How to draw portrait like a PRO

Hello my dear friends! It's me Ksenia. I'm an artist. I've been studying art most of my life in different places, art schools, college, university. And currently I'm studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, also known as Rapin Academy. And recently I decided to collect all my knowledge about drawing a human head from all these years of studying and share it with you guys in one great educational video with explanations and demonstration. So today we'll go through all the steps of drawing a human head from sketch to great finished drawing. It will be in show-and-tell format. We'll also discuss all the preparatory work you need to do before you start working with portrait. We'll talk about the anatomical structure of the head and how it can help you. I'll explain to you the structure of each part of the face with constructed drawings. We'll learn face proportions, how to model a form and which drawing materials or their combinations you can use for this type of drawing. I'm gonna draw you a lot of schemes to make it all clear. This video has timecodes for your convenience. And just for you, I've made a large album of 100 high-quality drawings of a human head for inspiration or as a reference to study from. It can be found on my Boosty, the link is below. So let's start right with the head structure. The base of the head is a skull covered with muscles. I have here this gypsum waterblock skull, which we're gonna work with today. As artists, we need to study the internal structure of a human head because it directly affects its appearance. Like on the head surface, we can see the silhouettes of bones and rolls of muscles. Don't worry, we don't need to go to medicine, no one asks you to study anything else except the bone base and the external muscles, artists should know just plastic anatomy. So turning back to the skull, did you know that this is not actually a monolithic structure? Human skull consists of 23 bones, most of them are tightly connected through sutures and the only movable element of the skull is the lower jaw. The skull can be divided into facial and brain parts. The brain part is egg-shaped and it's formed by 8 bones, frontal, occipital, sphenoid, ethmoid inside the eye socket, paired temporal bones and paired parietal bones. By the way, the distance between the parietal tubercles is the widest area of the skull. We should be most interested in the frontal bone here because it's usually really clearly visible on the face. People don't have large accumulation of muscular or fatty tissue on the forehead, like the skin almost completely repeats the relief of this bone. It's not a flat area by the way, so don't draw here like a big white square. Human forehead has many planes and edges. I even drew you all the spots and flats in our skull model so you can see it. These are the frontal tubers. It's temporal line. These are zygomatic processes. Here is brow ridges. And this is glabella. My teacher constantly talked about this area and was very unhappy someone forgot to mark it in the drawing. And this area is called upper eye triangle or supraorbital triangle. It's also clearly visible on the head and you shouldn't forget about it in your drawing. This is all important to remember and depict when you draw a model because as you already understood the forehead is not a straight plane. It's a complex relief object with many planes and different rotations. And now let's move on to the facial part of the skull. It consists of 15 paired and unpaired bones. There are three large openings, eye sockets and pear-shaped nasal opening. We're interested here in maxillary bones since they're involved in the formulation of eye sockets, nose and mouth area. Lower jaw with all its angles and tubercles. Cheekbones because they are very clearly visible on thin faces. And finally these small bones, it's nasal bones. By the way, male and female skulls are visually different. Men have more angular skull shape like massive lower jaw, highly developed brow ridges and glabella area, elongated back of the head. And female skull on the other hand has more smooth and delicate shapes like females have highly developed frontal tubercles and the back of the head is like shorter and rounder. Like this model is female I guess, you see. So knowledge of the skull structure is pretty useful for artists and I highly recommend you to draw a skull yourself in different turns and angles, preferably from life. And at the same time study structure. For example, put a book nearby with captions of bones and its parts. This was one of our assignments in first year at the academy, a skull in three turns. This will give you the opportunity to fill the skull as a 3D object. It's volume and dynamics. By the way, it's a good idea to connect the skull with neck and shoulder girdle, because when you draw a portrait, you draw not only the face, usually you also need to draw neck and shoulders. So I advise you to also study and sketch the bone and muscular structure of the shoulder girdle. And after learning basics of anatomy, you can fix your knowledge by doing this task. Place a model and a skull side by side at the same position and angle and draw them at the same sheet of paper. This will give you a quick and deep understanding of the internal structure. You'll see all these bones on the human head with your own eyes. Now we're going to move on to muscles. They also play a very important role in the relative face, since they lay right under the skin. They're even more visible than bones. By the way, now we're studying muscles in a pretty civilized way, without the direct contact with the inside of people. But just a few decades ago, artists had to go to the scariest place of hospital, you know what I mean? I'm not sure if I can say these words on YouTube. For, like, educational purposes. To make sketches of muscular structure of human. Like, even some of my teachers had to do this when they were students. For example, here you can see a couple of drawings of these times. And these were drawn from a real person. Not quite alive, of course. Fortunately, now our education in the world is not so hardcore. And we have great plaster models. And this is actually more than enough. Because, once again, artists are not doctors. And such close contact with anatomy is not quite necessary. And so, head muscles can be divided into facial and masseters. Masseters are thick and strong. And facial are thin. They're attached to the skin to move it when expressing emotions. And they're located around the natural openings of the skull. Like mouth, eye sockets, nasal opening. We have three circular muscles around the eyes and around the mouth. They work like a drawstring on the back. They compress these holes. Next, we have frontless muscle. This is thick masseter muscle. These are depressors. Triangular and square. They lower the lower lip and its corners. It's zygomatic major muscle. And here's the muscle that raises the upper lip. We also call it dog's muscle. Because when it tenses up, it looks like a dog's grin. This was just a small part of information about the muscles of human head. There are special books dedicated only to plastic anatomy for artists and sculptors. If you're interested in deeper study, I usually recommend books by Gauthrie Baumes to my students. In addition to text, they have these great diagrammas to make it all clear. And just like with bones, while learning the structure, you need to draw it to fix any memory. To study, there is a special gypsy model. A crochet of muscles of face and neck. This is how it looks like. I'm gonna add some photos. Pay special attention to the neck muscles. Because they are very clearly visible on the external surface of human. The most visible muscle of neck is sternocleidomastoid muscle. It comes from the sternum and collarbones. You can see this muscle on my neck when I turn it. This is this muscle we're talking about. And when they work together, they throw your head back like this. See? We can also notice the hood muscle here. They create this smooth transition from neck to shoulders. And here we have laryngeal eminence. It also creates relief of the neck. It's hard to see on me right now because it's more developed on male necks. So if you want to be professional, you have to know this. So you don't have to fantasize whatever makes such relief. You'll be able to see the model like Nick Sray and show it right in your drawing. And now we move on to the structure of the face and its individual parts. Such as nose, chin, eyes, mouth and ear. They all are pretty complex in the structure. And it's really difficult for beginner artists to draw them right. So you need to prepare little by little by studying each of them individually. But the main principle here is that everything consists of a large number of planes, different rotations and elimination. Just for you, I made this magnificent drawing of my face. Hopefully, I'll be able to wash it off later. Did not plan to become an art school model of facial structure. So as you can see, I divided my face into planes to visually show you its planar structure. I'll turn around so you can see what it looks like in various turns. What planes we can see inside profile, for example. So let's start with the nose. And for our convenience, I'm going to use this image of Apollo. The nose consists of many planes of different elimination. Be sure to draw a central line for symmetry and understanding of volume. Here will be the angle of the bridge of the nose. Then the upper plane of the nose. It expands, then narrows and expands again. The upper platform of the nose is most illuminated. Then comes the halftone, the border of the light dividing line and shadow. And in the shadow, we have reflex. There is usually a highlight of the bridge of the nose. The most shadowy part of the nose is the lower plane with nostrils. But now very important information. Pay attention that the bottom of the nose will never be black. As I said, there will be reflex from the skin. So the shadow under the nose is much darker. My teacher said that the portrait needs to be pulled out of the paper by nose, which means strong nose so well. So it looks material as if it has volume. Now I think I don't quite agree that nose needs to be drawn so strongly. I think it's good when there is harmony and balance. Of course, if everything done the same way, it's not really good. It may look pretty boring. So in drawing, you should determine for