One of the challenges of artwork is illustrating the human face. One can always draw cartoons or caricatures but a natural looking face is much more challenging.
The above sketch by me, based on a drawing from a tutorial book, is an example of chiaroscuro, a method of using contrast between light and dark to produce an image. It involves the use of shadows to create a realistic image, giving a two-dimensional face the illusion of depth. It’s not as easy as you might think. It took multiple tries before I got a drawing I was satisfied with.
What if you want to draw portraits? Especially recognizable ones? That’s definitely tricky. You need to have a good working knowledge of facial proportions. Many people think they know what a face looks like but when they try translating their ‘knowledge’ into an art work, they usually wind up creating something like this.
Not a bad drawing really, but how many people do you know who actually look like that? Carrie Stuart Parks in her excellent book The Secrets Of Drawing Realistic Faces points out that people often try drawing what they think they see, rather than what is actually there. A forensic artist doing composite drawings for police departments for identifying criminals, it’s important for her as an artist to produce an accurate image. She writes that people often try to draw what they think faces look like which doesn’t really match the image of the person they have in mind. To get a realistic portrait, you need to understand what the proportions of the face are and how to set it down on paper. Once you’ve mastered the basics then you can proceed on to the details.
Rendering parts of the face such as eyes, nose and mouth are where chiaroscuro comes in. In the drawing immediately above, the facial features are drawn in as lines but that not how a person’s face actually looks. Rather, what we do see is a combination of light and shadow. So, the above nose which looks like the letter U with two little knobs attached, winds up looking like this.
The only lines I drew were for the nostril holes and the edges of the nostrils on either side. All else (except for the eyes) is shading. Here is where the blending stump and tortillons come into their own. By using the graphite from the nostrils, I used the stump to create the shadow of the nose itself as well as the shading on the tip of the nose. Still not quite perfect but a much more accurate rendition of a human nose. If you need extra graphite or charcoal, just take a piece of scrap paper and using a 4B or 6B pencil put down a layer to rub the blender or tortillon into for extra shading material.
The same with the mouth. A simple line with ‘commas’ making a smile become this.
The only line I drew was the mouth itself where the lips meet. All else is shading. Again, not perfect as I made the upper lip darker than I intended but far more realistic.
Finally, the eye.
This is the trickiest one as you have to be careful not to overdo the eyelashes and make your model look like he’s wearing heavy duty mascara. The edges of the eyelids framing the eye are shaded in rather than drawn. The iris and pupil are drawn but you have to be careful to keep the upper and lower parts hidden so the eye doesn’t look like it’s popping in horror. Use a kneaded eraser to create the highlight in the pupil and iris to give the eye a more life-like appearance.
There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for achieving realistic faces. So, grab your pencils, eraser and blending stumps and play around with it a bit. See you next month!
