How Did I Learn to Draw Realistic Portraits?
From a person who drew horrible portraits, how did I manage to draw realistic portraits?
When I was studying in primary school, I wondered how artists draw realistic portraits? I wanted to draw portraits. But when I tried I failed terribly. :-(
Years passed, now you ask me…
Can anyone draw portraits?
If you ask me, I would answer a big YES to the question.
First of all, I would like to tell you that I was very interested in the pencil drawings when I was little. I was not a professional, but I drew a lot of pictures. Thanks for my drawing teacher in the primary class.
I learned basic pencil drawing techniques in the primary class itself. Even though I didn't know the details about the distribution of light, I did some pencil shadings.
Later on, when I joined for highschool (8, 9, and 10th standard)I stopped drawing pictures for no reason. I totally lost interest in drawing pictures and any other hobbies.
Again, for no reason, I resumed pencil drawing after 6 years. When I was doing my masters, I felt to draw portraits of my friends.
Started Drawing Portraits
One day, I just tried to draw the portrait of my fried and that almost went good (I thought)!
I was surprised and decided to give a try for more pictures.
This is the short story of how I started pencil drawing. More precisely, how I resumed pencil drawing.
Here, I will show you two photos that I had drawn.
When I had drawn the picture, I thought this was my masterpiece!!
I was really proud of myself that I could draw the portrait of my friend. You know what, I published this photo on Facebook and tagged the friend.
Months passed, I drew more pictures and read a lot of pencil drawing blog posts.
That was the turning point.
I realized that the photo that I had drawn was not at all a good portrait.
- The photo doesn't look like a three dimensional
- It lacks depth
- Shading was not good
- I completely missed out the mid-tones (I didn't identify until I read more about pencil drawings)
I could not find even a single positive in the photo. But I learned a lot from that and improved a lot.
See another photograph that I drew a few months later.
The photo is not 100% perfect. But it is far better than the first one. It’s obvious from the shades on the face, eyes, hair, cheek, etc.
How did I do this?
What Did I Do to Improve My Pencil Drawing?
I really want you all to know what I did to improve the pencil drawing. If you follow this, I'm sure that you also can evolve as a professional pencil drawing artist.
The steps that I followed will help you out to draw portraits easily.
#1 Read more about pencil drawings and watch videos
Why do you read about pencil drawings? It’s important to know what is missing in your pencil drawings. The artists usually share their experiences and techniques to draw portraits.
I read a lot about “how to draw portraits”, “how to do pencil shading?”, etc and watched video tutorials well. Then I realized that what was missing in my pencil drawing technique. Most of the newcomers use more highlights on the pictures. They always forget to add more shades to make the picture pop out of the paper.
#2 Draw more pictures
If we draw more, we will improve our drawing skills. Each time when I drew pictures, I tried to experiment with the lessons that I learned reading and watching drawing related posts and videos.
Always try to check how far you improved in pencil drawing. (Compare with your old drawings)
#3 Don't hesitate to get suggestions from other artists
I found there are 100s of Facebook groups that share pencil drawings. I joined in a few which are active and frequently watch the comments on the photos that the members upload.
Honestly, I was not confident enough to post there in the groups! But I read all the suggestions from co-artists in the group to improve my pencil drawings.
I believe this is very very important because a beginner really faces difficulty to identify the mistakes that he/she does. The discussion with an experienced artist really helps you out to avoid the mistake that you make.
#4 Use good quality tools
The pencil, eraser, blending stumps, etc. that you use matter in pencil drawing. I used to use an eraser that was low quality earlier. Never do that when you invert a lot of time to drawing amazing portraits. Always go for high-quality materials.
To draw the first portrait, I didn't use a blending stump and you can easily see that the shades are not blended together.
#5 Be Patient and Motivated
I realized that being patient is a must-have quality for a pencil portrait artist who wishes to draw realistic portraits. Fortunately, I was patient enough to spend a lot of time to draw the photos and I never demotivated if the drawings went wrong.
I created a website to share some of the tutorials that help everyone out in pencil drawings: PencilDrawingSchool.com
Conclusion
I followed the 5 steps that I mentioned above. Eventually, I could manage to draw realistic portraits. I want you also to be a master in pencil drawing if you are interested.
Don’t think that you cant draw. Just give it a try.
I'm sure that you can also draw realistic portraits.
I did it!
You can also do it!
