Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Planes in Portrait Sketching

Most people have the set notion that the skull is more or less shaped like an oval. Actually, the skull is much more squarer than we suppose. The oval notion is one of those simplified set symbols the mind uses as a means for quick identification.

Most starting students will usually sketch the face on paper as a flat disk or oval which it is not. Also, compared to the entire skull, the face is quite tiny particularly in babies. Your hand can fit the entire face. Place that same hand on top of your skull and you will know right away how large your skull really is.

To appreciate planes and thus obtain a sculptural sensibility in your drawing you must appreciate and use simple geometric forms.

Generally, the skull can be framed within a square box. More rightly, this square box should be adapted to a phalanx-like box with the face on the smallest side. The skull tapers towards the front which is the face. This is the crucial form of the skull in the front view.

In the profile view the skull is generally a cube. The difference is the facial angle (the "muzzle") that slopes slightly forward at the chin. In the 7/8 profile, the cube has simply been turned in space.

Again, it is very important to think about the skull in terms of simple geometric forms. Once you have located the large simple forms you can start situating the smaller forms inside the large ones. Pretty soon that collection of simple forms becomes quite intricate and starts resembling a skull.

Keeping the above in mind you can begin with striking the complete arabesque which is the entire outside contour of the skull, hair included. Then you break down the complete arabesque into its different sections such as the hair, ear, jaw and neck.

As you hatch-in the darks and think of the skull as a collection of simple geometric solids you will by now begin to see the 3-dimensional result, even at this early stage.

The key is to think simply and large. At this early stage, do not pay attention to the minutia - they tend to mislead your sense of distance and direction.

Once the important entities are established, situating the features (eyes, nose, etc.) becomes relatively easy. But, if you do not situate those entities accurately you will never be successful.

The front view of the portrait poses a exceptional test. If you are not careful you can end up with a flat, two-dimensional face. In this view, the plane changes are often quite subtle and hard to situate.

Be sure to notice all plane changes in this front view and render them carefully in your drawing:

- Showing the forward tapering of the sides of the head is important to reaching a subtle 3-dimensional effect in this front view.

- The front of the face lies more or less in one plane.

- The plane of the foreskull changes bearing as you move towards the top of the skull.

- The plane along the cheek has a different bearing than the adjoining one along the temple.

The idea is to carefully observe the directions of all the different planes that make up the skull and take these differences into account when you sketch. If you do, your drawings will possess a sculptural, 3-dimensional sensibility. It is not necessary to sketch out the geometry of the actual planes, but the differences in bearing must be plainly drawn.

In conclusion, it is very important that you are aware of the fact that a model's skull consists of planes with different directions and is not just an oval. This sculptural structure should be reflected in your drawing because it is important to the likeness and to the illusion of 3-dimensionality.

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Download my brand new free pencil portrait sketch tutorial here: www.remipencilportraits.com/PPDT/pencil-portrait-tutorial.html target="_blank">Pencil Portrait Sketching Course. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait draftsman and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Discrete Flat Areas in Portrait Sketching.

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