Advice On Pencil Portrait Drawing – The Contour
In this article we assume that you draw directly from life or from a suitable paper picture. In other words, we assume that you do not use the so-called grid technique. This technique relies on a grid drawn both on the paper picture of your subject as well as your sketching paper.
If this is the case, the first thing you will do is to produce a line-drawing. And the very first part of your line-drawing will consist of sketching the so-called arabesque.
In pencil portrait sketching, the arabesque is defined as the entire positive form of your subject’s head. In other words the arabesque is the outer contour of the head.
The arabesque includes the proportions, the form, and the symmetry of the head. This means that the arabesque expresses pretty much an overall likeness of your subject and often lots of expressive content.
In trying to realize the arabesque we confront our first challenge as a draftsperson. That is, the challenge of “seeing the reality”. Indeed, when we observe an object a complex mental process is started which in part falls short of the level of accuracy necessary to produce an suitable portrait.
The mind, for good reasons (one is to sustain our sanity), instantly replace the very complex object with the an icon it has stored since childhood. For instance, we all know how a child draws a house. It really is more like an icon of a house. But this is what the mind tends to bring up and often even grown-ups draw a house like they did as a child.
Plainly, it is these symbolic preconceptions (a left brain phenomenon) that are the enemy of the artist. You must coach yourself to ignore those symbols and really see what the reality of, for example, a house is.
In general, learning to draw involves the reprogramming of the mind’s eye. To this end, there is a skill-set that has been developed over the centuries since the Renaissance.
Applying this new found technique to the arabesque is particularly significant. “Drawing” the arabesque is maybe the most significant step in the production of a first-rate likeness. Once you have this technique down path all the rest will follow reasonably effortlessly.
The first step in striking a accurate arabesque is to force your eyes a bit out-of-focus. This situation is called seeing with a “soft eye”. With a soft eye proportions and form are more easily seen. It also helps you to avoid the invocation of the iconic preconceptions we talked about.
To coach your eye to improve your powers of seeing you must always draw first and correct second. There is not much to gain from pre-measuring. The habit of pre-measuring of the size of your subject’s head will hold you back later.
When striking the initial arabesque at all times use short straight, i.e., architectonic lines. This will impart a sense of the head’s structure and the form of the underlying bones and tissues. Note that round or curving lines are iconic preconceptions.
Also keep in mind the symmetry of the head. The term “symmetry” in the context of sketching and painting does not so much refer to the correspondence of two parts but more to the attractiveness that comes from accurate proportioning and rhythm.
After striking the arabesque (without doing any measurements) you can correct the proportions. Take a measure of the primary width (i.e., the width of the arabesque along the brow line) and set it off vertically beginning at the bottom of the chin. The end point of the width almost always ends up somewhere close to the middle of the hair.
The goal is to determine exactly where that end point is situated. Best is to judge the smallest of the following two distances: (1) the vertical distance from the brow line up to the end of the measure; (2) the vertical distance from the end of the measure up to the arabesque. The shortest distance is likely to be the most accurate. Do not forget, the arabesque encompasses the entirety of the head including the hair.
With practice your eyes will develop this critical technique. Then, once the size and form of the arabesque have been found you are ready to continue with placing the so-called landmarks.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: portrait drawing course.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.
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