How To Draw Portraits Step by Step or How To Paint A Portrait In Photoshop

Drawing people is one of the most common practices since the very early ages. Long-time ago people used to do it to immortalize the rich (as they are the only ones who could afford it).

Now, we do it for the fun experience and for the beauty! It is probably the most drawn subject. And the hardest one…

 

For this tutorial, I will use a photograph I found on Sktchy ( an app where people post their photos for artists to draw them).

Let me walk you through my process of How To Draw Portraits Step by Step or How To Paint A Portrait In Photoshop:

 

Step 1: Basic Sketch

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Start off with basic straight lines, then some curves.

The goal of this step is to find the right proportions for the whole figure.

Think about what angle does the line go in from one shoulder to the top of the head, and then to the other shoulder etc.

 

Related Article: “How To Practice Drawing Effectively

Step 2: Fixing Basic Proportions

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When you have the basics figured out – the next step will be to fix them up (still roughly) and add a little more detail.

I’m using Photoshop for this tutorial and I love the ability to work with layers.

Therefore, I keep the 1st rough layer below and turn down the opacity of it to 10-20%. This way I can still see the base, but can easily make adjustments on the new 100% opacity layer.

Related Article: “Getting Started With Figure Drawing – 3 Essential Steps

 

Step 3: Basic Face Line marks

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Our proportions are all set in the right spots, and now it is time to zoom in and focus on the face.

I put the second layer on opacity 10-20% and created a new layer where I’ll be putting down basic landmarks of her face.

I like working in different colors rather than black, which then lets me focus on my main layer rather than the dimmed one.

 

Related Article: “How To Get Better At Drawing From Imagination – A 3 Step Process

Step 4: Linework

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The “blue face marks” layer’s opacity gets lowered as the previous ones and now we get to work on our most refined part – line work.

It doesn’t have to be perfect as we are painting over it, but it has to be correct. Thus, I’m going in and creating pretty neat lines while fixing some minor mistakes I’m noticing.

I also sometimes have basic marks of where the shadows go (as the one on her neck and a bit on her face).

 

Related Article: “Step-by-Step How to Draw People Stylized

Step 5: Basic Colors

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I like working with greyscale and starting from grey rather than white.

The reason for that is that when you are done – the portrait most often than not will be overexposed. But when I start from grey, I can go really dark, and then add white as the most important highlight! Usually, there are not many (a few dots on the lips, nose, eyes and sometimes forehead). Since the original photograph has a black background I keep it at that, but the skin is grey.

Step 6: Basic Values

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On a new layer ( while still keeping the linework layer visible and on top of the new one) I start figuring out the shadows and where the main light source is.

In this case, the light is coming from the top left. Knowing this, I take a big brush and go over the gray color with black on her bottom right, and a light gray (not white) on the top left corner – it’s a good start!

Then repeat that on her face as it is a new surface on its own.

Step 7: Building 3D Forms Through Values Focusing On Skin

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The main focus of the portraits is obviously the face.

If my whole painting will look amazing, but the face won’t – there is no point in even trying (again, it’s just my way of drawing this). That’s why I start off with the most important part first.

I always try to find all the darkest values and apply them at the beginning – don’t be afraid to paint it in pitch black, but don’t overuse it either. Most of the dark spots have a lot of value in them that is just different variations of dark gray.

Then I go on and make my color lighter, lighter and lighter until I reach white. This is a very important step as all the values define how the viewer reads every form – if it’s round, sharp, plain etc.

Step 8: Adding More Values On The Whole Piece

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When I’m 90% happy with the face I focus on the rest of the painting. Some people like focusing on every area equally – and it’s a great way of doing it as you make sure that every area has as much detail as the previous.

However, in my case, the main focus is the face and so I give it most of my painting time.

Step 9: Merging With Background

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Because I previously created a selection and worked within it (as you can see in the speed paint video tutorial I created), my figure stands out sharply from the background.

That’s why I now will create a new layer and take some of the background color and go over the figure to blend them together.

If I do it on every single part it will look blurry, and so I only select some areas – most of the right side and bits and pieces from the left.

Step 10: Adding Finishing Touches

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My favorite part is when the piece truly comes to life.

So in the last step, I add little details here and there – highlights, shadows, little invisible right away lines, hair strands etc.

Details are what makes up the piece! The viewer won’t necessarily notice them, but their subconscious will register those details and make your piece more realistic and interesting 🙂

 

 

So that’s it! And if I want to color this piece it will be so easy! We now have the most important part done (values), so on a new Overlay layer we can play around and plan the colors!

I usually have a few thumbnails that look like this :

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please leave any comments on it below, and share on social media if you found this useful 😉

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Good luck on Your Art Path,
– Your Art Bud ?