Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Using Strong Illumination and Shadows

Tone is one of the most troublesome entities of portraiture. Most artists are very tentative about value and do not push the shadows far enough. This is often because:

1. Their eyes are not yet taught to see the subtle variations.

2. The fear of losing a drawing.

Beginning artists can see big lights and big darks and half-tones easily enough but it takes eye-training to see the finer variations in value.

In this expose we will focus on the interplay of strong irregular lights and darks that are thrown upon the model's skull, i.e., light-dappled patterns.

As always, we first draw the construct and establish the facial features (brow line and base of the nose).

When working with a complicated tonal pattern the chief task is looking to simplify the patterns. Sketching, in general, is always an exercise in simplification, i.e., making choices.

The next step consists of blocking-in the overall dark/light pattern with simple tones. At this time do not yet refine the values because doing so will surely lead to failure.

Using a paper or your fingers, stump down the pencil dust. If you use a paper stump be careful not to deaden the values. The lights can be added, improved, and refined with your kneaded eraser.

The facial features and the hair are now carefully drawn in.
Keep these structural lines very soft. In addition, continue constructing the tonal shapes|forms keeping in mind that, except for the sun-dappled pattern, the value must be kept down, i.e., nothing in the shadows must pop out.

This is a delicate balancing act. Tone must be added and then subtly modeled and/or taken away. This is an exercise in going back and forth.

In addition, do not be tempted to finish the facial features but be sure that the likeness is already there and that the proportions are right. That is, at this time, your drawing should look like an under-painting.

Like color, value is influenced by the surrounding value. You can see, for instance, that once the hair is hatched-in and somewhat refined that the facial area now appears lighter than before.

Now, you can return to the facial features and break down the large value masses into their various forms and relationships by using hatching, stumping and delicate eraser work.

The test with dappled light is to construct the delicate patterns while still keeping an interconnected full. As a general rule, cast shadows have hard edges while form shadows have soft edges of varying degrees. When using a stump, you should barely tap the paper. This allows you to keep the tiny lights that reflect off the paper thereby keeping the image alive and vibrating with light.

To produce the most fragile values make use of the blackest, hardest pieces of kneaded eraser you can find.

As is the case with the facial features, the values of the hair must be subordinated to the overall light and must harmonize with the face both physically and emotionally.

Lastly, at this time you can leave the drawing as is or you can push it further by adding more minutia. That is an creative decision left to you.

Article Source: http://casinoarticles.us

Download my brand new No Cost Pencil Portrait Sketching Tutorial here: www.remipencilportraits.com/PPDT/pencil-portrait-tutorial.html target="_blank">Pencil Portrait Sketching Tutorial. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Using Strong Illumination and Shadows.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated