More Portrait Practice Sketches

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date November 13, 2020
5 Comments on More Portrait Practice Sketches

Sketch of Michelle from Sktchy, graphite, 12x9" — Sketch of Michelle from Sktchy, graphite, 12×9″

Sketch of Tajh G from Sktchy, graphite, 12x9" — Sketch of Tajh G from Sktchy, graphite, 12×9″

Sketch #2 of TJ from Sktchy — Sketch #3 of TJ Smith from Sktchy, graphite, 12×9″

Sketch #1 of TJ Smith from Sktchy, graphite, 12x9" — Sketch #1 of TJ Smith from Sktchy, graphite, 12×9″

These are more of my portrait sketches from the Drawing the Head class I took last summer (doesn’t summer seem so long ago?!) I discovered that starting over is easier than correcting bad starts so I sketched most of them more than once. TJ Smith’s sketch took three tries until I felt like I captured what struck me as his very pleasant expression.

I always like to see how artists interpret their subjects. If you’re like me and want to see the reference photos, just click their names below their images to either go to my Sktchy page (if you have the Sktchy app) or to Sktchy on the web. Then click (PC) or swipe (mobile) my sketch to reveal the reference photo below it.

Tags graphite, Portrait drawing, Sketch, Sktchy

5 replies on “More Portrait Practice Sketches”

Looking great! Don’t be afraid to push the values a bit darker on the face to further round the form. Your improvement is astounding from a year ago!

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Hi Chris! Thanks so much! My goal in this project is to practice head construction more than it is to do fully rendered portraits in pencil. I’m trying to get to unconscious competence–I think you know that scale of learning: 1) Unconscious incompetence; 2) Conscious Incompetence; 3) Conscious Competence; 4) Unconscious Competence. I think I’ve moved from 2 to the beginnings of 3.

I want the process of seeing a person and drawing them to happen naturally. I know these are only half-baked but once I feel more fluent with the head construction process, then I’ll focus again on building form with values and color, but with paint rather than graphite. I know you are a master of value and form and create beautifully shaded graphite drawings but doing lots of shading in pencil doesn’t really appeal to me. Maybe I’m just too lazy. 😁

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