As an artist, I sometimes find it useful to see how others make their art. So I thought I would do the same for any of you Whyville artists! Now do not be mistaken, this is not a tutorial on how to draw a portrait, but rather my personal process. Take what you will from it.
Step 1:
When starting a portrait, the first thing I do is sketch the image out to get all my proportions and such in order. I don't try draw lightly during this step, because after I have drawn out my basic sketch, I go with my eraser and erase the entire image until I can only faintly see where the lines were and all the lead is gone. This step is important to me because the medium I usually work in is pencil crayon. If I have any spots of lead left on the paper it will smear when I start to colour.
Step 2:
Next I start to add the color. I analyze my reference picture to see which colors to use in the skin tone. I don't just color the image beige, but there's so many different colors in the skin tone. Blues, greens, yellows, purple . . . it takes a while to pick up on the colors but after a while you tend to get the hang of it. I lay those colors down first somewhat roughly as a base. Afterwards I keep layering the color, and blending using either a clear or a white pencil crayon to give it a perfectly smooth texture.
Step 3:
After I've layered up the skin tone until I'm happy, I start to add in details and then start on the hair. My process with the hair is the same as the skin - layering the color.
Step 4:
After I'm completely satisfied with my drawing I add in a background. I usually use just a solid color as a background color because I like the cartoony aspect of it. The color I choose is based on what will make the drawing itself stand out more. And that's it!
Hope this gave you some more insight into my process.
-ocean10kv
Author's Note: Usually I prefer to draw portraits a little more realistic than this but refrained from that since it is a self portrait and this is Whyville. So I tried to keep it more to a cartoony style for that reason. Also, when I draw portraits I usually choose images that have drastic lighting in them or are super detailed. I chose to draw a very simple portrait for this article so it would be easier for you to follow along and I could simplify my process.
