How To Draw A Photo Of A Person

On December i, 2022, I asked myself the question: With merely one calendar month of practice, can I learn how to depict realistic portraits with only pencil and paper?

On December 24, 2022, afterward 26 hours of practise, I establish out that the answer was yes.

During the month of Dec, I documented my entire learning process in a serial of 31 daily web log posts, which are compiled here into a single narrative. In this commodity, y'all can relive my month of insights, frustrations, learning hacks, and triumphs, as I strive towards monthly mastery.

New month, new claiming.

For the month of Dec, my goal is to draw a realistic self-portrait with but pencil and paper. Along the way, in order to learn the fundamentals of drawing and portraiture, I will also depict many other faces, which will hopefully proceed this calendar month's posts more varied and interesting.

This new challenge starts today, December 1, 2022, and, past December 31, I hope to be a master of portrait drawing.

My starting point

I've had stiff creative tendencies since I was a child, but I've never invested much in my fine art skills. Instead, I've channeled my artistic impulses mainly through music, film, and estimator-aided design.

Thus, to fix a baseline for this month'southward challenge, I've drawn a before self-portrait with my current drawing skills. Although it's not the accented worst thing ever drawn, it sadly doesn't look very much like me.

Measuring success

Measuring success for this challenge is certainly more subjective than last month (where I successfully memorized a deck of cards in less than 2 minutes).

In this instance, the best I tin can do is show a photo that demonstrates the level of drawing I'grand aiming to reach…

This portrait is the example fatigued in the Vitruvian Studio Portrait Drawing Course, which is the form I'll be following this calendar month.

Clearly, there are major differences in realism betwixt my starting drawing and this example portrait. Then, if I tin can match the level of this example (which will be, of course, a subjective, merely hopefully honest sentence), I will consider this challenge a success.

With my goal set up, it's time to first drawing…

In my life, I've created a fair flake of (what I'll call) art. All the same, I've washed and so, not by relying on well-adult fine art skills, but instead, by cheating my fashion through the artistic process.

Basically, I've used everything at my disposal (except for fine arts skills) to create artistically.

Y'all can decide if this is adulterous or not, just either way, this calendar month is going to be dissimilar. This month, I am actually going to invest in my fine art skills. This month, I'grand going to take a pencil and paper, and zippo else, and brand information technology happen.

Even so, before I make information technology happen, I idea it would exist fun to share some of my previous works.

ane. Lego Portraits (with the help of Photoshop)

During high school, whenever I was tasked with making someone a gift, I usually opted to construct a custom Warhol-inspired portrait out of Legos.

Hither are ii portraits that I fabricated for my cousins Adam and Marissa.

And another ane I made for my grandparents.

While these pieces may look like they required some corporeality of artistic genius to pull off (do they?), that'due south really non the case. Instead, these pieces just required some clever computational analysis, planning in Photoshop, and executional patience (while glueing and placing each Lego slice).

The computer was the real artistic champion hither.

2. Counterfeit paintings (using optical tricks)

I've also experimented using optical tools (like mirrors and lens) to mechanically create. Although, I oasis't invested plenty time to produce annihilation worth sharing.

Tim Jenison, on the other paw, does have something worth sharing. Without any creative training, he painted a almost-exact replica of a Vermeer painting solely using optical techniques.

Tim's journey is documented in the Penn and Teller-produced motion-picture show "Tim's Vermeer", which I highly recommend y'all bank check out.

Here'southward Tim's final painting.

This month I'yard only using pencil and paper

While technology-aided art still should probably count every bit fine art (in some capacity), this calendar month, I'k committed to creating using only the tools shown below: nine black pencils, one white pencil, a few different erasers, and a gray piece of paper (which I'll explain another fourth dimension).

Information technology's going to exist hard, but that'due south the bespeak.

This month, to acquire how to draw portraits, I'll exist post-obit the Portrait Drawing video course from Vitruvian Studio.

Today, I spent 2.5 hours starting the course and get-go my get-go portrait.

Selecting who to draw

For my first piece, rather than drawing the model from the course, I've chosen to depict Derren Brownish, who originally inspired me to pursuit portrait cartoon.

Derren is a British illusionist, who I've been following for a while now, and who, I recently learned, casually paints portraits on the side.

Here are a few things he'south casually painted.

After seeing these, I decided I too would similar to exist the kind of person that casually paints impressively skillful portraits on the side.

For at present, before I go to the painting, I'll start off by mastering the drawing part of plan.

This is the picture show of Derren I'g cartoon.

And here's my setup.

Starting the drawing

The first module of the grade focuses on mapping out the portrait, which includes determining the shape of the head and locating the features.

Finding the top and bottom of the caput

I started past arbitrarily drawing 2 lines on the page to indicate the level of the top of the caput and the level of the bottom of the caput.

So, I arbitrarily marked, on the tiptop level, the highest point of the caput, and so used the bending between this point and the bottom of the chin, to locate the bottom of the chin on the page.

I also drew in the level of the notch of the neck. The outset fourth dimension, I drew it also low, and so I moved information technology upward. I gauged this distances as a proposition of the head length.

Find the leftmost and rightmost parts of the head

With the topmost and bottommost points identified, I so needed to identify the leftmost and rightmost points.

To practise this, I used a new technique I learned called triangulation. To triangulate a new point, I first sight (try to visualize) the angles to this new point from 2 existing points. Then, I draw lines from the existing points in the direction of the new bespeak based on the sighted angles. Finally, I mark the new point where the lines intersect.

Afterwards checking the angles again, I updated these 2 new points.

To check, I and then sighted the angle between the two new points, ensuring this angle matches what I run into on Derren's head.

Drawing the shape of the head

With these four outer points drawn, the next step is to draw in the shape of the head. To practice this, I continued to triangulate more than points, and describe in the necessary curves to connect them.

I connected in this way, until I outlined the entire shape of the head.

Information technology didn't look quite right, then I checked a agglomeration of angles.

Once it seemed closer, I added in the neck and shoulders.

With the neck and shoulders in place, it again didn't look right. So, I checked more than angles and made adjustments as necessary (mostly to broaden the jaw)

The caput was now looking pretty skillful, merely the neck and shoulders needed a few adjustments. I retriangulated, and adjusted the collar up.

That's it for today

Getting to this indicate took me 2.five hours, which was dissever between watching the video course and drawing my Derren portrait.

And then far, the portrait doesn't look like much, but I still learned a bunch today. I especially similar the triangulation technique, which makes drawing much more procedural and mathematical (a.k.a. easier for me).

Tomorrow, I'll continue following the course, and kickoff drawing in the facial features.

Yesterday, I started following forth with the Vitruvian Studio portrait form, and began drawing a portrait of Derren Brown.

Here's what I accomplished yesterday.

And here's my end goal (more or less).

Today, I spent some other ii.v hours watching the form and working on the portrait.

Today'south progress

Cartoon in guides

The commencement affair I did today was add construction lines to my drawing. These construction lines are designed to act every bit landmarks and help me eventually identify the facial features.

Get-go, I drew in the vertical centre line, which will help me laterally identify the features.

Then, I marked center level, to beginning gauging the features' vertical placement.

I followed up with the levels of the brows, nose, and lips.

I made a bit of a fault here. I drew the horizontal structure lines perpendicular to the center line (which seemed reasonable), merely did not mimic the bending of the features in the actual cartoon.

So, I sighted the correct angles, and adjusted the construction lines accordingly.

Blocking in the features

With the construction lines as references, I was then ready to start blocking in the facial features.

I started by adjusting the center line slightly for the olfactory organ, and mark the nose'south outer boundary.

Then, I drew in shapes for the brows.

Side by side, I included the eye sockets and some more than detail around the nose.

Finally, I added in shapes for the eyelids and eyes, and finished upwardly for the day.

Reaching this indicate took some other 2.5 hours.

Progress still seems fairly wearisome on the drawing, but I'm making a conscious effort to work carefully through the blocking in stage (and then I can practice what I'm learning, then I can ensure the portrait is congenital on a strong foundation).

I'll offset detailing the features tomorrow.

Today, for the third day in a row, I spent 2.5 hours on my Derren Brownish drawing. However, unlike the other days, today, I feel like I made a lot of progress.

Finish blocking in the features

Picking up where I left off, I continued to block in shapes for the features.

I added in the centre line of the lips and the shadow on the nose.

I then finished the lips and added a line for the chin.

Lastly, I blocked in the principal structures of the ear and added an outline for the beard.

Drawing in shadow/highlight shapes

With the features in identify, I adjacent blocked in shapes for the shadows and highlights.

With these tonal contours in place, I darkened the shadow areas slightly, giving the portrait some roundness and three-dimensionality.

Detailing features

With the features and shadows blocked in, I detailed the features, starting with the optics.

Left center done.

Correct eye done.

Nose done.

Lips washed.

Finally, I finished up for the solar day with the ear.

Afterwards 7.v hours of work (2.v hours over the past three days), I'm finally hopefully that this portrait volition resemble Derren Brown.

Tomorrow, I'll starting calculation tonal values (i.e. shading) to the drawing.

Ascertainment about today's session: Based on the output from today, information technology may seem like today's drawing was the most technically challenging. But, in fact, I establish just the opposite.

Because I spent the past ii days meticulously locating and blocking in the features, it was very easy to add the incremental particular. (Trying to describe large shapes is much harder than trying to draw little shapes. Little shapes are a lot easier to visually understand and replicate)

In fact, I suspect that today was to the lowest degree consequential to the outcome of the portrait. If I mess up the shape of the head and the location of the features, I accept very trivial chance of capturing a likeness. If the features are not quite accurately detailed, but in the right place, I notwithstanding might have something…

Yesterday, later vii.5 hours of work, I finally finished sketching / laying out my first portrait. Today, I started adding tonal values (a.1000.a. "shading the drawing").

Before I show today's progress, I want to share two techniques I learned that make it significantly easier to accurately add tonal values to portraits.

i. Commencement with the most farthermost values and then meet in the middle

The homo eye is really bad at assessing tonal values in isolation — which is why your brain thinks squares A and B below are very different colors, when, in fact, they are the aforementioned.

Thus, instead of relying on visual inferences, tonal values can be better approximated through a simple, not-then-interpretative procedure.

Here's how it works:

Start by identifying the absolute darkest and accented lightest areas of the cartoon. For the darkest areas, shade them equally dark as y'all can/want. For the lightest areas, highlight them as light as you can/want.

This establishes the entire tonal range of the drawing, which is called the cardinal of the drawing.

Establishing the key is straightforward, and doesn't crave much visual interpretation (i.e. it'due south easy to detect the lightest lights and the darkest darks).

One time the key is established, and the lightest and darkest values are in place, the intermediate values demand to be introduced. Again, this can exist done procedurally, by identifying and shading/highlighting the areas which are slightly lighter than the darkest darks and slightly darker than the lightest lights. Standing recursively in this way, the tonal values eventually meet in the heart, and the cartoon (or the relevant function of the drawing) is consummate.

2. Squint to improve see tonal shapes

When keying the drawing (and developing tonal values in general) information technology's of import that the shapes of the tonal areas are captured accurately.

In other words, if the highlight on the brow is angular, drawing information technology with rounded edges wouldn't properly capture the grade.

This sounds obvious, but again, your encephalon and visual arrangement tin can trick on you lot. Your brain is attempting to run into a confront (via your psychologically skewed, emotions-based mental model of a face), and not but tonal blobs.

In fact, this psychological trouble of misinterpreting faces is so mutual, there are entire drawing systems (similar cartoon upside downward, cartoon the negative space around the face, etc.) designed to combat these problems.

Side note: Here's a video of Derren Dark-brown, the subject of my portrait, when he used to have hair, experimenting with some of these culling methods of painting. It's a pretty cool trick.(If you're going to sentinel, stick it out until the terminate).

In order to accurately see tonal shapes, and avert psychological errors, I've constitute 1 method to be surprisingly successful: squinting.

Basically, you look at the area you desire to draw, squint your eyes (and so the prototype becomes blurred and your encephalon no longer sees a face), and identify the tonal shapes you lot run across through your eyelashes. This works super well. (I didn't invent this method, I've just validated that information technology works for me).

Today's progress

With these techniques newly-learned, I began to add together tonal values to my Derren Chocolate-brown portrait.

First, I started with the heart.

In the course, the teacher mentioned that it's skillful to kickoff with a pocket-size area that exhibits the full range of tones.

Nevertheless, the middle was too small to help effectively establish the key. So, I keyed the drawing more aggressively, starting with the shadow on the nose and the highlights on the forehead and cheek.

I continued shading the darkest areas along the correct side of the face.

Additionally, while doing this, to check the accuracy of my cardinal, I started developing the eye.

I finished upwardly my primal, by calculation shadows to the lower confront and the back of the head, and was ready to begin modeling the form (finding the intermediate values betwixt the darks and lights).

I started with the forehead.

Added a bit more detail.

Then smoothed everything out.

This is where I stopped for the day, after another two.5 hours of working.

Derren looks a fleck too shiny right now — a bit like a mannequin or the Tin Man — simply I'm optimistic that this result will vanish in one case I model the rest of the course.

I'1000 guessing I have another 5 hours of work left on this.

Today, like yesterday, I continued adding tonal values to the portrait. I spent a niggling less than two hours, and am getting really excited almost the results.

Here's where I stopped yesterday.

I proceeded today past get-go addressing the nose.

Then, I addressed the right one-half of the confront — farther developing the shadow.

Next, I moved on to Derren's hair and bristles.

Since the demo portrait in course is based on a long-haired female person model, I had to do a scrap more than freestyling at this betoken. I call up it works.

I continued with the upper role of the bristles, and finished up for the day.

Tomorrow, I need to finish the mouth, the ear, the neck, the lower office of the beard, and perhaps the clothing.

Getting close…

Today, after another 2.5 hours of work, I finally completed my Derren Brown portrait.

In the coming days, I will write a few detailed posts about what I've learned, how I plan to move forward, etc., but for now, I'll just share the final photos of my progress.

Today'southward progress

I started off past detailing the lips.

Then, I added the mustache.

With this facial hair momentum, I finished off the beard.

And then, the ear.

Finally, I completed the neck, decided not to address the wearing apparel, signed information technology, and I was done.

For my first portrait of the month, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Nine days ago, I began my xxx-24-hour interval quest to learn how to describe photorealistic portraits. Since and then, I've watched the entire 10 hours of the Vitruvian Studio drawing course, also as spent xiv.5 hours working on my first portrait.

Here's the result…

And here'due south a video documenting the progression.

Considering where I started but nine days ago (meet the before portrait), information technology's hard for me to believe that I actually drew this. Information technology'southward non perfect, just I'k definitely excited about the effect.

Part of me lacks the motivation to continue drawing, as I experience like I've already accomplished my goal. The other (more overpowering) part of me realizes that I have another 21 days to improve even farther, so that's what I plan to do.

In particular, I'thou going try to reduce the corporeality of time necessary to complete a portrait similar this. With some practice, I call up I tin reduce my time downward from xiv.5 hours to 4–v hours.

Tomorrow, I'chiliad going to get through my previous posts (ane, 2, 3, four, five, 6) and write up a "Portrait Cartoon Cheat Sheet". Then, I'm going to break down the crook canvass into isolated, practicable skills and drills, piece of work on those individual skills for i–2 weeks, and and then commencement working on my cocky-portrait to finish off the calendar month.

Here is my "Portrait Cartoon Cheat Canvas", which features pace-past-step instructions on how to draw a portrait.

These steps are based on the splendid portrait cartoon course past Vitruvian Studio, which I highly recommend you lot purchase if you are serious about learning how to draw.

The Instructions

Marking the top of the head. Arbitrarily draw a line towards the top of the page. This represents the peak of the head.
Mark the bottom of the chin. Arbitrarily draw a line near the lower third of the page. This represents the lesser of the chin.
Mark the notch of the cervix. On the discipline, using your pencil as a guide, measure out the altitude from the lowest bespeak of the head to the notch of the cervix. Make up one's mind how many of these distances tin can fit within the vertical distance of the caput. Use this is as guide to draw a horizontal line towards the lesser of the page to correspond the notch of the cervix.
Detect the highest point of the head. Arbitrarily determine a signal on the tiptop line. This represents the highest point of the head. Often, on the subject, this point sits far back on the head.
Find the lowest point of the chin. Using your pencil as a guide, make up one's mind the bending from the highest bespeak of the head to the lowest point of the chin. Draw a line at this angle from the highest point of the caput (equally marked on the page) down towards the lesser of the chin line. Draw a dash where these lines intersect. This intersection represents the lowest point of the mentum.
Notice the leftmost boundary. Identify the leftmost boundary on your subject. Make up one's mind the angle to this leftmost point from the highest indicate, and draw a line at that angle from the highest bespeak towards the leftmost boundary on the page. Do the same from the lowest signal. Draw a marking where these ii lines intersect. This intersection represents the leftmost boundary. The technique used to find this purlieus is called triangulation.
Find the rightmost boundary. Over again, triangulate from the highest and lowest points to find the rightmost boundary of the head.
Bank check the angle. On the subject, employ your pencil to notice the angle betwixt the leftmost and rightmost boundaries. Check if this angle matches the angle represented on the page. If not, retriangulate and bank check again.
Draw the outer-boundary of the head and hair. Triangulate points around the head and connect them with straight lines. Once the full general shape seems correct, smooth out the kinks. Check the angles betwixt various points on the subject field and on the page to brand sure everything looks right. If there seems to exist inconsistencies, retriangulate and adjust. Do the aforementioned for the hair line.
Depict the vertical eye line. Pick some central bespeak that looks like its on the vertical center line. Triangulate from outer-points in to find this fundamental bespeak. Check the angle from the bottom/middle of the chin to this point. Utilise this as a guide to describe in the entire vertical eye line. As the eye line approaches the pinnacle of the head, it typically flattens, as it rounds dorsum behind the head.
Draw the level of the eyes. The level of the eyes typically falls near halfway between the top and lesser of the head. Utilise this equally a starting betoken. Describe in this level, and so cheque angles to confirm. Move up or downwards until everything checks out.
Draw in the level of the brows and bottom of the nose. If yous dissever the face length into thirds, typically the level of the brows fall on the upper 3rd line and the level of the nose falls on the lesser third line. Utilise this as a starting point. Depict in these level, and the bank check angles to ostend. Move the level up or down until everything checks out.
Draw in the level of the start of the nose. The nose begins somewhere between the level of the brows and the level of the eyes. Gauge where this is and depict it in.
Describe in the bottom and center of the lips. If you split up the altitude between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin into halves, the level of the bottom of the lips typically falls at the halfway indicate. Use this as a starting point to depict in this level. Then, gauge where the middle of the lips falls relative to the distance betwixt the bottom of the lips and the bottom of the nose. Draw that in.
Adjust the center line for the nose. Starting from the level of the start of the nose, adjust the centre line so its angle matches the middle line of the nose. Typically this will be in two parts. The angle outwards from the level of the start of the nose to the peak of the olfactory organ, and the angle inward from the peak of the olfactory organ to the bottom of the nose.
Accommodate the eye line for the oral fissure. The oral fissure typically has some volume, which pushes the center line forward. Adjust the center line frontward beneath the nose to account for the volume in the oral cavity.
Describe in the shape of the optics and middle sockets. Triangulate the corners of the eyes, and then draw in the complete shapes. Do the same for the lids and the eye sockets.
Draw in the shape of the brows. Triangulate the corners of the brows, and then draw in the consummate shapes.
Describe in the shape of the nose. Triangulate the superlative of the olfactory organ and the wing of the nose. Then, depict in the complete shape.
Draw in the shape of the mouth. Triangulate the corners of the oral fissure. So, draw in the complete shape.
Depict in the level of the chin. Triangulate the level of the chin, and draw a line to distinguish the shape.
Draw in the shape of the ear. Triangulate points of bending-alter around the ear. Connect these points with appropriately angled lines, and then smooth out the kinks.
Draw in shadow shapes. Identify shapes of principal shadow areas. Triangulate their boundaries and draw them in.
Darken the shadow shapes. Lightly shade in the shadow areas of the portrait. Use a soft, clean pigment brush to smooth out the material on the page. This volition introduce some 3-dimensionality to your portrait, which should help you better visualize if annihilation doesn't seem quite right. If there is something that seems incorrect, fix it.
Detail the eyes. Draw in the iris, pupils, and other details.
Detail the nose. Draw in the nostrils and other details.
Detail the lips. Smooth out the shape of the lips.
Detail the ear. Draw in some of the main inner land marks.
Fundamental the drawing. Place the lightest and darkest tones on the subject, and add these tones to the page.
Modeling an expanse. Pick an area of the caput (like the forehead), and detail some of the master places of tone-change. Identify and add in the principal low-cal and dark areas. Using a shading stump and the necessary pencils, fill in the transition tones. To better see the shapes of highlights and shadow, squint your eyes until the face up isn't recognizable as a confront, just rather a collection of tonal blobs.
Model the remaining areas. Continue as above until all areas are modeled.
Sign it. And yous're done.

A few days agone, I finished drawing my beginning portrait. Since and so, I've reread my notes, reviewed some parts of the grade, and wrote upwards my "Portrait Drawing Crook Canvass".

With all the steps documented, it'due south now time to deliberately practise the most important skills.

In particular, every bit I said on Day 35, I believe that information technology's about important to accurately capture the proportions of the head, the head shape, and the level of the features. If these things are done correctly, the rest of the process is very forgiving. If non, the portrait will cease up beautifully shaded, just won't look similar the subject.

