# Why I'm awful at portrait drawing



## edwe000

Hello, I have started drawing since a year ago, and I love drawing realistic / realism art. Most of it is portrait drawing. But, there's a problem. I can't draw accurately, like I don't know where to place eyes, nose, and mouth correctly. Even I used a grid technique my draw still not good or looks unrealistic, looks not same as with the reference photo that I use. Please help me how to improve my portrait drawings skills and please give me some advices, thank you 
I uploaded mine drawing bellow :


----------



## just

Yes you are off. The first thing you need to work towards is accuracy. Forget the grid method. If you're drawing from a photo, first determine the ratio you are going to draw the picture, for example 4 to 1. Then start with an eye measure it on the paper and draw it. Measure the distance between the eyes then the other eye. You also might want to use a protractor to get the angle of features correct. Once you have accuracy, you need to get rid of the outline. Your shading is not even an attempt to make it like the photos. Finally you have to use a wider range of values. Don't just use a number 2 pencil. You can not pull that off.


----------



## mcjstudio

Hi there!

First of, you are not awful. You're in the process of learning. That means that at this point this is the result of what you can do at the moment. That is a big plus, so thumbs up to you!

The way that you can improve is by:

1) training your shading: your face is very fair, light and clear. This can make it even harder to draw your face. You still have the possibility to play with the shading. Less is more. You are shading the eyes a lot while should have more lines. More so, if you put less pressure on your pencil, the shading will become more subtle.

2) training proportion and dimension: you have drawn your face as 2D. To give dimension think in 3D forms like cubic, cylinder, etc. Also proportion. In the second drawing the proportion between your head and neck is different from the photo.

3) training with your tools: play with pressure that you put on your pencil. Also the usage of different type of pencils like 2B or HB types.

I hope this helps. If you want to know more you can also message me .

Good luck!


----------



## dickhutchings

It's all about drawing what you see and making corrections as you go. These drawing are not finished yet. Fix everything the way the these guy told you no matter how much you have to erase. The more of these you do, the less you'll have to erase. It's just practice and it continues throughout your life.


----------



## Valladares

Just a year into drawing your results are great! The first portrait is quite a good match to the original!! Work on the darks they need to be a little deeper, add contrasts and study the images. 
Good luck.


----------



## Susan Mulno

You are off to a delightful start! I can already tell you are an artist because you see your own work as worse than it really is!

Portraits are a challenge, the others have given you very good advice. The best way to improve any talent is practice, practice and practice.


----------



## edwe000

just said:


> Yes you are off. The first thing you need to work towards is accuracy. Forget the grid method. If you're drawing from a photo, first determine the ratio you are going to draw the picture, for example 4 to 1. Then start with an eye measure it on the paper and draw it. Measure the distance between the eyes then the other eye. You also might want to use a protractor to get the angle of features correct. Once you have accuracy, you need to get rid of the outline. Your shading is not even an attempt to make it like the photos. Finally you have to use a wider range of values. Don't just use a number 2 pencil. You can not pull that off.


I had measure it but I always failed..



mcjstudio said:


> Hi there!
> 
> First of, you are not awful. You're in the process of learning. That means that at this point this is the result of what you can do at the moment. That is a big plus, so thumbs up to you!
> 
> The way that you can improve is by:
> 
> 1) training your shading: your face is very fair, light and clear. This can make it even harder to draw your face. You still have the possibility to play with the shading. Less is more. You are shading the eyes a lot while should have more lines. More so, if you put less pressure on your pencil, the shading will become more subtle.
> 
> 2) training proportion and dimension: you have drawn your face as 2D. To give dimension think in 3D forms like cubic, cylinder, etc. Also proportion. In the second drawing the proportion between your head and neck is different from the photo.
> 
> 3) training with your tools: play with pressure that you put on your pencil. Also the usage of different type of pencils like 2B or HB types.
> 
> I hope this helps. If you want to know more you can also message me .
> 
> Good luck!


Thanks for advises 



dickhutchings said:


> It's all about drawing what you see and making corrections as you go. These drawing are not finished yet. Fix everything the way the these guy told you no matter how much you have to erase. The more of these you do, the less you'll have to erase. It's just practice and it continues throughout your life.


