Pencil Portrait

to commission a pencil portrait

A clear high-resolution photograph is essential to work from, especially with a close-up portrait in a large format. The above photo is an excellent example, with a good composition.

Although the true likeness is achieved later, a grid helps the artist enlarge the photo while keeping accurate proportions. A digital grid is placed over the photo and then drawn faintly on the paper using the same number of squares. Next, the portrait is tranferred bit by bit onto the paper and the pencil grid removed with a "putty rubber" which leaves the paper clean. Finally the artist touches up the image to produce the preliminary line drawing. Using a grid does not guarantee complete accuracy, however - a "good eye" is still needed. Because our brains are programmed to recognise facial details, the minutest error will stand out for the customer.

As the artist is right handed, the drawing progresses from the left to avoid accidental smudging. Above you can see beginnings of the portrait. With large pencil portraits like this, the faces are very detailed. Individual hairs and even skin blemishes are visible in the photo. On the ear and cheek, the smallest faintest strokes were used, while the hair used a sharp hard pencil along with the softer one. The putty rubber can be gently applied to take off the softer pencil layers for convincing highlights, and may be moulded into a point for minute areas. A cotton bud or a soft tissue are used for blending.

A smooth heavyweight Bristol paper was used for this close-up pencil portrait drawing of two children. This kind of paper helps with fine detailing and allows the pencil to smudge easily when required for a photo-realistic effect. Soft pencils are best for varying tone, as they can produce very dark shades as well as subtle ones. For this drawing, the artist used a Derwent 9B pencil from the "Graphic" range, plus a harder pencil for details. For a less photographic effect, a textured paper may be used.

Above is a high-resolution scan of the finished portrait which took a total of 30 hours including the sizing-up process. Some of the shadows were slightly adjusted to create a balanced effect, and the hand (which was cut off in the photo) was improvised into the picture by the artist to make the portrait's final composition more pleasing.

The artist would like to say "Thank you" to the children's parents for allowing their portrait to be featured!

Click Here to see a colour pencil pet portrait in progress.

Click Here to see a colour pencil portrait in progress.