Portrait Drawing Tips

Why drawing a sphere is important for portrait drawing

As a Drawing Academy tutor, I often receive portrait drawings for critiques. Many beginner artists have the same mistake in common - they lack one fundamental skill - drawing simple geometric objects. Here's just one example - a human head has many features that can be approximated as semi-spherical surfaces, such as the tip of a nose, forehead, chin, cheeks, lobules of ears, etc. If an artist has troubles with drawing a simple sphere from life and depicting its tonal values the right way, there is no hope one could draw a portrait realistically. You may think that drawing a sphere is a very easy task. If so, can you name 9 tonal values you need to pay attention to or tell which way to apply contours so they reveal the 3D construction of an object? These rules are fully applicable not just for spheres, but also for portraits. To learn good drawing skills, including constructive drawings, contours and tonal rendering, take the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course

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