How To Draw A Pencil Portrait

Yes, You Can Draw Pencil A Portrait

Believe it or not, many people don’t know what a pencil portrait is. It’s true! How do I know? Because not too long ago, I was one of them. I wouldn’t have given these delightful works a second thought, let alone learned how to draw a pencil portrait.

Oh sure, I’d seen them. I’d been to the mall. I’d noticed those black and white portraits of celebrities. I even used to own one. But I was dense enough about any type of art that I had no idea how the portrait had been created. If you had asked me, I probably would have said it was made with a computer! That fact that you have to actually draw a pencil portrait by hand just didn’t register.

It wasn’t till a couple of years ago that I began dating a woman who told me at one point that she liked to draw. At the time, my mind immediately went back to the game my sister and I used to play on rainy days. She’d name something and I’d have to draw it.

A couple of months later, she said she had some pencil portraits of me and she asked if I’d mind sitting for one. I was flabbergasted when she brought out 4 or 5 pencil drawings of my face. They were so real. So lifelike! Absolutely nothing like what my sister and I used to draw.

I was so impressed that she had actually drawn these with just a pencil. How was that possible? I ended up sitting for her many times. Eventually, I started to wonder if I could draw a pencil portrait myself. After all, I really enjoyed drawing for my sister all those years ago…

I did a little research online and found lots of tutorials. I learned the basics of drawing a human face. Pretty soon, I was drawing from everything. Magazines, photos; I’d draw anyone. I got to where I could draw a pencil portrait from memory of most people that I knew.

Eventually I could draw a pencil portrait well enough that anyone looking at it could identify the person I was drawing, if they knew the subject personally.

I liked this a lot! But the free tutorials I found online were limited in what they could teach me. It was all very mechanical. I wanted more.

So, I did some more online searching and finally chose a program that I believed would teach me to draw a pencil portrait better. And it did. It gave me the education I needed to draw realistic pe

How not to draw a pencil portrait!

ople the way I wanted to. I even gained enough confidence to ask my girlfriend to sit for me the way I had sat for her.

Unfortunately, we’ve long since broken up. But I’ll always be grateful to her for opening up the wonderful world of drawing pencil portraits to me. She gave me something I didn’t even realize was missing from my life.

If you have a budding artist inside of you, try to draw a pencil portrait. It may just open up something indescribable inside of you. Find yourself an online tutorial. Trust me, they are more informative than you may think.