Christopher Walken Portrait

I love drawing portraits.

There is just something so satisfying about being able to give an inanimate piece of paper a pair of glittering eyes...

It doesn't happen easily though. Portraits make me squirm. Getting all those proportions right, the angles and curves, they all have to be pretty much perfect.

When I draw a portrait I will look at a reference picture and just go from there! I roughly block out an oval with some construction lines and rudimentary feature shapes.

Next I normally get a 6b pencil and pick out all of the darkest notes of the face...pupils and shadows.

Then (and I know my art teacher will be turning in her grave! She always told me not to do this!) I roughly shade over a bulk of the face with a light toned pencil (2b) and blend it smooth with (shock, horror!) a cotton wool pad!

My teacher always said if you have enough skill, you should be able to achieve that same, smooth effect without 'smudging' but I find it saves time and creates a nice even tone to develop texture over. So, screw you lady!
(I kid, she was a great teacher, I was just a bad student!)

I then, slowly and painstakingly study the reference picture and build up areas of light to dark by layering varying shades of pencil. My favourites range from 2b to 6b usually. I might use an 8/9b to cross hatch out larger areas of shadow.

Once I have got everything looking pretty realistic and as close as I think I'm going to get to the ref picture, I go in with a mechanical pencil and pick out all those interesting tiny details that make a human face so beautiful. The imperfections in the iris of the eyes, the fine wrinkles and blemishes on the skin, little wisps of hair.

I like to leave my portraits a little rough around the edges when I've finished. Maybe leave a few scratchy construction lines visible or just smudge out the basic tone of a shirt collar instead of going wild with the detail. I think it just adds a little charm!

I hope you all find this interesting/helpful!? Portraits are hard things to master and I still have a long way to go but just thought I would share with you what I have learned so far in the hope I might help someone else!

Until next time, adieu.