the groundwork for the rest of the structure. The placement of the centerline is useful to be aware of as well (and double-check for correctness), as it helps indicate how features are receding/turning in perspective. I do notice the tendency to lose some of the structure as a cause of the head turning, such as the jaw widening or the brow ridge and nose flattening, so using the box method to set a solid foundation for the perspective of a more complex structure like the head is a good starting point. I would also recommend practicing and using boxes as a warm-up as well, like shown in the Drawing Basics course: https://www.proko.com/s/tKGL, to help train your eye for 3D structure. Hope this helps!
M B
10mo
Perfect, Great Job
Marco Sordi
10mo
2024/1/8. Good morning to the whole community. I created this study sheet during the last week and the weekend to put together all the information, data and direct experience gained over more than two months in which I concentrated on studying Elsa's design . Obviously it is completely personal and although it is based on Jin Kim's sketches, it reflects my ideal of Elsa's design. I'm sure there are still things to say and maybe even mistakes but I think it's still a good starting point. If you have any suggestions or advice that could help me improve it, I would be grateful if you would leave a comment. If you think it might be useful, feel free to download it and even modify it. There are no problems. In the next few weeks I will continue to practice by copying the material found but also by creating original poses and expressions. I will post my works always hoping for your kind contribution. A Super Thanks to @Martha Muniz , without her very important contribution I would never have been able to carry out this study.
Marco Sordi
11mo
2024/1/1. Good evening everybody. Happy New Year to Stan, Proko Staff and all the community. Here's my last/first work for 2023/24. I fixed the firsts twos after @Martha Muniz gave some important tips about how to adjust proportions and shapes. If you find some other mistakes or problems please leave a comment. Thanks!
Marco Sordi
11mo
2023/12/31. Good morning everybody. Here's my second mini portrait for the set of three WhatsApp stamps concept that will close this year of practice and my newest portfolio. I've also fixed the first one since I found some mistakes in the pose. I'll try to finish the third one for the end of the day: tough... Anyway, thanks for any comment or critique.
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11mo
Hey there Marco! It's cool seeing your progress as you continue to study Elsa. I thought I'd share some previous studies for the same character from the official character sheet created by Jin Kim for Disney. You can find the full sheets online, and it's a good method to tackling any character likeness. The idea is to find the exact proportions the character designers use based on the reference sheets, which you can then apply to any pose. I'd also recommend paying attention to the squash and stretch of her face, especially as the jaw/cheek mass is designed round/soft for her character, as well as how the roundness of her face affects the placement of the features following the form.
Marco Sordi
11mo
2023/12/29. Good afternoon everybody. Here is another portrait of her Majesty. It is the first of a series of three that should be a concept for stamps that can be used on Whatsapp or Line. Thanks.
Gannon Beck
11mo
I'm sure I'll revisit some lessons here from time to time, but first time all the way through the course.
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11mo
Some recommendations:
- Soften wrinkles and shadows, especially for areas hit by even light. For example, the curve for her chin and shadows by her nose from the cheek furthest away from us. Usually these details will be observed closer to the terminator, where the contrast between light and shadow is strongest. It's rather easy for these types of shadows to quickly age up a person, so subtlety is key with more youthful, round faces.
- The eyes appear more forward and protruding, so I would recommend next time to place them back further into head, thinking of them as spheres to be placed within the eye sockets of the skull. It can even help to use a skull model to better visualize the placement. Some further use of the cast shadow from the top eyelid onto the eye white will also help sell the believability of the forms.
- Continue thinking about the spherical form of the eyes when placing in the eyelashes, as they won't follow a singular direction but rather fan out a touch more. Eyelashes are also another area that appears more subtle, often appearing more like group with soft edges.
- Fill out the shadow for the cheek. It's good to indicate the core shadow as the darkest area of shadow, but having the rest of the shadow area much lighter creates the illusion of a sharper edge, or can even break the believability of the lighting if there is no reason for a bounce light that strong. So while it would still be lighter than the core shadow itself, filling it out darker than it is now can help round out the face and make the lighting feel more cohesive.
It's overall a pretty good drawing and you can see many of the course lessons being applied well here, so hopefully these tips help in putting everything together as whole as you continue your art practice :)
Love Byström
11mo
Did this one after doing a few of the lessons in Baumans block in course. It must have primed my eyes because I really think I did well on this one
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11mo
Nice work!
Gannon Beck
11mo
Nicely done!
Vue Thao
11mo
Here is the preview of 100 head challenge that I've been drawing for a while. I'm almost reaching my goal.
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11mo
Awesome!
Marco Sordi
11mo
2023/12/12. Good morning everybody. Here's my latest drawing (pencils and charcoal on A4 size Kent paper). It's my last long portrait for this year. Let's meet in 2024 with the next one!! Thanks for any comment or critique. Have a good day.
@bwebb2732
11mo
Way awesome, its been great getting on and seeing your work, its very inspirational seeing somebody at such a high level going through the same classes I am, can't wait for your next one.
Gannon Beck
11mo
That's beautiful!
Marco Sordi
11mo
2023/12/9. Hi everybody. Here is the penultimate work for 2023 (pencils on A3 size Kent paper). I hope to finish the last one, which I'm working on these days, before Christmas. Thank you and good week end.
Vin
1yr
Hello, here is my attempt. I think the hair and shading are not good, and she looks a little bit older than the photo...I would appreciate for some feedback.
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