 Okay I'll do my best!



Valladares said:


> Just a year into drawing your results are great! The first portrait is quite a good match to the original!! Work on the darks they need to be a little deeper, add contrasts and study the images.
> Good luck.


 Thank you 



Susan Mulno said:


> You are off to a delightful start! I can already tell you are an artist because you see your own work as worse than it really is!
> 
> Portraits are a challenge, the others have given you very good advice. The best way to improve any talent is practice, practice and practice.


 OKay I'll do my best, thank you


----------



## edwe000

I tried again and failed again haha, pls give me feedbacks, thanks


----------



## Rrr

Hi,

I wouldnt say you totally failed as there is a certain likeness there, for instance you got it very clear the one in the portrait is a young woman and that she is of asian descent. This is quite good allready in my honest opinion. If you would rid the portrait of the hard (thick) outlining and applied shading techniques as others have allready suggested you could totally change things around with this drawing. Drawing portraitures fail or succeed by accurate outlining at the beginning of the drawing and with a good enough shading technique that follows. If you are finding yourself having trouble applying the various shading techniques I can suggest doing a tour through youtube through this link, this helped me quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time.


----------



## just

I posted a picture of my daughter I drew. It shows that the shading takes place of the outline. The left side of her face doesn't have a line. The details of her features even the curves on the surface of her face are created by contrast in shadows and highlights. A lot of the emotions in a portrait are captured with the gleam in the eyes.


----------



## dickhutchings

Interesting old timey feeling in this Just.


----------



## just

dickhutchings said:


> Interesting old timey feeling in this Just.


I'm not sure what that means but it sounds like a compliment.


----------



## dickhutchings

Yes that's how I meant it.


----------



## Rrr

just said:


>


That is a great portrait.


----------



## just

Rrr said:


> That is a great portrait.


Thanks, it's not as easy as it was. It is well you know  difficult, yeah that's it.


----------



## edwe000

Rrr said:


> Hi,
> 
> I wouldnt say you totally failed as there is a certain likeness there, for instance you got it very clear the one in the portrait is a young woman and that she is of asian descent. This is quite good allready in my honest opinion. If you would rid the portrait of the hard (thick) outlining and applied shading techniques as others have allready suggested you could totally change things around with this drawing. Drawing portraitures fail or succeed by accurate outlining at the beginning of the drawing and with a good enough shading technique that follows. If you are finding yourself having trouble applying the various shading techniques I can suggest doing a tour through youtube through this link, this helped me quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time.


okay i'll learn from it ^^

Btw i used andrew loomis's proportion and this is what i get


----------



## Rrr

Hey! you've improved instantly, nice :smile:


----------



## edwe000

Rrr said:


> Hey! you've improved instantly, nice :smile:


 Thank you


----------



## jacqueline

I too am already seeing improvements in your work. One suggestion that might help with your continued improvements to your shading is to look into training around value studies, you can Google the term and find a lot of resources to help you learn how to consciously, for lack of a better term, "see" differently. To sort of look at things with an eye to the shapes generated by the interplay of light and shadow. Best of luck developing your talents. 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk


----------



## Traffic NYC

@edwe000 Nice Initiative, keep it up!!!! Hope for the best


----------



## Klipdassie

I think the main issue is the depth and contrast. You can solve this by using different kind of pencils, for exemple: 2H=sketching, HB=main pencil, 4B=dark areas. 

Personally I think using a grid is easier to get the right proportion. I make a grid as follows:

1: open publisher and choose the right format of your drawing.
2: scan the picture you would like to use as a reference.
3: open the picture in publisher.
4: put a grid over it (you can choose the measurements of a grid block yourself).
5: draw the same grid with a hard pencil (light) on your paper.
6: you can draw the outlines easily on the paper.

This way the proportions are right. (place of the eyes, place of the mouth, form of the head etc.)

I hope this helps. I think you can be a great artist if you just start with improving these things. It is possible you won't succeed immediately, but it will improve your skills


----------

