Drawing and Sketching Portraits: How to Draw Realistic Faces for Beginners

Foreword

If you’ve ever wished you could draw better, and worried that you didn’t have enough talent, well, guess what? Talent has nothing to do with it! Learning to draw is a matter of practice, and of training your eye. Anyone can learn these secrets, with time!

In this book I’m aiming to set you off on the right foot. There are good ways and bad ways to get started. I’m going to show you the good ways. Some methods are fine for the short term, but you may find that you must ‘unlearn’ bad habits later. I don’t want that for you. Instead, I hope by the time you finish this book, you’ll be well on your way to drawing more realistically. And you’ll do this by gaining skills that you can build upon as you continue to study and practice.

As you read this book and follow the exercises, remember that I have a blog with more articles and freebies. Please check my website at http://yellowcatstudio.com/blog for more info. Also, to get a free preview of my next drawing book, sign up for my mailing list! http://eepurl.com/bIp1nb

Left: Long Hair, pencil drawing, approximately 5x7 inches. Right: Chris, a quick sketch, drawn from life, completed in about 25 minutes. Approximately 4x6 inches, pencil.

Chapter One: Technique

Materials

To start drawing, you only need three things:

Pencil

Paper

Eraser

Yep, that’s it!

I like to keep things inexpensive and simple. I’ve bought my supplies at the local grocery store. Big box stores like K-Mart or WalMart will also suffice.

PENCILS

I usually use mechanical pencils, mostly because they don’t require a sharpener. It’s been so long since I’ve sharpened a regular wooden pencil, and I don’t miss it! The wood shavings, the broken leads… nope, not missing that at all! But, if you favor regular wooden pencils, go for it. Do what feels right for you.

You can use mechanical pencils with either 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, or 0.9 mm leads. I’ve just started using the thicker 0.9 mm type of mechanical pencil, and they are fabulous! However, the 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm pencils have a finer point, which will be needed for more detailed drawings.

Most mechanical pencil leads come in the HB lead softness. The H refers to Hard, and the