yourself the most important areas and those that don't actually require detailed drawing and which will be more interesting to leave primitive and abstract. Here you can see again how the nose structure looks in different turns. Next, we will analyze the mouth. The lips consist of two shapes located one above the other. And the upper lip is always darker because it's in an angle. And the lower one is laminated. In art schools, they usually explain that lips can be drawn with several ovals. This is actually partly true. But in fact, their structure is much more complex. Lips also have planes. They also have reflex, shadows and highlights. We must draw a central line. The upper lip usually consists of two planes. The top one is slightly protruding towards us. And the bottom one is at an angle. It's in the shadow and has reflex from the lower lip. So it won't be black below. The darkest part will be the cut of the mouth and the shadow on the lower lip. As well as the corners of the lips. And the lower lip consists of four planes. It's pretty easy in structure. Here you can see the lip structure in various turns on a real human. And below we have the chin. Chin has the shape of a cut-off pyramid. It comes out as a rectangular plane forward. There is nothing complicated here. Actually, it has a rather laconic shape. Next, we're going to talk about eyes. Our eyes are a very complex object. The eye itself has the shape of a ball. This ball is mostly located inside of the head. And protrudes forward as a small hemisphere. And this hemisphere is covered with skin with a horizontal cut. This cut, of course, has a thickness. It's important not to forget and draw these areas. They are also called a waterline. If we divide the eye area into illuminated and shadow planes, we'll see that the first there is a light plane of the forehead. Then a break in the shape in the eyebrow area. And the next plane goes a little into shadow. But it has some light on the bone. Then a stronger break along the line of the upper edge of the eye socket. And this plane is completely in the shadow. And there's a reflex on it. Then comes the upper eyelid. It's illuminated in the center. But the edges are again in the shadow. Then comes the thickness of the upper eyelid. It's in the shadow. The surface of the eyeball. It has a light gradient. Then comes the thickness of the lower eyelid. And its plane is illuminated. And here the shape is broken. And the lower eyelid also has a light shadow. And on the bone we have light again. Our plaster model has no pupils. So they don't distract you from the general illumination of the eyeball. And the fact that it's not just white. You should know that it has a shadow on the top and along the edges. And becomes lighter towards the bottom. When you draw the iris and pupils, also do not forget that they will be darker on the top. And illuminated from below. You see the shadow from the upper eyelid here. It's important to draw it. And here's a diagram of the forehead structure again. Probably here it looks the most understandable. In fact, everything is not so complicated. And if you start doing this in your drawing, you'll get used to it pretty quickly. Here you can clearly see the supraorbital triangles. These are the small white triangular areas. Right above the eyebrow. The ear has a rather complex structure. Consists of curls and anti-curls. There are no clear rules for drawing here. The main thing is to make the right angle of the ear relative to the nose. Since they have the same angle. To practice drawing the ear, I can advise you to study the anatomical structure of the outer part of the ear. To know what parts it consists of. And sketch ears from life or from good references. This should help you. For example, here's a very good image of the ear. The best way to memorize anatomy is through practice. You need to draw anatomical drips and models. Here you can see my anatomical drawings. It's these exact models and bones. That you will need to study and draw. To develop your knowledge of the head structure. Here at the academy we have a special class for studying anatomy. Where we have lectures and practical classes. In which we draw drips and models and bones. To study and practice drawing parts of the face. Art institutions have plaster models. Parts of David's face. They are larger than life size. So it's very convenient to see the structure and draw it. I usually give my students homework. To develop their knowledge and skills. And now I advise you to draw these models yourself. If you don't have opportunity to work from life. You can always find photos of these models on the internet. By the way, I have online classes. In form of text messages or video call. Whatever is convenient for you. At our first session we will determine your quest. And talk about your goals. What do you want to improve and so on. You will need to send me your artworks. Tell me which artists inspire you. And in what direction you want to develop. We start working based on your personal needs. I will be giving you tasks. We will analyze it as you complete them. So this is a great personalized work. So if you want to study with me. Go ahead and write me by email. Or just direct messages in my Instagram. I left all