Today, I'm going to practice finding the correct proportions of the subject's head using a few celebrities: Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, and Morgan Freeman.

Matt Damon

Here's the photo I'chiliad using.

Here's my attempt to locate the pinnacle of his head, the everyman point of his mentum (which is located on the mentum's left side), the leftmost signal of his cheek, and the rightmost point of his ear.

In Photoshop, I overlaid my sketch on the photo to cheque. I was pretty accurate.

Natalie Portman

Here's Natalie.

And here's my attempt to locate the peak of her pilus, the lowest point of her chin (once more on the chin'south left side), the rightmost bespeak of her cheek, the leftmost bespeak of her pilus, and the notch of her neck.

Checking in Photoshop, everything seems pretty accurate. Although, the depression point of the chin may exist slightly too far left.

Morgan Freeman

Here I try to locate the peak of his caput, the lowest point of his chin, the rightmost signal of his ear, the leftmost point of his ear, and the notch of his cervix.

This one looks right on the money.

With each of the sketches, different with my Derren Dark-brown portrait, I felt that I was able to see the angle on the subject and accurately replicate it on the page with limited effort.

This is a good sign…

Yesterday, I practiced triangulating the proportions of a few celebrity heads.

For example, here's one I did of Natalie Portman.

Today, I practiced triangulating the consummate head shape and gauging the level of features.

It took about 45 minutes.

To assess my work, I overlaid the sketch on Natalie.

My Critique

The face shape is accurate
The level of the features is authentic
The angle of the features is accurate
The center line curves a little as well quickly as it moves up between the eyes
The neck shape is inaccurate — I especially misestimated the starting point of the neck on the correct side.
In a higher place the right middle, the angle of the caput/hair is too steep
The acme of the head is too steep
The angle of the hair above the ear isn't steep enough

Overall, I'd give the sketch a B-.

Since I was accurate with the confront shape and the level of features, if I connected working, I doubtable I would develop the face adequately accurately. As a event, I would likely have enough accurate information to gradually correct the major mistakes with the caput and hair shape.

Tomorrow, I'll practice again on a unlike celebrity.

Today, I didn't take too much fourth dimension to depict. Then, I quickly progressed the Matt Damon sketch I started two days agone.

Hither's what I shared on Sunday.

Today, I spent 30 minutes sketching the head shape and feature guides.

Simply looking at the sketch, the head shapes seems a little narrow for Matt Damon. But, overlaid on the photo, information technology seems to match up.

With the exception of the oddly tiny ear, everything else seems to line upward well. The head shape, face shape, and hair shape seem authentic. The level of the features and the eye line seem authentic. The fly of the nose is a bit too far to the right, but I really just threw that in for fun.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the outcome — especially since I sketched this fairly quickly. I guess that means I'm improving…

Concluding month, when I was learning to memorize a deck of cards at grandmaster speeds, I started unintentionally seeing playing cards in the real-earth. In particular, existent-world things (similar wheelchairs and airplanes), which take clan in my mnemonic system, were triggering images of playing cards, without any conscious thought on my role.

Simply, I was rewiring my brain.

This month, equally I acquire to draw faces, I'thou experiencing a new phenomenon… For the past few days, I've constitute myself scrutinizing and deconstructing other people's faces on the train, at work, on the street, at Whole Foods, etc. Wherever there is a face, I can't help but attempt to analyze it, and imagine how I'd draw it.

Now (and I hope this eventually wears off), when I encounter a new confront, my kickoff instinct is to estimate the ratio betwixt the tiptop and width of the head. Other times, I just look to encounter what shapes the heart sockets are. Or how prominent the brow ridge is. Or if the nose and brows every bit break the face in thirds.

Basically, I can't finish staring at people.

So, thanks people of San Francisco for not getting totally creeped out. I promise I'll stop soon.

For the past couple days, I've been itching to kickoff my self-portrait. And then, today, I did but that.

Later on working for about an hr, I was able to cease sketching the outline of the caput, hair, and neck.

And here's a video of today's progression.

So far, so good. Tomorrow, I'll start blocking in the features.

Today, I continued working on my self-portrait. Although it's meeting nicely, I made a mistake upfront that'south definitely costing me now.

Before, I get to that, though, let me commencement share today's progress.

My fault

Although I'one thousand loving the composition of my self-portrait, I've sadly draw everything 10–20% as well small.

Accept a expect at the self-portrait side-past-side with the Derren Brownish portrait. My head is noticeably smaller.

Again, I call up this is okay compositionally, but it'due south still a fleck of a problem — specially, for 2 reasons.

A smaller drawing offers smaller margins for error. If I slightly misplace the corner of the rima oris or the height of the brow, the distance betwixt the right and wrong placements represents a proportionally larger difference on a smaller cartoon. In other words, smaller drawings are less forgiving and errors are more than pronounced.
A smaller drawing ways effectively details. My pencil sharpener doesn't seem to work very well with the pencils I take, which means I'm cartoon the tiny eyelids on my self-portrait with a tree trunk. Basically, the smaller drawing requires that I work in finer areas, which is challenging with the tools I have.

Even so, I will persist, since, even with the sizing error (and the associated challenges), I'm quite happy with the portrait so far.

In fact, challenges are probably a skillful affair (I hope). Ideally, they push me to get a better artist.

