Portrait of a Girl

Every artist has a story behind their art. Sometimes only a pencil can give life to blank paper. This particular portrait is of a special friend. I am expressing my gratitude for this life-long friend.

To make a good sketch, to make it more real, both the black color of pencil and white of a sheet is to be used to make certain areas more contrasting than the others. I have tried to demonstrate that in this instructable.

Its actually a simple sketch. I have drawn it on a simple paper. To give the light-effected shadings, I have put my fingers to good use.

In the beginning it was very hard for me to make my sketches look like a human face. ART IS A MATTER OF PATIENCE! It requires complete focus. Start by drawing something you like.

Things I have used:

A blank sheet of paper

Standard drawing pencil

Eraser

My fingers

Patience

Everyone has a different way of starting a sketch. Some people tend to draw the eyes first. I however like to draw the outline first. In this particular sketch I have started with the hair. Just draw some straight lines with your pencil. Give it a rough structure. You can fix it later with an eraser or even by make it hazy with your finger.

Draw a rough outline of the face. It doesn't have to be perfect. Also draw the eyes. Make sure to draw light strokes with your pencil so that there won't be any mark left if you try to erase. We'll darken the whole thing while giving it the finishing touches.

Its easy. Just try to make a human nose! The lips are a bit hard to draw(I have a hard time staring at others lips!). Don't worry, It'll take some time to get them to a perfect shape. And as I told you, Art is about patience.

Forget drawing light strokes, Its time to get dark! Draw deep strokes so as to make the hair look real. And remember, you need to draw long strokes because she has long hair!

Also, to make it more contrasting, you can make the hair near the face darker than the rest. You may also notice that in this step, I have used my fingers to blend the eyes and nose and the lips with the rest of the face.

For shading, scribble with light pencil strokes, in the portion you want to darken, then use your fingers to blend it with the surrounding area. You'll have to clean your finger from time to time. Do the shading in a way which will show that light is falling on her face from one direction only.

In the last step I had already drawn a rough structure. In this step, Its time to fill the eyes and lips with more carbon to bring it back to life. Draw the eyes with loads of patience. Don't forget to draw the eyebrows. Use combinations of dark and light strokes to make the iris of the eyeball. That will make it more real. For the lips, draw 2-3 dark lines in between the two lips. Then start spreading the lead in either direction. You want to make it look real.

Hair: I have drawn some long dark strokes on the rest of the hair. It looks contrasting on the rest of the hair.

Face: The cheeks need to be white in order to show the reflection of light. The forehead is also showing the same property.

Neck: I have drawn this sketch assuming that light is falling on her face from a ceiling light which is just over her head. So, the neck has become dark because her head is blocking all the light.