First attempt to draw a portrait

Hello people, I'm Kevin and recently I wanted to get into drawing because I figured out it would greatly help myself in 3D modelling later as I am interested in it very much. So I tried drawing a portrait of Megan Fox. Below is the final drawing.

I need your opinions, critiques and comments, thank you very much!




The reference image

Looks like you have an idea of shading, unfortunately thats the only half way decent thing I see. Don't get discouraged though, learning to draw takes PATIENCE! The proportions are way off. Learn to grid by following tutorials on this website. This is my advice to get started. If you don't have the proportions of the face correct it will not look like the reference. After you get the proportions down then you can work on shading. Just keep drawing and you will learn a little more each drawing.

I thought I could see a faint grid...but it's way to big! The smaller the grid the more accurate. If you like drawing hair this will be to your advantage! Hair is very time consuming and monotonous, in my opinion. I just finished the Aishwarya Rai not to long ago, it should be on the last page of the thread...check it out if you like.

Better than my first portrait drawing

One thing that may help you in the beginning is the use of a ruler. this way you can get the exact proportions. As you draw compare and see where you stand.

One thing I would suggest is looking closely to see where the shadow and tone is on her face, for example the cheek you mentioned was too large, even if you got the correct proportions it would still look wrong because there is a shadow from her ear going almost to her mouth. With the shading you have done, it will always look like she has a round chubby cheek, no matter the proportions.

When I draw portraits I do not actually Grid at all (probably to my detriment) But I literally only copy the shadows and the tone, I know that if I was good enough to copy the shadow and tone perfectly it would be a perfect copy of the picture. I do not outline the face or any of the features, I outline where the shadow is and then fill it in. This way will help you loads with 3D modelling as the shows and tones of the the face generally determine the form of the person. A good idea would be to draw a picture of someone with only one source of light on them. I did 3D modelling as well and I found this technique a great way to learn.

Very good first try! You just need to do more of them.

As for gridding when I draw I use a smaller squares 1/4 for the whole drawing. Put the lines on very light I use a no 2 pencil for my lines, then you can draw and blend over them with out seeing them when your finished. Nothing will make you madder when you finish a good drawing and can still see the squares. The smaller the squares the more detail you can focus on in the square. Use large photos wallpaper size so you can see lots of detail and Greyscale the photo. If your not drawing in color then dont use a color photo. ITs really just trial and error you do what works for you.

That s a great first attempt, but like others said the proportions are off. I would still incourage you to free sketch portraits from time to time, especially if it is just a random person and it doesnt have to be exact. This way you can still complete a good drawing but you'll know to yourself how close or far off you were at nailing the proportions.

If you going to draw someone famous, I would almost always grid or use some other method of finding landmarks. That is unless you are going for a more sketch like style.

Another thing with the grid is that you still need to treat the entire area as a whole, other wise you will get lost and still end up with skewed proportions.