Anyhow, I call back the takeaway is that I need to invest in a better pencil sharpener…

Today, my self-portrait progress is broken into 2 parts:

Finishing the sketch
Defacing the sketch (a.grand.a. calculation tonal values)

Finishing the sketch

Yesterday, I was able to sketch nigh 80% of the portrait. Today, I just need to add together the final details.

I start by blocking in shadow areas near the mouth, on the forehead, and on the neck.

Then, I darken the hair and eyebrows.

I add together detail to the optics, and the portrait jumps to life.

Finally, I detail the ear, which is one of my favorite parts of the whole procedure. (Ears are just weird looking and fun to depict)

With the ear done, my sketch is complete.

Interestingly, this completeness is a flake problematic: Because the sketch feels whole (and, from my perspective, represents an interesting, standalone piece of art), I struggle to continue working on it.

The portrait just feels counterbalanced at this point. As soon every bit I first adding tonal values, that balance volition be disrupted, and won't return until I'chiliad nearly done with the whole portrait.

It well-nigh feels unnatural to add together tonal values to the sketch, as if I'm defacing something I worked hard to create.

Nevertheless, I must continue. So, here I become… Time to temporarily deface my work.

Defacing my portrait

I get-go by blackening one of the eyebrows. This is piece of cake, and hopefully will help me build momentum.

I proceed with my black pencil, darkening the other eyebrow and the pilus.

I can't seem to hands get the hair to be one smooth black mass. Instead, the grain of the paper is very noticeable, giving me a dainty salted expect. Even after ambitious blending with a blending stump and a dry brush, I nevertheless tin can't get the material distributed nicely on the paper.

I may demand to invest in some pulverisation graphite (simply I'll return to this later).

Adjacent, I start on the prominent eye. This is where the real defacing starts, as information technology's going to be a while until it doesn't look similar I'one thousand wearing makeup.

After many more minutes of work on the eye, I stop for the night. I'll continue more than tomorrow.

Today, I spent a couple hours working on the eyes and nose area of my cocky-portrait.

My tonal approach is noticeably unlike than that used on the Derren Brown portrait.

With Derren, I wanted to ensure the portrait emanated three-dimensionality, so I pushed aggressively on the dissimilarity of the portrait. I likewise didn't care much for the micro-gradations of shadow/calorie-free, as I was more concerned with the definiteness of the bigger shapes.

Equally a result, the portrait definitely has a stunning roundness, merely I wouldn't call it photorealistic.

Thus, this time effectually, with my self-portrait, I'thou aiming to more closely match tones, while also paying attention to the smaller areas of light autumn-off. With this attending, my hope is to create a more realistic rendering of my face.

It'south nonetheless hard to tell whether I'll be successful, just nosotros'll find out soon…

In most of my posts, I tend to exist pretty positive (i.eastward. "Whoa, today went better than expected…", "I'm really pleased with today'south progress…", "I can't believe how good this is…", etc.).

This is mostly because I'grand very bullish on this entire project.

However, in my past 3 posts (I made a mistake, Intentionally defacing my cocky-portrait, and Fighting for photorealism), I've tried to interrupt this trend, and share some of the day-to-day challenges I face up.

While I am however very positive virtually this project, and happily take on the micro-challenges, I idea sharing some of these things would be more interesting than writing about how every mean solar day is always better than the last.

Anyway, continuing with this theme, today, I want to share an interesting struggle.

The Light Situation in San Francisco

For some (perhaps, legal) reason, well-nigh apartments in San Francisco don't accept overhead lights in their main living areas. Usually, apartments only have overhead lights in the bath and (sometimes) the kitchen, which is the example for my apartment.

As a result, the remainder of my apartment is lit via Ikea floor lamps, which, although they do a 90% good job, it turns out, at nighttime, at that place's just not plenty light for detail-oriented drawing.

During the sketching phase of my self-portrait, I didn't need to meet precise tone, and then sketching at night was no trouble.

Nonetheless, at present that I'm trying to advisedly model the lights/shadows of my confront, I need more light.

I considered drawing in the bath, just this isn't entirely comfy. Particularly considering I was worried that the portrait would become wet/damaged on the sink, whose counter is the most viable drawing surface area.

Since, without deconstruction, the kitchen table doesn't fit through the bathroom door (I tried…), I needed to detect somewhere else to work tonight.

I concluded up beyond the street from my flat at a well-lit coworking space, which was great for drawing, but non-so-keen for movie-taking. The abundance of overhead lights meant that, notwithstanding I positioned my body, I was always casting a shadow on the portrait.

Thus, once I finished drawing, I came dorsum to my night apartment to snap a photo.

Afterwards my lite-seeking take a chance, hither'south what I was able to accomplish.

Today, I merely had ten minutes to draw, and then I spent all x darkening the pilus and eyebrows on my self-portrait, until they were as blackness as I could get them.

This greatly improved the portrait in two ways:

The relative tones of the face to the hair are much more authentic now, which helps with realism.
The shape of the hair on the left side of the portrait wasn't quite right, so this gave me the run a risk to fix it.

Here's the before…

And the after

At first, the blackness of the hair is a bit jarring, but it accurately represents the "exposure" I'm going for (where the hair is emitting no lite, and thus, shows upwards as pure blackness).

Although today's darkening session improved things, the portrait still seems a bit odd and unbalanced because of the nakedness of the mouth and cheek. I'll get-go tackling those areas tomorrow.

Yesterday, I declared that today I would starting time working on the mouth and cheek areas of my self-portrait. And yet, somehow, the day is over, and the oral fissure and cheek areas are still naked.

