Guidelines For Pencil Portrait Drawing - Drawing Kids Article

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Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Drawing - Drawing Kids

In this commentary we talk about the rendering of kids. Although the basic techniques for rendering a child are the same as for an adult, there are certain proportions and shapes that are decidedly different.

Author: Robert Thomson

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The drawing of children demands freshness and directness of purpose. Regrettably, there are not too many quick and ready rules. Let us just say that kids' portraits demand a keen and patient eye.

For those who intend to do commercial portraiture the good news is that kids' portraits can be rewarding. There are very few draftspersons who can competently render children.

Soft lighting works best for portraits of children. The child could be looking toward a bright light source. This sort of light source will light up the child's face and produce an introspective facial appearance. The tone stretch goes from light to medium with the eyes very dark.

Addressing the facial proportions of children in a general sense is somewhat of a waste of time. Their facial proportions change dramatically within a six month time span.

Suffice it to say that the younger the child is the smaller the face in relation to the skull. The eyes also appear larger although this can be misleading. A child’s nose can be a nightmare to render – there is nothing really to hold onto. And the mouth is extremely fine the same width of an eye. Again, we must emphasize that these proportions are only a general rule and individual face proportions can vary. The above general rules can be made use of for comparison purposes when you do your own careful observations of a particular face.

As always, start your drawing by striking the arabesque and then correcting the height/width proportions as necessary.

After establishing the primary facial proportions (i.e., the brow, nose, mouth, etc.) block-in the major light/dark patterns. Then, stump down the graphite using your fingers or a stump. To render and re-shape the lights employ a clean putty eraser.

Now the features are carefully placed, sized and partially drawn. There are two things to take into account here:

1. Your pencils must be real sharp, and

2. At this stage, you should never fully complete a feature. Draw each feature no more than 50%.

Once the features are sized and placed as best you can, you can now further develop them. Do not neglect the hair and sides of the face. Everything should be advanced together. As you continue to render you should always be on the lookout for errors in proportions and tone.

In conclusion, the basic processes made use of to render a child's portrait are of course always the same. Above, we listed most of the differences in proportion and form between an adult skull and that of a child. Your frame of mind when drawing a child should be one that reflects the innocence and the softness of a child.

About Author

Download my brand new Free Pencil Portrait Sketching Tutorial here: Pencil Portrait Sketching Tutorial. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: http://www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Instructions on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Rendering Children.

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Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Drawing - Drawing Kids