Drawing the perfect pencil portrait
For ages, people are working with pencils to create art. Based on the ratio of the mixture pencils are created with different hardness. More clay gives lead greater strength while graphite leads to dark abrasion and both of these are required to make a perfect pencil portrait.
Materials required for a pencil portrait
• 6 MONO 100 pencils and MONO zero eraser pen having a round tip.
• Eraser MONO dustCATCH
• Drawing pad
• Compass
Steps for a perfect portrait
1. Paper & reference – The first step is to select a good plain sheet of sketching paper by putting the smoother side over the plain. Select the best reference picture having good shades and lightings and take a printout in an A4 size paper by scaling it according to the size you require. By using a 2H pencil grid the reference picture to avoid dark impression at the dimension of 1’ scale.
2. Outlining – With the help of gridlines fix the position of each element of the portrait and that allows the portrait to fall in the perfect size when you sketch the outline. Outline the portrait with the HB pencil which is lighter and can be erased anytime.
Once the outline is done finish the detailing with the shades of 2B and 4B pencils. Always start the portrait with the eyes as they are the important factor and an element of the portrait.
3. Eyes – With the paper stumps or paper tortillon smudge the dark part of the eyes as the reflection of eyes is important as they look real. Sketch the eyelashes separately and smudge with the help of stumps.
Make the shades below the eyes subtle so pencil strokes aren’t visible. Next, go towards eyebrows and make them sharp at the edges and it is advisable to use a dusting bristle brush to wipe the pencil powder around the portrait to produce the quality output without making it messy.
4. Nose, cheeks, lips, and skin – Use the stumps to detail the nose and then with the help of several shades create the cheeks and for skin texture use tissue papers for smudging the pencil strokes over the face. Later gently rub with tissue paper so that the strokes are smudged and smooth shades are formed.
5. Hair – Hair is the trickiest part of the portrait as it requires darker and deeper shades and every hair has to be shown for details to make it real. Strokes are to be made with the flow of the hair from the root as through this you can create the hair with perfect shades.
6. Detailing – The final part of the portrait will be the neck and dress and the texture of the dress must vary according to the lighting. Use different shades of pencils to show different shades of the dress.
Strokes must not be visible to make the portrait look mess-free. Smudge the strokes till the textured cloth is created and keep it gentle as there are chances to damage the sheet due to smudging.
7. Finalize – With the help of kneaded eraser show the highlighted part of the portrait and wipe out the shades to make it glow. Take off the gridlines from the sheet as it is the last step and erase all the unwanted shades around the portrait and derive the final image.