Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Sketching - Working With Strong Lights and Shadows

Value is one of the most difficult elements of portraiture. Most artists are very hesitant about value and do not push the darks far enough. This is often because:

1. Their eyes are not yet taught to see the delicate gradations.

2. The fear of messing up a sketch.

Beginning artists can see big lights and big darks and half-tones easily enough but it takes eye-training to see the finer gradations in tone.

In this expose we will focus on the interplay of strong unconventional lights and darks that are thrown upon the subject's head, i.e., light-dappled patterns.

As always, we first draw the arabesque and establish the facial features (brow line and base of the nose).

When dealing with a intricate value pattern the primary objective is looking to simplify the patterns. Sketching, in general, is always an exercise in simplification, i.e., making choices.

The next step is that of hatching-in the overall dark/light pattern with single tones. At this time do not yet refine the values because doing so will surely lead to disappointment.

Using a paper or your fingers, stump down the pencil dust. If you use a paper stump be careful not to dull the tones. The lights can be added, improved, and refined with your kneaded eraser.

The facial area and the hair are now carefully drawn in.
Keep these structural lines very soft. Also, continue constructing the value shapes|forms keeping in mind that, except for the sun-dappled pattern, the value must be kept down, i.e., nothing in the shadows must pop out.

This is a delicate balancing act. Value must be added and then delicately modeled and/or removed. This is an exercise in going back and forth.

Also, do not be tempted to finish the facial features but be sure that the likeness is already evident and that the sizes are correct. That is, at this time, your sketch should look like an under-painting.

Like color, value is affected by the surrounding tone. You can see, for instance, that once the hair is hatched-in and somewhat refined that the facial area now looks lighter than before.

Next, you can return to the facial area and break down the big value masses into their various shapes and relationships by employing blending, stumping and delicate eraser work.

The test with dappled light is to render the delicate patterns while still keeping a smooth whole. As a general rule, cast shadows have hard edges while shape shadows have soft edges of varying degrees. When using a stump, you should hardly tap the paper. This allows you to maintain the small lights that bounce off the paper thereby keeping the image alive and vibrating with light.

To produce the most delicate tones utilize the blackest, hardest pieces of kneaded eraser you can find.

As is the case with the facial area, the values of the hair must be subordinated to the overall light and must harmonize with the face both physically and emotionally.

Finally, at this time you can leave the sketch as is or you can push it further by adding more detail. That is an aesthetic decision left to you.

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Download my brand new Free Pencil Portrait Drawing Tutorial here: www.remipencilportraits.com/PPDT/pencil-portrait-tutorial.html target="_blank">Pencil Portrait Drawing Tutorial. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait draftsman and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Tips on Pencil Portrait Sketching - Using Strong Illumination and Shadows.

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