"How to......": Portrait Drawing and Painting Tips for Success

For those who are interested in portrait drawing or painting, here are a few steps you can use in your work:

1. Start off with the shape of the head, make sure its proportions are correct, not too big and not too small. Also, you can use your pencil or brush to measure the height and width of the persons head. This is a good way to get the proportions right.

2. With facial features, you want to be sure that they are a distance apart from each other as they should be; these include eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and chin. Like the head, these distances can be measured with your pencil or brush as well. 

3. When doing a portrait you never want to jump right in with the details. Its always better to make sure your proportions and angles are good before doing anything else. The details should come last and you don't have to draw or paint everything you see. Some times its good for the viewer to see something that isn't there.

4. Once you have everything in place, now its time to had detail. If you're drawing this may include shading, shadows, eyebrows and eye lashes, wrinkles in the face, hair, etc. If you're painting you want to make sure that you have a good color variation and ranges of value. Mixing colors to get the right skin tone for the person whom you are painting is a big part in determining the outcome of your work.