Learning Objectives:
• To learn measuring techniques to improve proportions
• To improve your ability to identify shapes when drawing portraits
• To make appropriate changes to improve your work as it develops
• To improve your ability to identify shapes when drawing portraits
• To make appropriate changes to improve your work as it develops
Your task:
Begin your final piece by choosing one of the images below and then measuring your initial outlines by following the tutorial below.
What you will need:
Sketching paper (or your sketchbook), a soft pencil (preferably 2B or 4B), eraser, blending stump (or cotton bud) and a pencil sharpener.
Get an image: Famous Artists
Before you can start your final piece, you need an image to draw. This year we are going to draw portraits of famous artists. Some of them you may have heard of, but many of them you won't.
Email Mr Lax to find out which image you will be using, if you don't know already.
Tutorial:
Follow this video tutorial closely to learn a useful measuring technique for drawing really accurate portraits.
Printing the photo:
Ideally you will print the photo in black and white exactly the same size as your drawing. However, if you do not have access to a printer, you will need to enlarge the image on your computer screen or iPad and measure from there.
Tips:
• Measure carefully and if in doubt, measure again... and again.
• Trust the measurements - don't change your proportions when you don't believe them!
• Draw your guidelines as lightly as possible to make it easier to erase them later on
• If the person's head is at an angle, so will be your guidelines. Just make sure your lines are in exactly the same place on the photo as on the page.
• You can measure diagonally so long as you hold your ruler at the same angle between the photo and the drawing.
• Don't be tempted to add any shading or too much detail until you are completely sure your outlines are correct. It would be frustrating having to erase a finished section of your drawing if you discover it was in the wrong place later on.
• Trust the measurements - don't change your proportions when you don't believe them!
• Draw your guidelines as lightly as possible to make it easier to erase them later on
• If the person's head is at an angle, so will be your guidelines. Just make sure your lines are in exactly the same place on the photo as on the page.
• You can measure diagonally so long as you hold your ruler at the same angle between the photo and the drawing.
• Don't be tempted to add any shading or too much detail until you are completely sure your outlines are correct. It would be frustrating having to erase a finished section of your drawing if you discover it was in the wrong place later on.
Examples of previous students' drawings:
What have each of these students done well in their drawings and what might they have improved on?
'Children who have changed the world' (2021):
'Refugee Portraits' (2022):
