Guidelines For Pencil Portrait Sketching - Sculptural Sensibility Mode

There are many modes of drawing: linear, value-wise, gestural, etc. In this article we will center on carving out shape with a sculptural feeling.

This approach to drawing is very much like working with clay except that we are sketching on paper, of course, and using our fingers, a stump, tissue, and the putty eraser as our painting tools.

As always, begin with drawing the construct and establishing the crucial proportions of the facial region.

Before hatching-in the key light/dark patterns you should squint and look at the model or the photo. Squinting distills the lights and darks into uncomplicated patterns of one given value because it obscures the details.

At this stage, just concern yourself with the large masses, maybe even just two, a light one and a dark one. Do not yet attempt to break down the darks at this stage.

Sketching in this way is also excellent training for painting because this is how you build up a painting especially when using the One Stroke method of painting.

Sketching, painting, and sculpture are additive/subtractive enterprises. You first add something and then you take something away, all the while proceeding towards the final sketch.

You also will use your putty eraser to take out the lights. When doing this pay careful consideration to the anatomical structures; every shape signifies a muscle.

We all have our individual preferences about how we draw. At this stage, you may prefer to refine the construct and hone in on the facial features. Other artists will continue working tonally without any line drawing. As you add skill and grow as an artist you will make your own choices. That is what art making is: choices - good and bad.

Now that we have the fundamentals down including the overall proportions, we can start resolving the darks and the lights. The idea is to go for the "full stretch" of values, i.e., from the darkest darks to the lightest light.

Starting and intermediate artists often fail to go for the full value stretch. Quite often the reason for this is the fear of ruining their drawing and also because they have read, or been told, not to overwork the drawing.

As a student you should take a drawing as far as you possibly can, even to the point of collapse. That way you will learn exactly how far you can go. If you always stop short you will never know what lies beyond.

Use your fingers, a tissue, and a stump to blend the values. The best thing is to start dividing each large value mass into two separate smaller masses of different values wherever your observations tell you there is a difference in value to be made. Keep in mind the varying planes and the anatomy of the subject's features.

The hair is kept dark and simple with only a few lines of the putty eraser to suggest the unkempt locks of hair. Do not overdo these lines or they will look bleached.

In closing, when using the sculptural approach to drawing a pencil portrait always treat your tools as if they were brushes. Imagine as much as possible that you are painting instead of drawing. Always remember the anatomy and the varying plane bearings that you observe in your subject. Always draw from the general to the specific or from the large to the small. As you acquire more expertise, try to remember the things that work for you and incorporate them in your style of drawing.

By: Roberto Bell

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