Taking a new challenge
If you are eager to try your hand at portrait drawing, you should be aware of certain rules that will help you achieve better results in this genre. No one is born with ideal skills, and if you are a beginning artist, you should carefully consider every detail until you feel comfortable with this new challenge. Apart from typical technical tips, there are certain subtleties and peculiarities that you face portraying people. We are now going to tell you about some of them.
Useful tips for portraying people
- - Make sure your room or studio is well-illuminated. Lighting may be crucial in avoiding typical problems of beginners. Few people know about this trick, but it really works: use your mirror to get a new look and possible errors will vanish.
- - One of the first things you need to do is establishing your palette. You won’t find a paint tube saying that it contains the best color that fits any skin type. Actually, there is no exact recipe here, and it will take you a lot of practice before you learn how to mix basic skin shades. Try to avoid painting all of the face or body a single hue. Using a large number of its subtle varieties will prove helpful in reflecting the play of light and depicting plausible shades.
- - Study the basic and complimentary colors, since you should know how to accentuate your canvas by using cold and warm hues. The central part of human face is usually warmer. The closer to the edges you move the colder shades you need to use for other areas of the face.
- - Carefully consider every detail of your work. For instance, while your sclera seems to be white, it is actually a bit yellow or even blue. The upper lip tends to be colder than the lower one. If you draw nostrils under the nose, you will make a typical mistake for every beginner: they actually belong in the nose. And don’t forget that out hair grows chaotically; don’t make a plain line on your forehead.
- - What will you include in the background? A common recommendation for beginners is to use a blank wall in pastel color. That won’t distract the viewer’s attention and will help to emphasize the traits of the depicted person. If you need a more saturated background, add several details, but do not overload your work.