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Product Description
Achieving a likeness in portrait requires close coordination of the hand and eye; Douglas Graves, a professional portraitist, has developed this basic premise into a functional technique. He describes portraiture as an evolving process: observing the basic surface shapes, discovering how these features deviate from the symmetrical ideal, envisioning the underlying human anatomy, interpreting the sitter's personality, then conveying all this with a direct medium in a tonal drawing.
Mr. Graves begins with a list and discussion of the necessary materials--compressed and vine charcoal, chalk, Conte, graphite pencils, papers, erasers, and fixative. He next focuses on the single most important element of the portrait--the sitter's head. He examines the overall bone structure of the head, it's proportions and planes, and the structure of the individual features--the eye, nose, neck, ear, and mouth. Of course, portraiture often includes the hands, and so Mr. Graves devotes another chapter to the bone structure, muscle, and proportions of the hands. In subsequent chapters, he considers common portraiture problems: lighting the sitter, reflections and shadows, composing the portrait with one or more figures, the most effective views of the head, and positioning the head and the hands in relation to each other and to the body.
After these preliminary instructions, Mr. Graves proceeds to analyze and illustrate how to actually draw the individual elements of the portrait. Eight projects offer step-by-step demonstrations of front, side, and three-quarter views of the eye, nose, mouth, ear, and hand. Also included are demonstrations of drawing a plaster cast of the head, the torso and arm with drapery, and various hair textures and colors.
In the succeeding ten projects, Mr. Graves develops complete portraits, demonstrating his technique step by step. He covers a wide range of subjects and media: a woman, child, and man in charcoal; a woman, teenager, and older man in pencil; a woman and man in chalk; a mother and child, and a full family group in Conte. Mr. Graves also supplements his technical instructions with some advice about drawing from photographs, using unusual or offbeat poses, and the question of flattery.
"Drawing Portraits" is simply yet engagingly written, with over 260 black and white illustrations. Artists, beginning and advanced students, and teachers will find Mr. Graves' technique of portraiture clearly and logically presented and a solid basis for developing a personal style.
Mr. Graves begins with a list and discussion of the necessary materials--compressed and vine charcoal, chalk, Conte, graphite pencils, papers, erasers, and fixative. He next focuses on the single most important element of the portrait--the sitter's head. He examines the overall bone structure of the head, it's proportions and planes, and the structure of the individual features--the eye, nose, neck, ear, and mouth. Of course, portraiture often includes the hands, and so Mr. Graves devotes another chapter to the bone structure, muscle, and proportions of the hands. In subsequent chapters, he considers common portraiture problems: lighting the sitter, reflections and shadows, composing the portrait with one or more figures, the most effective views of the head, and positioning the head and the hands in relation to each other and to the body.
After these preliminary instructions, Mr. Graves proceeds to analyze and illustrate how to actually draw the individual elements of the portrait. Eight projects offer step-by-step demonstrations of front, side, and three-quarter views of the eye, nose, mouth, ear, and hand. Also included are demonstrations of drawing a plaster cast of the head, the torso and arm with drapery, and various hair textures and colors.
In the succeeding ten projects, Mr. Graves develops complete portraits, demonstrating his technique step by step. He covers a wide range of subjects and media: a woman, child, and man in charcoal; a woman, teenager, and older man in pencil; a woman and man in chalk; a mother and child, and a full family group in Conte. Mr. Graves also supplements his technical instructions with some advice about drawing from photographs, using unusual or offbeat poses, and the question of flattery.
"Drawing Portraits" is simply yet engagingly written, with over 260 black and white illustrations. Artists, beginning and advanced students, and teachers will find Mr. Graves' technique of portraiture clearly and logically presented and a solid basis for developing a personal style.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
There's a tremendous variety of interesting materials you can use to draw portraits. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
There's a tremendous variety of interesting materials you can use to draw portraits. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a beginner at art I bought several do-it-yourself books, including this one and its companion book by Mr. Graves, "Drawing a Likeness". The approach in these books is to analyze the subjects face and to proceed step by step to the finished portrait, a lengthy process. Then I discovered the books by Lee Hammond, in particular, "How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs". She shows how to go directly from the photograph to the drawing. Her technique is to first get an accurate line drawing from the photograph, using the grid method. (I cheated and used direct tracing, which is even faster and more accurate.) Then the tones are blocked into the shapes represented by the line drawing, typically using a gray scale of about 5 values including black and white. This is done using just one pencil- a mechanical pencil with a .5 mm lead. Then, and most importantly, the tones are blended with a tortillon. This produces a very lifelike drawing. There is no need to analyze the face and resort to lengthy iterations, as described in Graves. Also, I prefer the more realistic results of Hammond's blending technique over most of Graves portraits, which have a sketchy quality.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
48 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Excellent in many ways
27 Jun 2001
Format:Paperback
Graves uses the traditional method of breaking the face down into its components. He provides illustrations of how to draw each feature from frontal, half profile, and profile views. He is particularly good on the mouth and lips (seven pages are devoted to the subject), with the lips under the influence of varying emotions. His discussion of the hands (17 pages) is detailed and will teach more than I have so far had the time to absorb. His fewer pages on the ear and eyes are also good. The brief sections on composition are good, although I wish they were longer. Not so good on hair. All in all, I would recommend it to the serious student. I don't think any single book could teach all you may want to know, but this book will certainly add to your knowledge.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A Great Refresher
8 Feb 2007
Format:Paperback
This book was an excellent refresher for me, relearning how to draw after a thirty-five year hiatus. An instructor of a portraiture course I recently completed led me to the book, and it was a very strong guide in my return to portrait sketching.
- Marty
- Marty
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Good resource book
9 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book shows how to draw features really well. It is a drawing book and he describes pencil or charcoal drawing techniques. Since I am a painter I would like to have had some of the features shown with brush strokes.
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