Portrait drawings using grid system has made much simpler. Below illustrated my work from a photographic source, using pencil as the medium. This digital photograph is a profile portrait from a friend in my Facebook. She has given me an opportunity to demonstrate on previous blog: Why Portrait Drawing Using Grid Lines is The Best Practice?.

As you can see in the illustration of a profile portrait, it is probably an easier choice. Most of the attention is focused on the outline of the face. In addition, it made any students to have some challenge drawing with only single eye exists in the portrait. Ideally, it does help to build confidence in portrait drawing with moderate difficulty.

1. Grid lines are drawn on the photograph using software editing tools, like Photoshop or GIMP. Alternatively, you can print it out and use a fine pen to outline it. I actually draw the portrait direct from the laptop display. Disable the screensaver, otherwise you will be irritated every 5 minutes of your artwork.
2. Since this photograph is 480 x 480 square pixels , what you have to do next is to square up your drawing paper of any size. Mine was 8.5″ x 8.5″. For grid system, a long scaled ruler is the most essential tool. And be reminded to use 2H pencil to draw the grid lines very lightly.
3. Mathematically, size of your material is not a factor, because ratio is applied to scale up your chosen portrait photos to your desired drawings paper. Based on your existing length of drawing paper, divide this dimension by the number of squares appear in the digital photograph. If digital photo showing 10-squares grid, make sure you are not using 9-square grid to divide the paper length. I have mine with 8.5″ divide by 5-square grid, resulting per square size of 1.7″. Some grid lines are visible if you look closely.
4. I started my drawings from the profile of the forehead to the chin. And some lines to draft out the hair. Always justify your point of drawing within a small square grid, it doesn’t carry any meaning though. Apparently, drawing the portrait will start to picture clearly with more lines are being filled. With these initial steps, any student will feel more confidence and wanting to continue with drawings using grid system.
5. The eye will demand slightly more attention, since there are the main feature of every portrait drawings.  Having smaller square grids concentrated on this portion may help, however, not too encouraging for a beginner to learn free hand. It also makes the drawing messier

Having describing on how I use grid system for portrait drawing, it will be nice to see feedback on what I have completed.  Perhaps, you may want to contribute your photo portrait artwork in here?

Grid Systems Portrait Drawings

Profile Portrait Drawings

Photo Portrait, Courtesy of Megumi Kubo

Facebook Open Group for Photo Portrait Painting. Free to join and support this group

Similar illustration posted here

Most of the beginners who learn to draw realistic people are not natural artist. They don’t see the reality of the world around them, they also don’t place the portrait features in correct proportionality. You may encounter problems at the start of every practices, while staring at the piece of white drawing paper. At times, asking yourself questions as in where should be the starting point in drawing people, the features of the portrait, the eyes, nose, facial, etc. Its mainly about finding causes for why it is so difficult to draw realistic people. How should you organize visual information into understandable patterns, or fundamental knowledge about perceptions. There are two factors to understand about perceptions,

1. Perception as filters through which you see the people, and

2. Perception changes on how to make you see and draw accurately.

Perception as filters through which you see people. It comes naturally to every learners. You will recognize every people looks differently. Looking at the photographs of your close friends, you know the one standing on your right side is Billy, where the one on your left is Jane. Memory plays an important role as well. You are able to differentiate their facial features and shapes clearly. Processing the visual information through memorizing, recognizing and filtering what is necessary, while others are refer as redundancy. The more identical any two person are, the more specific you have to segregate, absorb and memorize the right information in your perception. Are you able to distinguish the difference between 2 identical twin siblings? That will be a challenge to every portrait artists who wanted to perceive and draw out the correct features of people.

Thus, for an untrained mind will based on memorized patterns or shapes. Features like people must have the nose, eyes, mouth, lips, etc. Memorized patterns are rather standard and simple drawings representing the portrait faces. These that I have mentioned are the fundamental requirement to understand how a non-artist process information, not about techniques to draw accurately.

Perception on how to make you see and draw accurately. Second factor is about how you should change and improve the drawing from the way you have memorized. Perception don’t change easily, unless there is a drastic difference that make you realize the way it looks. The idea must be in tangible manner; factual and not fictional. Real people that you are seeing, not based on memory from the past, or the standard patterns on how kid doodle a face with a pencil. It involved more technical aspect and detailing to achieve realization, thus, allowing perception to change. Two best methods are to look at the real person, face-to-face in a realistic way. And drawing people from a clear photograph in your album. Never try to imagine, look at it constantly. Breakdown and analyze the way you perceive, repeated comparisons between features of realist people and your memorized patterns. Realize and correct; improve and assemble only the filtered information in your thoughts. Then interpret the visual information into drawings. Then you will be able to draw it accurately. Always look at it.

Through this, you will improve naturally without having troubled thoughts on why drawing people is difficult. With the above two factors on perceptions of drawing people, what comes next is about disciplines and practicing. Eventually, its makes you perfect.

Full length portrait in photography, allows you to show your subject in an entirely different way from the more classical, tighter, close-up compositions. The key difference from other type of portrait is to capture the wholeness of subject, while keeping the subject focused from the surrounding. Detail of facial expression will be less emphasized, however, it allows you to incorporate with the environment as background, be it indoor or outdoor. Additionally, it provides the freedom to explore stance, posing and body language.

The list of possible poses and variations on those poses is almost endless. The challenge to compose a full length portrait is how to creatively fill the frame. Below, I have highlighted 3 key points.

Firstly, subject does not necessarily restricted to standing position. Other poses that you may want the model can be sitting, lying down, or kneeling. Perhaps, the arrangement of your model’s limbs and the angle of shoulders and their position in the frame.

Legs can be straight or crossed, hands can go into pockets or behind the back and arms can be stretched out of folded. Other poses, like making use of wall or posts, and asking your model to lean against it. All this makes up good composition for full length portrait, conveying body languages in an outwardly expression. Whatever you decide to do with your subject contributes to the same factors for close up composition can have, that is detail of facial expression.

Secondly, challenge on creatively fill the frame depends on the relationship between your model and the background. When the composition is tight it is relatively easy to make the background incidental, but when you have the whole person featured it becomes more difficult. Beside engaging the use of depth-of-field for SLR camera, basic photographic composition still applies. Such as inclusive of the foreground, mid and background will impact the composition of full length portrait as an entirety.

The last one that you have to take into account of is the costume the model has to put on, in order to feature an appropriateness with the selected background and theme. For examples, portrait depicting an Elizabeth era; your subject should not dress up in an 21^st century fashion that totally not fit into the theme. Basically, this may be subjective because it also depends on what you intended to convey the message to your viewer.

In all types portraiture it takes time to establish your own style. With fewer conventions about this kind of portrait you are likely to feel a lot less certain, when you start to experiment, but most photographers quickly learn to enjoy the freedom presented by full-length portraits.

Full Length Portrait (Standing, with High Contrast Background)

Full Length Portrait (Sitting, with a Simple Background)

Image Credit: Flickr