Friday, April 6, 2012

How to Draw a Self Portrait


How to Draw a Self Portrait

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Want a sketched picture of yourself by yourself? This takes time and practice, but the outcome is rewarding enough.


Steps

  1. Take a picture of yourself, against a plain wall that makes your features stand out, or get a drop cloth, you are going to want someone to take several pictures for you in several different facial expressions to get a nice picture of yourself.
  2. Get a good large enough piece of paper and a drawing tool of your choice, like pencil, charcoal, or ink.


  3. Draw outlines, lightly, of your major features, like face shape, shape of the hair, and eyes/nose. Your eyes should be 1/2way down your face.


  4. Add shadows and using your fingers or a smearing tool to smear and the eraser to remove some, when used correctly will start to look realistic.


  5. For the hair, you will just have to draw each 'thick line' and adding shadows, highlights, etc.


  6. Keep adding and removing the shadows/lines, until you are finished.


  7. Find a frame that fits it nicely, and erase the pencil smudges around your portrait to look professional and put it in a frame.


  8. Hang if desired.


Tips

  • Buy a drawing/sketching school book and read it, do the exercises to practice so you understand the shadowing and contour linings.
  • Scan it to save a copy on a thumb drive/USB/travel drive so if the original gets destroyed or something there's a backup.

Warnings

  • Be careful when erasing the pencil smudging off so you don't rip the paper.

Things You'll Need

  • Drawing tool, like pencils/charcoal/ink
  • Good eraser.
  • Sturdy clean drawing paper
  • Sharpener

Related wikiHows

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