How To Improve Your Portrait Drawing – Expert Tips For Drawing Beginners! ️

Do you want to learn how to improve your portrait drawing skills to the next level?

Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced artist looking to refine your craft, this guide will share top-tier tips and proven techniques to help you master the art of portraiture.

You’ll uncover practical advice to elevate your drawing precision, enhance realism, and bring more life and emotion into your portraits. By following these insights, you’ll not only improve your drawing abilities but also improve your art too!

Dive in to explore strategies for perfecting proportions, capturing likeness, and creating dynamic shading that adds depth and dimension to your portraits.

Whether you’re aiming to develop your artistic style or achieve photo-realistic results, this article is packed with invaluable tips to transform your approach and inspire your creative journey.

If you prefer to watch instead of read, head on over to my The Portrait Guru YouTube channel, where I discuss everything portraits!

Study and Draw from Life  

Nothing compares to the depth and detail you can capture when drawing from life. 

Observing a person in real life will help improve your drawing skill much better than drawing from photographs.

You can study subtle shifts in lighting, textures, and expressions that photos often flatten or miss entirely.

The dynamic nature of drawing from life sharpens your observation skills and improves your ability to translate three-dimensional forms onto a 2D surface. 

Attend untutored or tutored life drawing sessions to practise sketching portraits, and let the work of other artists in these settings inspire you. If life classes aren’t available, drawing your family or friends in your sketchbook is another excellent way to build your drawing skills. If you take just one element away from this how to improve your portrait drawing, make sure it’s this one!

I’d love to hear from you! What’s one common problem or challenge you’ve encountered while drawing portraits? Drop me a comment below – share your experiences, questions or thoughts.

Master Facial Features Individually

Breaking down and studying each facial feature can transform your portrait work. 

For example, learn the anatomy of the eye, including the shape of the eyeball, eyelids, and tear ducts. Understanding these components helps you draw realistic eyes that sit naturally on the face. 

Similarly, study the planes of the nose—from the bridge and nostrils to the sides and base—and notice how light interacts with these surfaces. 

The mouth has distinct sections too: the upper lip, lower lip, and the corners where subtle folds and shadows often add expression. Mastering these details will make your portraits more lifelike and cohesive.

Practice Proportions and Guidelines

Proportions are the backbone of any accurate portrait.

Learning the basics, like the Loomis method or learning from artistic masters, ensures your features are placed correctly. For example, eyes should sit halfway down the head, with the width between them matching the width of one eye. 

But it doesn’t stop there—study the structure of the cranium and how it informs the shape and positioning of the face.

Use a vertical line to establish symmetry and a horizontal line to determine where features like the eyes, nose, and mouth will sit. These foundational steps provide a roadmap for your portrait, making the process more intuitive and accurate.  

Practice Drawing Exercises

Drawing exercises can seem irrelevant to portrait work, but they build essential skills. 

Practising basic shapes like spheres, cubes, and cylinders improves your understanding of form and volume, which are crucial for rendering facial features in three dimension. 

Exercises in shape design enhance your ability to simplify complex forms, while practising with negative space helps train your eyes to see proportions and relationships more clearly.

These foundational skills naturally translate into stronger, more confident portrait work. Check out this video for more tips and guidance on drawing exercises. 

Analyse Each Portrait You Draw

Take the time to analyse your work. Scan your drawings, trace around the reference photograph, and overlay it onto your drawing to compare proportions and alignment. 

This process helps you see what you’ve done well and what needs improvement.

This allows you to notice your mistakes and adjust your approach for future work.

It’s a fast and effective way to teach yourself while building self-awareness as an artist.  

Position your sketchpad at an angle

Position your sketchpad at an angle instead of drawing directly on a flat desk. 

This is particularly helpful when drawing from a photograph or real-life reference, as it allows you to capture proportions and details more effectively. 

Keeping the distance between your paper and reference as close as possible will also help maintain accuracy and improve your overall workflow.

When you’re at a life drawing session or drawing from a live model, position your drawing paper upright and aim to make your drawings larger.

A common mistake beginners often make is drawing too small, which can limit your ability to capture the full details and proportions of the subject. Drawing bigger allows you to focus on more on the overall face and create a more accurate representation.

If you’re finding these tips helpful, don’t forget to hit the like button and subscribe for more drawing tutorials. It really helps support the channel and keeps you updated on all my latest content!

Create Thumbnail Sketches

Make it a habit to create frequent value studies or thumbnail sketches to break down the portrait into its simplest components.

I recommend doing this before you start any portrait, as it allows you to experiment with shapes, values, and composition without the pressure of working on the final piece.

These quick, small sketches, which can be done in your sketchbook, help refine the composition and give you a clearer understanding of the key values and proportions before committing to the full portrait. 

I’ll admit, I’ve skipped this step myself at times, so this is a tip I’m reminding myself of too!

Draw Upside Down

To spot mistakes or errors in your work, turn your drawing and reference upside down.

This technique forces you to focus on shapes and relationships rather than relying on familiar patterns or features, making errors easier to identify. 

Drawing upside down tricks your brain into seeing the subject not as a portrait, but as a series of shapes and angles. This shift in perspective helps you focus on the structure rather than the familiar features, allowing you to spot mistakes more easily.

You’ll be surprised at how this simple technique can improve your accuracy and the overall outcome!

Additionally, taking photos of your work or holding it up to a mirror can provide a fresh perspective and highlight areas that may need adjustment.

With these tips and consistent practice, you’ll see your portrait drawing improve significantly! If you enjoyed this article on how to improve your portrait drawing skills, check out this article to help you learn 2 point perspective.

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