Instead, I got caught up making micro-changes to the parts of the portrait I've already worked on (the optics, nose, forehead, etc.). It seems I tin can make small improvements forever.

This is clearly not the right arroyo. Particularly because… As I begin shading the mouth, I volition need to make adjustments to the nose surface area, so everything fits together. Equally I begin shading the cheek, I volition need to brand adjustments to the center area, so everything fits together. And so on.

Perhaps, I'one thousand only stalling out of fear: Once the mouth and cheek are developed, I'll take a much better thought if the portrait is whatsoever proficient.

If I am fearful, I definitely need to get over it.

To do so, tomorrow, I'll focus, not on perfectly detailing the mouth and cheek, but instead, broadly blocking in the right tonal values.

With the general tones in place, I'll have plenty momentum to push the portrait towards completion.

Today, I spent an hour developing out the rest of my cocky-portrait.

Information technology went from looking similar this…

To looking like this.

It'southward starting to look like me, only it still looks similar a drawing — mostly because I haven't composite the newly developed areas like the neck, cheek, mouth, ear, forehead, etc. Pretty much the whole affair.

I've been holding off on the blending because my blending stump is unusably dingy.

Tomorrow, I'll go swing by the art store and pick up a few fresh ones.

I picked upward some new blending stumps today, and went to work smoothing the value changes over my confront and neck. Here'southward the result…

When compared with the before, the divergence is pretty striking. In the before portrait, I look like a sickly, pencil-sketched version of myself, while the after version has a much nicer roundness and weight to it.

Tomorrow, I'll make some small-scale tweaks, sign information technology, and hang information technology on the wall.

24 days agone, to kick off December's challenge, I tried to draw a self-portrait.

Then, over the next iii.5 weeks, I completed a 10-hour drawing form, drew a few other people, and so spent viii hours on a new self-portrait.

Here are the earlier and after.

And here'southward a fourth dimension-lapse of the 8 hours of cartoon.

I'm happy with the result, and actually think the cocky-portrait looks a lot like me.

Tomorrow, I'll write upward a more thorough critique. But until then, I'one thousand declaring this month'southward challenge a success.

Yesterday, I declared this calendar month's challenge a success, noting the differences between my before and after cocky-portraits.

And while my most recent self-portrait is a major improvement, and does wait very much similar me, I still practice have some quick disquisitional thoughts on it, which I've broken down into two parts: 1. Likeness and 2. Artistry.

1. Likeness

Overall, the likeness is strong. The portrait unequivocally looks like me. Although, it isn't perfect.
My expression/emotion in the portrait is plausibly mine, particularly in the optics.
The shape of hair near the ear and dorsum of the caput is very accurate. Yet, the pilus line doesn't seem completely right, and it'southward probably the second biggest reason why the portrait doesn't look perfectly like me. The pilus line should probably come down on the forehead and should be less rounded. When I snapped a photograph of myself (on which I based this portrait), I had just gotten a shorter-than-normal haircut, which is probably why I'chiliad not used to the haircut I drew.
On paper, I feel I captured the olfactory organ perfectly, but, as a result of the shadow, it may seem slightly also pocket-sized/brusk. To address this, I could accept accentuated the tonal deviation between the cheek and the shadowed role of the nose, but I wanted to remain as tonally accurate as possible and chose not to.
I'm very happy with how the neck turned out. Its weight and main features (the Adam'due south apple and the notch at my collar line) seem accurate.
There is something odd about the ear. Information technology seems a chip out of place.
The eyebrows may be the slightest fleck sparse, only they are very close to reality.
The biggest potential miss is my cheek. While I do have prominent cheeks when I smile (which I'chiliad not doing hither), I also take a fairly slender face and a reasonably defined jaw. Depending on how I wait at the cheek, it sometimes appears too round and too full. Other times, when I look at the portrait, my eye renders this expanse properly. If annihilation, I probably could accept fabricated the bottom of the face (in the rolling shadow) a bit more than angular.

Nevertheless, even with these critiques in isolation, the portrait as a whole comes together nicely and captures a strong likeness. Thus, I've left it as is, since I care more about an overall likeness (versus a non-cohesive collection of individually accurate features).

2. Artistry

Before I drew my self-portrait, I drew a portrait of Derren Brown.

This portrait has ii big advantages over my self-portrait: 1. The tonal range over the confront is much greater, and two. The midtone of the confront matches the tone of the paper.

With my cocky-portrait, I strayed from both of these advantages. For one, on purpose. For the other, less and so.

1. Narrow tonal range

Purposefully, I chose to base of operations my cocky-portrait on a photo with a tighter tonal range, since I wanted to claiming and push my abilities (Drawing a portrait with heavy contrast requires less subtly and is, in my opinion, easier).

Arguably, the contrast of the Derren Chocolate-brown portrait makes it a more visually compelling portrait, but this is another topic completely (first, I wanted to principal accurate portraiture earlier tackling well-composed portraiture).

Fifty-fifty with the narrow tonal range, my self-portrait still maintains a conceivable roundness and depth.

two. Nighttime midtones

Less purposefully, I chose a photograph where the midtone of my confront was darker than the paper.

This was a bit of a mistake, merely a good learning opportunity. Every bit a upshot of this decision, unlike with my Derren portrait, I had to pencil-shade the mid-tones on my face, leading to a slightly dirtier portrait. (In the case with Derren, where there were midtones, I left the blank paper untouched and clean).

Particularly before I smoothed out my face, information technology looked as if I had simply been cleaning chimneys.