my contacts below. And we'll discuss the convenient time for you to study. And now we can finally move on to the steps in drawing human head. Here we need to summarize everything that has been said. And shown by me before. And put it into practice. To begin with we make a preparatory sketch in small format. To determine the location of the head on the sheet. And find a large light and a large shadow. The small size allows you not to focus on details. But to work with large forms. In small work it's more difficult to make mistakes. Since you see it all. And you don't need to step away from it in a large distance. So you already can fully collect and comprehend the image. Then we roughly transfer our sketch to the working surface. To the sheet where you're gonna draw a long portrait. And from life we refine the contours. We do not start a constructive drawing yet. But try to simply convey our first fresh impression of the model. This is important so that you do not end up with a robot statue. We begin to draw with large shapes. We need to convey the silhouettes of the entire head. And harmoniously arrange it on the paper. Now move on to the constructive drawing of the head. In the outline silhouette you need to define the facial part and the hair part. Find the boundary of the large light division. And then draw two middle lines. Vertical and horizontal. The eyes are located exactly in the middle of the head. If you count from the vertex to the chin. The facial part must be divided into three equal parts. From the hairline to the eyebrows. From the eyebrows to the base of the nose. And from the base of the nose to the edge of the lower jaw. This way you can find the exact positions of the eyebrows, nose and ears. So in our drawing eyes will be on the horizontal central line. To be more precise the pupils are here. But there's no longer difficult to outline the eye itself. The corners of the eye coincide with nostrils. So from the corners of the eyes we lower the perpendicular. And get the corners of the nose. The distance between the eyes is equal to the length of the eye. So between your two eyes a whole third eye can fit. It's a very convenient and simple proportion. The ear and nose are the same size and slope and profile. You need to constantly monitor this. So not to make huge nose or tiny ear. This knowledge is very helpful not to make a mistake in the sizes. The corners of the lips can be found if you draw a perpendicular from the beginning of the iris. For some people it's from the center of the eye. But more often from the iris. To find the cut of the mouth itself. You need to divide the lower third of the face into three parts. And the first division will be the line we need. And the second is upper part of the chin. This is actually a fairly approximate division. It's not always correct. In general what we're learning now. I'm talking about the construction. This is important only on the first stages of your training. Simply because unprepared person can't just sit down and make an accurate drawing. Trusting only his eyes. But in the future you'll not need to make a face diagram every time. We strive for living drawing. Constructions it's like training wheels. When knowledge and skills become strong. You can easily cope without a detailed constructed drawing. When we finally finish the constructed drawing. We need to look at the person again. And make all those lines more lively. More natural. I repeat we strive for a fresh lively drawing. There are no strict straight lines in a person. All the lines are smooth. I also refine all the parts of the face. To make it look more realistic and less constructed. Now let's talk about the light and shadow drawing of a person. In fact we have already learned a lot. When I showed you the construction of the parts of face. But we start from a large light relations. So as not to get confused in the future. We must immediately determine the zone of great light. And zone of great shadow. Between them there will be a border of light and shadow. A large light division. With classic overhead lightning. There is a shadow gradient from top to bottom. The forehead is the most illuminated part. And further the lower the more immersion in the shadow. Once you've defined a large light relationships. You can begin to draw in more detail. In the highlights work should be done with hard sharp pencils. And shadows with the softer ones. You don't need to overload the shadows. Don't make them too black. You should make the border of the light division visible and well made. You don't need to draw the shadow in too much detail. The lights are more important. But it's important not to overload the material. And not to over dark. Not to torture the light. Let's remember what I said about the shadow under the nose. It's falling shadow is really darker than its own shadow. Since the nose reflects the light from the skin. As I'm working on the nose. I want to remind you that it's important to highlight the edge. Where the bridge of the nose and its side wall are divided. All these things adds more volume to our drawing. And it looks more material and realistic. I gradually increase the darkness of the tone. You should not immediately apply the shadow at full straight. Just