A pencil portrait drawing from life starts with the “striking” of the arabesque. Striking the arabesque means sketching the outer contour of the skull with the accurate proportions, shape, and theaccurate symmetry.

Once you have drawn a reasonably accurate arabesque it is time to position the main landmarks of the skull. That means that we will correctly position the most essential places of the skull. These places will then be used as references for mapping out the rest of the skull features.

Here is something that may assist you with this task: work with your eyes to some extent out-of-focus. This is called observing with a “soft eye”. Somehow this makes it easier to correctly resolve shapes and sizes. It also aids you with suppressing the set notions we all have of certain objects.

Let us imagine that we are working from a 3/4 skull pose.

* The Brow Ridge - is the first important landmark. To place the brow ridge you must first take your best estimate at where you think it is and only then check it by sighting.

Note that to train your eyes it is better to first estimate distances, angles, etc. and check them later. There is nothing to gain from pre- sizing.

Sighting means to use your pencil with locked arm and marking distances along the pencil with your thumb and index finger and one eye closed.

So then, first sight from the bottom of the chin to a point on the brow ridge (just choose an random point on the ridge. But once chosen you should hold on to it.

Now raise your pencil so that your thumb is on your point on the brow ridge and make note of where your pencil point is. It should be a small distance above the top of the skull. Mark on your drawing where you can best place that spot above the skull. This point is called the “check-point”.

Note that whenever there is a choice, you should always measure the shortest distance because doing so tends to be more accurate.

Your point on the brow ridge should, if it was placed correctly, be exactly halfway between the bottom of the chin and your check-point. If it is not – then improve the placement of your brow ridge.

* Jaw Hinge - Now you can tag the width of the head. In the 3/4 pose the hinge of the jaw is an essential landmark. Again, take your best estimate then check by sighting horizontally from the hinge of the jaw to the far edge of the cheek bone and vertically relating that measure from the bottom of the chin.

* Top Nose Bone - Since we have already positioned the brow ridge we now only have to guess a small length to fix the top of the nose bone. If you placed the hinge of the jaw correctly, it should equal the length from the bottom of the chin to the nose bone. If you are off a bit, then correct the placement of the hinge of the jaw. Again, imagine that the shortest distance estimated is the accurate one.

Now that these principal landmarks are positioned you can continue drawing the arabesque. I find it best to further resolve only the back, less, part of the skull at this early point.

* Facial Angle - Finally, you need to position the facial angle which is the center line of the face. Draw a slightly bending line from the middle of the mental tubercle up to the center of the brow ridge.

The positioning of the facial angle is very important. You have to feel your way through this as there is no way to rightly measure it.

Once the facial angle is positioned continue drawing the arabesque carefully observing the shape of the mouth region, the forehead, and all the other features that are articulated in the shape of the arabesque.

With this, we have positioned all the basic landmarks that will help us with the mapping of the rest of the features such as the nose and ears.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: portrait drawing tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert sketching teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.

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Posted in: Drawing Tips | | January 2009