12-05-2016, 08:04 AM
I learned to draw portraits very recently, so I will share how I practiced. I started with studying eye, nose and lips separately. Then I studied face proportions. After that I started to draw whole face, using reference. And really using reference, don't trust you brain at all. Really looking how things are, not how you think they are. And then is was just matter of repetition. I filled 250 pages sketchbook in couple months only with eyes, noses, lips and faces. And now I can draw face without reference, but I still have problem with getting likeness.
I also had same problems with flat faces. Thing what really helped me, was really thinking how planes are in space. I also built my values gradually, starting with H pencil, slowly going up to 4B, which helped me to learn where the different planes are. But you can do this with HB pencil as well.
I had couple sites, where I got my references. This one was really good: http://portraitsfordrawing.tumblr.com/
I also watched prokos tutorials for eyes, nose and lips, you can find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV
Keep drawing! Keep updating your sketchbook :)
I also had same problems with flat faces. Thing what really helped me, was really thinking how planes are in space. I also built my values gradually, starting with H pencil, slowly going up to 4B, which helped me to learn where the different planes are. But you can do this with HB pencil as well.
I had couple sites, where I got my references. This one was really good: http://portraitsfordrawing.tumblr.com/
I also watched prokos tutorials for eyes, nose and lips, you can find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV
Keep drawing! Keep updating your sketchbook :)