Capturing the delicate, fleeting gestures of individual emotions in portrait sketching is a test for any draftsperson. There are basically six principal emotions: surprise, happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. The gestures of these key feelings are instinctual, the muscle interactions and actions are involuntary. In general, the facial muscles are fragile, finely in step [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Portraits'
Pencil Portrait Sketching—Muscle Structure of the Muzzle
November 1st, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Drawing · Pencils · Portraits · Sketching
Pencil Portrait Drawing—Planes in Portrait Drawing
October 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment
By Remi Engles, guest blogger Most people have the fixed idea that the head is more or less formed like an oval. Actually, the head is much rectangular than we suppose. The oval ideas is one of those simplified preconceived symbols the mind uses as a means for quick identification. Most beginning students will usually [...]
Tags: Drawing · Pencils · Portraits · Sketching
Pencil Portrait Drawing—The Trouble With Seeing
October 14th, 2008 · No Comments
By Remi Engels, guest blogger For untutored artists the problem with seeing lies in the conflict that exists between the concrete visual reality of an item and the way the mind attempts to represent our perception of this reality on the drawing paper. This attempt invariably involves the propensity to draw our symbolic preconception instead of [...]
Tags: Drawing · Pencils · Portraits
Pencil Portrait Rendering—The Total Arabesque
October 1st, 2008 · No Comments
By Remi Engels, guest blogger Presuppose that we have a profile where the head, arm, and fingers are visible and are in contact. Very often, the starting artist will endeavor to sketch each of these elements independently. The approach will invariably lead to frustration and in the end often to failure. Instead of drawing each [...]
Tags: Drawing · Pencils · Portraits
Pencil Portrait Sketching—Arabesque
September 16th, 2008 · No Comments
In this article we imagine that you draw directly from life or from a suitable photo. In other words, we imagine that you do not use the so-called grid method. This technique relies on a grid drawn both on the photo of your subject as well as your sketching paper.