While the Derren Brown portrait (with its ultra-contrasty tonal range) may be a more dynamic portrait, my self portrait seems closer to photorealism, which is the primary improvement I was aiming for.

Overall, I'm very happy with the result.

After spending near a month learning to draw portraits, I'thousand more convinced than ever that anyone can draw. Fifty-fifty if yous don't have any artistic talent.

To me, cartoon is a bit like doing your laundry. Before y'all practise it for the first time, you lot experience it's much more complicated than information technology really is, and thus, you experience incapable of trying. Then, you're shown that doing your laundry is only a matter of putting your clothes in the auto, pouring in some soap, and clicking a push button. Much easier than you idea.

Information technology turns out drawing is very like. From the outside, information technology seems much more complex than it actually is. Notwithstanding, one time you learn the two or three basic principles, drawing (at least, at my level) becomes about as straight forward equally doing your laundry.

In fact, in social club to draw a reasonable portrait, you merely need to know the two post-obit skills:

1. Triangulation

two. "Outside-in" Shading

One time y'all're equipped with these 2 techniques, y'all'll be gear up to follow the "Portrait Cartoon Cheat Sheet" and draw your offset portrait.

You'll be surprised at how well it goes. I know I was…

Every bit I mentioned at the starting time of this month, British illusionist Derren Chocolate-brown originally inspired me to starting time drawing portraits. In fact, to acknowledge this inspiration, Derren was the subject of my first portrait.

However, Derren didn't inspire me with his drawings, only rather, his paintings, like these…

Of grade, these paintings are congenital on a prerequisite foundation of drawing, simply they also introduce a whole new skill fix that I would beloved to cultivate.

Watching Derren paint, it seems like there are clear parallels between shading a drawing and painting a portrait: He sets a mid-tone color, adds the lights and darks, works his way towards the middle, and then adds detail.

At that place are as well conspicuously major differences, like evaluating and mixing colors, full general painting hygiene (letting paint dry, etc.), and all-time practices I'm probably not yet enlightened of.

And while this seems like a major bound from my drawing studies, I now have the creative conviction to attempt a painting like this, without whatever (or very little) additional instruction.

In the coming months, I plan to showtime sketching a portrait on canvass, and and so experimenting with pigment.

Last month, I memorized a shuffled deck of cards in under two minutes, which required obsessive, consequent practice. If I were to stop practicing, over time I would lose this skill.

Notwithstanding, I don't recall the same is true for my newly-found drawing skills. Mostly because… I didn't learn anything new this month.

Well, that'south not exactly right. While I didn't cultivate any new drawing-enabled motor skills or creative skills, I did learned to structure my already-existing skills inside of a improve drawing process.

In other words, if I tin can retrieve the process, which, in my stance, only depends on ii very straightforward insights, I will always be able to describe at the level I can at present.

In twenty years, even if I don't practice from now until then, every bit long every bit I tin can retrieve triangulation and outside-in shading, I will exist able to fully replicate my results from this month.

I call back that's a pretty cool thing, so look out for my Medium post in 20 years.

On December 1st, I drew this.

26 hours of practice later, I drew this.

In other words, afterward practicing for about an 60 minutes per solar day for 26 days, I majorly improved my portrait drawing skills.

Last month, it but took me 22 hours to become a grandmaster of retentiveness.

I think this is going to be a theme for the entire Calendar month to Master project: If my practice is deliberate and consistent, it'southward going to take a lot less time than expected to chief these seemingly good-level skills.

The trick, so, is to create a mechanism to force deliberate and consistent exercise month later on month. This is the difficult part about learning these new skills, not the time required.

Something to remember about every bit yous start planning your 2022 resolutions…

Today, I flew from San Francisco to Florida to run across up with my family unit for a few days. I'll be here until Jan 4th.

I left all my drawing supplies behind, so I'thousand definitely not drawing any more this month.

I did, however, bring a Rubik's Cube with me in training for January's challenge (which starts in 2 days).

I'm definitely eager to start a new challenge, since I like the thought of always being in pursuit of something (which mayhap suggests that I need to acquire how to relax). Withal, instead, these by two months, I've finished both challenges on Day 24 (of the calendar month), and thus, needed to await, without a claiming, for a calendar week, until the next ane began/begins.

Should I simply start the adjacent challenge in one case I stop the previous one? I'm not sure. On one hand, this seems reasonable and time-efficient. On the other hand, there is something very tidy about starting on the first of each calendar month.

Clearly, I have some amount of obsessive compulsiveness going on, merely I'm curious to know what you think…

Should I wait for the first of each month to offset a new challenge, and enjoy my few days of relaxing (if available), or should I only use my extra time towards future challenges and start immediately?

Let me know.

Today, to celebrate the New year's day, I decided to compile my personal highlights from 2022, which includes Month to Chief, simply also everything else from my life.

Rather than writing another M2M post today, I'll encourage y'all to check out that post if you lot're interested.

This post is part of Max's twelvemonth-long accelerated learning projection, Month to Master.

Max Deutsch is the co-founder of Monthly — an online instruction platform that partners with some of the world's biggest YouTubers to create one-calendar month, highly-immersive online classes.

If you want to follow along with Max'southward year-long accelerated learning project, make sure to follow this Medium account.

For exclusive content on accelerated learning, discipline, and lifestyle design, subscribe to my in one case-in-a-while newsletter.

Source: https://medium.com/@maxdeutsch/how-i-learned-to-draw-realistic-portraits-in-only-30-days-3fb8e8eccee0

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