I've always enjoyed pencil sketching and in particular portrait sketching. It's a wonderful way to relax. But it's been almost a decade since I really devoted myself to sketching regularly. As a result, my skills have deteriorated quite a lot. 'Use it or lose it' is right.
About two years ago, I stumbled on the biography of Andrew Loomis (1892 - 1959). This reinvigorated my interest in portrait sketching. In terms of artistic ability he was second to none. He was also a very gifted teacher. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, his books are no longer in print but they can be found on ebay or on various sites in digital form. Walter Foster (publisher) has produced a series that contain some of his artwork, but these newer books are quite cut down and don't seem to do justice to the originals.
I still have a long way to go, but by learning from his books I managed to recover and improve my sketching skills.
If you're new to portrait sketching don't be discouraged if you can't get the hang of it straight away. After a little practice with good techniques, you'll begin to see your skills develop and improve, and this can be hugely rewarding.
So What are these Good Techniques?
'Drawing the Head and Hands' (1956) by Andrew Loomis was the first of his books to get my attention. This book provides solid practical advice on how to learn and develop your skills at portrait sketching. Below I've listed some key points I've come to rely on. This is by no means a complete treatment of Andrew Loomis' teachings. It's just the tip of the ice burg. For more information, try to locate his books. I list them at the end of this article.
1. Construction is the Key.
Most artists are conscious of the fact that the subjects they draw are three dimensional objects, the proportions of which must be captured and represented on the page, in order to produce a good likeness.
Loomis describes how to visualize this by decomposing the head into a sphere for the skull and a muzzle for the face. Proportions of the face for men, women and children are different. He presents the average proportions for each and explains how to superimpose these onto the skull and muzzle in arbitrary positions.
Below are some sketches I made by following his guidelines. These are very quick sketches just to demonstrate some of the horizontal and vertical construction lines for the face.
Once you have an understanding of the front and side construction lines you can start to experiment by rotating the head and applying perspective. Below are some sketches I made by visualizing the sphere and muzzle at arbitrary angles and super-imposing the construction lines over them.
These sketches were drawn without referencing a live subject. All I did was try to visualize the three dimensional forms at different angles as suggested.
I found it helpful to study the human skull to get a better understanding of what causes the relief of the face. This takes the guess work out of placing shadows around the cheeks and chin. It also provides a basis for understanding the location and function of the muscles of the face. Loomis states that this is important if you truly want to get to grips with portrait sketching. Below are some sketches I did to experiment with this.
2. Physical technique and Rhythm.
When drawing each stroke, try to keep your wrist still and your elbow off the table. This will help produce a much more fluid stroke. Loomis refers to George Brigman, the famous Anatomy teacher, who "used to illustrate his lectures by drawing with a crayon on the end of a four-foot stick". With this is mind, developing a good physical technique is simply a matter of practice. To do this I bought a large cheap pad of paper and just practiced drawing simple shapes, like circles and squares, and then more complicated shapes, like the details of the eye and nose.
There are two aspects to drawing a single stroke with the pencil, weight and speed. Below are simple practice techniques I've developed over the years to cater for both.
- How heavy are you leaning on the pencil? You need to practice drawing pencil strokes while applying varying weight to the pencil. Take five blank pages. The first page will contain very light pencil strokes, the next will contain slightly heavier pencil strokes and so on. The fifth page should contain very heavy pencil strokes. The purpose of this exercise is to build up an understanding of what weights are useful for producing contrasting strokes. You'll probably end up using the lightest pencil strokes for drawing construction lines for example, and the heaviest for details around the eyes. To draw clean construction lines and good detail strokes you need to get used to drawing with the appropriate weights. "Wax on, Wax off" as Mr Miyagi said.
- How fast are you drawing each stroke? Take a cup or mug and put it down on a blank page. Using a very light weight, trace around the mug so you have a near perfect circle. Now, remove the mug and using a slightly heavier weight, slowing trace over the circle. Repeat this, increasing your speed each time. Notice that the faster strokes produce more impressive sketches. The purpose of this exercise is to improve the accuracy of your faster strokes. You need to become good at faster strokes to produce confident sketches.
You can mix and match the above practice techniques. If you're really brave, get a four-foot stick and tie some chalk to the end of it.. Maybe not.
Good rhythm happens when you develop a good physical technique and the confidence to go with it. Loomis shows several examples in 'Drawing the Head and Hands" to illustrate this.
3. Tone.
Understanding Tone is important. Look at the sketch below. This is a close up of the nose and lips. Notice that there are no individual pencil strokes obvious. Here I've just used tone to suggest the relief of the nose and lips. I haven't used any outlining strokes.
This produces a far more convincing portrait because it better approximates reality. Loomis provides a breakdown of the head into a series of planes, each of which can be used to apply a tone to. This allows the artist to plan how light sources land on the face and then cast shadows along the face.
4. See 3D, Draw 2D.
Loomis makes a very valid point about drawing from real life and not from photographs. He explains that although you can indeed learn a lot from drawing from photographs, ultimately, it is by drawing from real live subjects that you will develop your skills the most. This stands to reason. In actual fact, when observing a flat 2D image you use a different part of the brain to when observing in 3D using stereo vision, where depth of field plays a role. As such, the act of translating a 2D image to a 2D portrait is a very different process to translating an observed 3D scene to a 2D portrait.
Above are two sketches I made from pictures in a newspaper. Initiatively I found it much easier to just draw from photos. Below are two sketches I made using real live subjects, my two daughters. Amy on the left, was a little annoyed being asked to stand still for more than 20 seconds but we got there in the end.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Apart from the points above, regular practice is important and will ensure a steady rate of improvement. As I've mentioned already, all of the books by Andrew Loomis are worth checking out. There are also many sources of good information on the Internet regarding drawing materials and other approaches to portrait sketching.
Again, Don't be Discouraged Easily
If you are truly interested in developing your portrait sketching skills, don't be put off by a lack of over-night improvement. Loomis makes a statement in his second book, Figure Drawing For All It's Worth (1943) - "May I confess that two weeks after entering art school, I was advised to go back home? That experience has made me much more tolerant of an inauspicious beginning than I might otherwise have been..".
I find this statement absolutely inspiring, considering the quality of his work.
I'll wrap things up with my last two sketches. Both of these were drawn from photos (unfortunately). However, I used the sphere and muzzle first to compose the structure of the images and then referred to the photos for the details.
Above is a portrait I sketched of an old sailor from a photo I found on the web a long time ago. Older faces are often easier and more fun to draw because the folds and wrinkles in the skin provide shadows and details absent in younger faces. Loomis makes reference to this also.
I can't remember where I got this photo from. I did my best to capture the trance-like expression on his face. As with the previous image, I structured the pose first. Then I referred to the photo for the details.
I still have a long long way to go before I'm even approaching Andrew Loomis territory, but I do feel I've improved considerably since reading his books. I recommend them to anyone interested in portrait sketching.
Below is a list of books by Andrew Loomis.
- Fun With a Pencil (1939)
- Figure Drawing For All It's Worth (1943)
- Creative Illustration (1947)
- Successful Drawing (1951)
- Drawing the Head and Hands (1956)
- Eye of the Painter and Elements of Beauty (1961)