One type of artwork that has always been in high demand is the hand drawn portrait. People who are not particularly talented in the arts often wish that they would be able to draw like the masters. While your hand drawn portraits may not produce images that look 100% like the subject, there are several ways that an unskilled or inexperienced person can create a beautiful portrait. For this project you will need paper, poster board, pencils, eraser, T-square or yardstick, ruler, photograph, scanner.
One of the first techniques to creating a realistic portrait is to trace the image from a photograph. This is cheating, you may say, but if it is for your home and personal use that doesn't matter. In fact, tracing is a great way to familiarize yourself with the pencil strokes needed to be a freehand artist, and it will also help you to familiarize yourself with the curvatures and structures of the human form. Your first step in the tracing project is to find a photograph of the subject that you want to draw. I don't recommend tracing directly from a photograph as this will leave pressure marks on the photo's surface. Instead make a photocopy of the image that you want to trace. If you have photo-imaging software you may also want to delete the background of the photograph to make tracing easier.
Once you have your photocopy or printout of your subject in hand, your next step is to tape down the print to a drawing board, a piece of cardboard, or even to your tabletop. This will prevent the image from slipping out of place while you are trying to trace it. Your next step is to tape the upper side of your blank sheet of paper to the board so that the blank paper lies directly over the secured print. This again is intended to reduce slippage and to maintain alignment throughout the tracing project.
Once set up, make sure that you have plenty of light, sharp pencils, and erasers available. Start the tracing process, pressing lightly as you reproduce the major outlines of your selected print. Refer to the original print by gently lifting the top page and revealing the original print. This is a similar process to what animators do when they are animating a sequence. After you have all the major lines documented on your blank paper you may need to remove the traced page from the board so you can work on the fine details. Fine details are more difficult to trace because they don't show through the paper as easily as the major outlines of the figure do. To draw the fine details and shade your portrait you will use your traced outlines as guides to locate where the details should be placed. Use your ruler to measure distances between reference points and detail locations.
After you have completed your drawing allow it to breathe overnight before sealing it with a fixative. I recommend this step because pencil lead smears easily and your artwork could be damaged if someone touches the drawing, or even if other papers are placed on top of it. Smudges, smears, and stains are all elements that could damage your hard work so take the extra precautions to ensure that your art is preserved.