do it slowly step by step. So I keep on gradually working on each part of the face. Returning to the whole from time to time. So that the parts of the face do not lose connection with the face itself. In general most of important comments have already been said. In the section about parts of the face. And here you can watch a quick drawing demonstration. Of the process of shading and detailed drawing of the face. So here's a quick one hour training portrait that we get. Hopefully my explanations have clarified a lot for you. And you've learned something new today. I advise you to practice drawing portraits of your family and friends. Try to draw them from different angles. To develop the sense of volume. There are also exercises for drawing a head. Or head and shoulder girdle of one model in several turns. This allows you to see the model from all sides. And perceive it as three-dimensional object. So these are examples of such type of work. Also strongly recommend you to try doing this task yourself. But in general to improve your skills. It's very useful to make sketches from life. And copy good drawings by old masters. Since this is great increases your skill. Now it's time to talk about art materials for drawing a human head. The choice of portrait technique and materials is very important. Because it plays a great role in the overall appearance of your drawing. These are the tools with which you can be your vision of the person that you depict. In addition to simple graphite pencils. There are many different materials and interesting drawing techniques. There are different ways to think paper. Different tools. And overall drawing can be a lot of fun. For example this is retouching pencil. It works very well for portraits. They feel like a very high quality black pencil. They can work together with graphite pencil. It's also interesting to work with sauce in dried or liquid version. These are crayons that look like pastels. And you can draw with them like watercolors. And after drawing they are easily erased. You can also add dry sauce in shading. Sipe and sanguine. They come in the form of crayons and pencils. This is also very pleasant and beautiful material for drawing. Charcoal or compressed charcoal. Also can be found in pencils or sticks. I prefer thin charcoal and sticks. It's very nice material. In general you can draw with any pencil you find pleasant to use. It can be even colored pencils. You can use one color or a combination of two or three. There are professional high quality pencils like Derwent for example. You can draw with pastel pencils. You can add white acrylic for highlights to make them stand out. I talked in my previous video about the grisaille technique. And it's also a very interesting way to draw a portrait. It's also important how you use these materials. For example straight hatching makes it more constructive and sharper. Rounded hatching makes it more natural. Combined is also good. Blending is convenient for filling large spaces. But it's usually combined with hatches to make it look neater. I honestly really love shading. As it makes the overall appearance of the drawing and details more pleasant and realistic. You can blend with a brush, a napkin, a cotton stick. I almost always use a napkin. And there are also special pressed paper sticks. And at the end of this video I'd like to say a few words about tinting paper for drawing. To be honest I hate working on plain white paper. I prefer working on tinted paper. It's much more pleasant to use. It looks like way better than white paper. Tints can be transparent or dense. They are erasable or durable. Some are applied before work and some are applied during or at the end. Tinting is a huge field for creative experiment. And so transparent tinting can be done with tea and not necessarily black. You can use hibiscus for example. It will give like nice purple color. You can also use coffee, watercolor, sauce and ink. And all this can be combined together and you will get interesting colors. For example my favorite combo is black tea and black ink. It turns out into very pleasant yellow greenish color. Like looks like edged noble paper. Watercolor and sauce are erasable tints. Especially sauce. Sauce can be used as intermediate tinting for your drawing. So that you can later highlight the highlights with an eraser. Tinting can be applied with large brush or sponge. I personally prefer sponge because it creates very very nice smooth tinting. Unfortunately brushes often leave stains. And dense tinting can be made with tempera or matte acrylic. It's also very interesting experience to work on such surface. So that was it for today. Hopefully you found a lot of useful information in this video. If you feel that you need more work you can always schedule a consultation with me. And we will work with you individually. I work with any level of preparation. Here in Russia I even have some children students. And it's such a pleasure to work with. They're so open-minded and creative. So don't be insecure. To chase your goals you need to move towards it. I can also advise you to look through my post on Boosty. You may find something useful for you here. And thanks for watching. I'll see you soon in a new video. Stay creative!