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Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - The Complete Arabesque

Published by Remi | January 4th 2009 | Views:

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Presuppose that we have a profile where the skull, arm, and fingers are visible and are in contact. Very often, the beginning artist will attempt to sketch each of these elements one by one. The approach will always lead to frustration and ultimately often to failure.

Instead of sketching each element one by one, the first step in your sketching should be to draw the "entire" arabesque, i.e., the entire outline of the figure. The entire arabesque which includes parts other than the skull (in this case the skull, fingers, and arms) is called the "construct".

For the beginner it is best to reduce the construct to its simplest shape thereby ignoring all the details such as the bumps in the fingers and the hair. With practice, you will be able to add all these bumps without much trouble as you go along.

A good construct (also known as a complete arabesque) also contains a singular gestural cadence that subordinates all details. In other words, this rhythmic gesture exists free of the details.

When you are sketching a single entity or skull the examination of the height/width sizing is rather straightforward. As a universal rule the width of the skull is checked against its length using the base of the chin as the primary landmark.

If, for some reason the chin is conceiled (e.g., behind the arm or fingers), an other landmark must be found. The arm, the jaw, or the lines of the fingers are excellent placeuct is correctly sketched you can continue to block-in the primary light/dark pattern and take your first tentative stab at sketching the facial area, i.e., the placing of the brow, the eyes, the nose and the mouth. Again, if the usual landmarks for those items can for some reason not be used you should be creative enough to determine appropriate substitutes.

Keep blocking-in all items as soon as you sketch them. This includes the fingers, arms, and hair if any of them are noticeable in the given profile you are sketching. Remember to always work from the general to the specific.

Also, be sure to use a sharp pencil, take into account your understanding of anatomy, and always look for mistakes and, of course, correct them.

Next, the pencil portrait drawing must now be worked-up tonally by cross-hatching with 8B, 2H, and 4H pencils, by blening the graphite with your fingers or a stump, and by using your putty eraser to characterize the lights. All this should be done in a sculpturally manner.

Finally, you can settle how much details you want to put into your drawing or how unfinished you may leave the drawing. For example, you can leave some parts of the fingers or the arm unfinished. Or, if you want to stress a certain region of the portrait, you can add munitia in that region and leave the other regions slightly unfinished.

These are several of many considerations that go into sketching a more complex portrait that has a complete arabesque. One significant thing to remember is to sketch the construct first so you do not end up sketching one item after another without preserving cohesion. Following these rules will surely put you on the right path of sketching more complex portraits.
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