I had several members ask me to do another lesson in portraits. I've tried to pick one that is fairly simple. Her name is Scarlett Johansson.

To start this portrait I opened the source photo in Paint Shop Pro, grayscaled it, and adjusted the contrast like I wanted it. Then I printed the photo on plain printer paper the size I want my portrait. This is my source photo.

Next I measured the face horizonally at the level of the outer edges of the eyes. I made my marks in the dark areas so they wouldn't show. I noticed that the inside of the eyes near the nose are lower than the out sides of the eyes. I also noticed that the face is slanted at a very slight angle toward the subjects left.

(I first went through all the steps from one through five but the lines were too faint to show after I scanned them. So I went back, darkened the lines and scanned each step again on separate sheets of paper for the sake of this lesson.
What you see is the darkened scans in the first four steps. With step five I went back to the lighter drawing.)

In this first step using a mechanical pencil with .05 2B lead I draw very faint lines across the face between the outside edges of the eyes. Then I measure the space between the inside of the eyes and find the ridge of the nose. It is slightly to the subjects left because the face is also turned to the left slightly. This means also that the contour of the face will have a slight curve to it. I must remember this as I do the horizontal measurements.

The second step shows the lines or the angles. I measure from my vertical line to get the exact points at the end of the nose, the centerline of the lips and then the bottom of the chin.

Next I measure the width of the nose at its widest point. I also find the highest point in relation to the edges of the nose. Then I do the same with the mouth.

Both the nose and the lips will be shorter on subject's left side because the head is turned to the left a few degrees.

The third step shows more angles and points of the face that I measure to get my composition. Measurements and angles are extremely critical at these early stages. Notice the lines or angles I mark to get the center of the lips and the center of the nose. These angles must match the original as near as I can get them.

The fourth step is a continuation of measuring points where light meets dark. I don?t draw lines for every angle. I drew the lines above mostly to show you the important points and angles to look for. I also start sketching.

In this forth step my sketchy drawing should begin to look like the subject or I have miss-measured and need to recheck my measurements.

In this fifth step I erased all my unnecessary lines and added more details. I should have a very good likeness at this stage.

The rest of these steps were drawn in 15 minute intervals. I also used a 4B drawing pencil occasionally to get the darker shadows. I hope everyone interested will try this one. Please feel free to post your results in this thread.

I go from left to right because I may may smudge the drawing.

I didn't take as much time layering this one as I do most of my portraits.

The finished drawing.

Bobby, first the praise for the drawing, next the thanks for the lesson. It is very clear and well presented.I might try this way. I never use the paper photo but the version from the monitor which i can increase or decrease. I think I wouldn't be able to do the same size mine are always larger than the photo.I don't think that the answer is the method but your practice and talent for portraiture.Not everyone can draw people, you know.Thanks again and hope you don't mind if i challenge you and wait for that portrait without measurements explained here.

Nice job BRB, this is very helpfull!!!
I would like to point something out to anyone looking this lesson over, it is something I learned fairly fast when it came to painting, and it is VERY important! Notice the reference photo used for this lesson, it is VERY CLEAR!! High Resolution is a MUST if you really want your portrait to look real. You can not make up what is not there, so do yourself a favor and always start with the highest resolution photo your can find if you don't have a live model.

Yay, thanks BRB!

I've tried many techniques for getting my composition. Some of the time I start drawing and then check my points to make sure they are corect. I like this one the best. I have to use the grid method on larger drawings and paintings on canvas. I like to try different methods of getting the composition. Sometimes I feel confident enough to just start drawing.

BRB

Very well, sir; what you don't tell us in any of the posts in the gallery is how much time you spend on a certain portrait.It's very important that detail because i have a feeling that the time spent on a drawing increases in the more seasoned artist as opposed to the beginner who tends to be more superficial.(My opinion.)

I didn't spend very much time on this one, maybe only a couple of hours in all. It takes a lot longer when i do the scans at so many stages. But this is a quick sketch compared to most of my portraits. When i do a lot of layering like with the lastest Rihanna portrait it can take five or more hours.

Thank you. Yes, Rihana is one of your best. I don't know if this is good or bad but the average time i spend with a portrait(with my limited practice of one month) is 2 hours. My father's portrait which i like and find it close to the original took me 1 1/2 hours.I guess it depends on the level of difficulty of the subject as well. Or what kind of shading technique and all that light and shadow thing. Speaking of layering, Maybe you can detail that for us the rest of mortals using a pencil.

The way I layer is I take a harder pencil and start shading lightly. With the last Rihanna I think I started with a 4H pencil and worked toward softer lead. I don't press hard on the paper, I just keep going over the areas lightly. I have found that I get a smoother texture if I start with a harder graphite pencil, and use softer pencils gradually to get as dark as I want, but if I start with a solf lead I get more texture it the paper has texture. I don't like smudging because I like the hatched or sketched look. With darker skin like with Rihanna it takes many layers.

Bobby.

Thank you very much BRB for taking the time to share your experience. Appreciated

Thanks very much for this step-by-step. My main interest is portraits and have been gravitating to similar measuring. Personally, I don't have the 'gift' to just start drawing and get a likeness...I just get a distorted mess. I haven't printed out the photo for the measurements, but using the screen is awkward, so will do that. I will save this lesson and I know I will benefit from it.

John

Thank you Bob, this is very helpfull, I starter doing portraits not to long ago, and still have allot to learn, I still have to use grids to get the proportions right. What I would like to learn as well is how to do portraits with oil on canvas, are the methods very diferent??
Thanks for this lesson

Clara

Clara, I can not speak about oil paint, I have not tried it. However I have painted a lot with and airbursh using acrylic paint. I know there are people out there that can just paint. They use a standard paint brush or airbursh like a pencil and just make a painting from a blank support. However, most of the people I know put some sort of refrence lines on the support prior to painting. So you draw your basic sketch without a lot of detail and then paint, building up the paint to form the picutre. The nice thing about paints is if you mess up, you can cover it up and fix your problem.. well at least some of the time
Anyway, the process is the same as it is with a pencil, just more techical stuff to deal with and learn. If you like, take a look at the progress gallery on my site (see below link) In particular the Drum Head and The George Perppard portrait. With George, the technique was more reductive, meaning I would apply paint and erase back to the white with my kneaded eraser (only some paints will let you do this).
The use of traditional acrylic would not let you do this, but you would stills start out with a line drawing of your subject, espesialy as a beginner. This is my take on this, I am no expert on the subjects or mediums I have not worked in. I am sure there are folks that would disagree and say you are cheating if you have refrence lines and a real painter does not use them..
All I know is the end result is what hangs on the wall, and what tools and how you get there is not really the views concern, they just see the image!

I agree there are many different mediums and techniques in oils and acrylics, but for sure, the better you are at drawing it will help you in any of the other mediums.

BRB.

Hi Bob

Thanks for this - Ive printed the pic and intend to have ago with your method - but I'm stuck at the start



Ive read the first sentance a couple of times now - I'm just dense

you messure from the outer edges of the eyes to where ?

do you mean the length of the face top to bottom in a straight line at level with the outer edge of the eyes ? or....I don't know or

Ok, I didn't explain thoroughly, and i see i got my vertical and horizonal wrong. I measure the width of both eyes horizonally, but in this case the two edges are on different levels. I also measure the width of the face on the level with the outside corner of the eyes. I measure the position of each of these points and then I make marks on my drawing paper. This tells me the position of the eyes and the width of the face. I draw the marks inside the dark areas, or where the darks will be so that I won't have to do so much erasing. I put my ruler across the out side edges and get these measurments first because like in this photo the inside of the eyes are not on the same level with the inside edges of the eyes. I draw my lines very faint also so that they will not be difficult to erase. In this lesson I had to make the lines much darker than necessary.

I use the metric system to measure on my ruler and I started measuring from Scarlett's right and measured the points going toward her left. But after I got the center vertical line I also used it to measure the distance to the end of the nose, centerline of the lips and the end of her chin. Upward i found a dark spot in her hairl. It's complicate and i do it in different ways. The goal is to get the measurement of different points in relation to other key points.

Once i get the first line I usually measure the other positions and angles in relation to the first line. Hope this helps but don't hesitate to ask if you still don't understand.

BRB

Ok - I'm with that... I think - swapping the vertical and horizonal makes more sense

What I'm wondering now is how you get the "offset" between certain points

i.e. you measure off the distance between the outer edge of one eye to the other, but how do you get the difference in height

or having found the brigde of the nose - you measure the distance the the chin/mouth or nose - but what about the offset (angle of that line) to those points.

is it just a case of looking and see'ing or do you have a method ?

cheers for this

Yes, what I do is use the ruler and protractor to help me see and locate points more accurate than I could with out these aids. What I was doing here was making suggestions for the use of these aids for studying the features. I don't always measure every point on the face. The important thing is that the more points or marks you get perfect the better you will be able to get other points or feature correct.

I also left out the fact that I decide on a point on the face and use it to locate that same point on the drawing paper. This can be any point in the face.

Thanks for asking these questions. I'm self taught and I'm also trying to learn to teach. I'm learning there is a gulf between doing and teaching.

BRB

Thanks again for this

Heres what I got so far -

I'm about 3 hours in to this - and a couple to go I reckon......

quite happy for far.............looking at the scan just now, there?s something around the mouth/chin/jaw that?s not quite right.....mouth too tall I think.....

I couldn't use Bob's layout technique by itself.......I had to grid it first, as I have been doing to get things in basically the right place first.......I'm just not there yet

I then used BRB's method to fine tune the size and placement.....and I think it shows.......I think its got a look of her......might be because I know its her though

I know Bob said he choose an easy one......all relative I suppose .....I gotta do something with that hair

I'll finish it up tomorrow and see where it ends up

cheers now

Im calling this done, unless anyone can suggest any changes - I seem to have spent a lot of time on this for the result

anyone else think it looks a bit cartoon/manga ?.....not sure where that came from

Thanks again the BRB, what I found most interesting, was the last few steps, seeing how you interpret the photo and what you choose to put in your drawing

Not sure what a lot of time is, 8-12 hours would not be uncommon for me to spend doing a charcoal portrait. I don't even keep track any more, it only make me furstrated, it takes as long as it takes! There is nothing wrong with spending the time to make it as perfect as you can. If you get board with it put it aside for a week or 2 then look at it again, you will see it with new eyes and be able to contiune with it.

Couple things I notice on your drawing without much study are:
The line of her face on views left, where it meets the neck, is not a line but a subtle change in shading. note that there is a flat space where the neck and curve of the face meet. The cheek bone has shading that is a different shape than what you have which changes the shape of her face. The eye on viewers left is not the correct shape and the right one is not shaded enough. The chin is straighter on the bottom with addtional shading. Shading in the forhead area under hair is also missing.

Subtle shading is a must if you want to loose the cartoon look, the face is not flat and as so, light causes shadows and without them you have a flat surface. I don't know if it is a no no in pencil drawing but for such structures I would think a Qtip, soft pencil, sanding board and kneeded eraser would be the tools to achive the look. At least that is what I will use when I finaly commit to spending 8 or 10 hours with pencils to do a portrait.

Hope this was helpfull

There are two schools of thought on blending graphite: that it's fine (Lee Hammond, author of many fine drawing books, makes it her central technique) and that it's not acceptable, because it tends to make graphite drawings look "dirty", and that you should use hatching or scumbling and build up light layers with harder pencils. I used blending a lot when I started, and very, very little now (and never on skin!) and I think my work is better without it. Everybody's different, though -- some people do fine with blending.

Charcoal is totally different, though -- blending is part and parcel of charcoal work.

Thanks Ernest! The more I learn the less I think I want to work with graphite, well other than to lubricate my door locks
I can now see why people have a hard time achiving the realistic look if there are trying to do it with hatching or some other means that involve just a line, that would drive me out of me nuts!

Thanks alot for that - I would have most likely put this away and never gone back to it.

Ive re-worked, well most of it to some extent....trying to address the points youve raised, and a few bits I noticed......

Ive done this though the day.....just left it and a print out of the photo propped up where I can see them, doing little bits at a time......much nicer way to do it then watching how much time I'm spending on it.

I'm gonna keep this where I can see it for awhile, so if you or anyone eles has further comments or suggestions I be glad to read them

cheers now

Glad I could be of help. I have put your current picture together with the original. This is something I do often when I get to this point in a drawing or painting. It is again using tools, in this case the computer and photo editing program.
Put the 2 pictures together so you can see the differnces. Squint your eyes when looking at the to picutures from far enought away that you can see them both at the same time. You will see things you have not notices.
I think the shading of the right side which you have worked needs to have some of the highlights brought back. Very carefully with the kneaded eraser in just the areas that are brightest.
Over all I think it is looking better, but I see what Ernest was talking about with the blending.

Oh and don't forget her moles.. I mean beauty marks!!


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Very cool demo. . . I will try that next weekend when I have time.

As for blending, that is confusing to me as I've also had someone tell me not to blend with graphite BUT then read other books that use blending extensively. I guess I just figured it was personal preference of the artist?

Ultimately, yes, that's about it. Realize that other artists will also have their own opinions about blending; some might tell you that you've ruined a drawing by blending, and others will tell you they like it that way.

Also Ernest, I blend a lot on some portraits and then on some I only blend by layering, and then some not much at all. it depends on the texture i'm trying to create.

BRB

Yeah. I'll actually blend on clothing, because then the clothing texture contrasts with rest of the drawing. But it never works for me on skin -- always looks bad. I've develped a predudice as a result.