The difficulty in drawing an image of a person, including a child, arises for everyone. When drawing a portrait of a child, put your logic aside and draw what you see.
Instructions
Step 1
When drawing a classic child portrait, the first thing to look for is proportion and perspective. The proportions will allow you to make the portrait similar to the original, otherwise too close-set eyes or an elongated face will radically change the portrait and the person will become unrecognizable. In order to maintain proportions, use a pencil. At arm's length, measure any part of the face, such as the nose, and also measure how many times the nose fits from the hairline to the jawline. Set aside the same amount on paper.
Step 2
Contour the face with a soft pencil or charcoal; it should be easy to tweak. The similarity of the drawing with the original will depend on this sketch. The outline should not be too dark.
Step 3
This is followed by work on the hair. Hair is always drawn from top to bottom and also from left to right. Use pencils of different softness to achieve different shades. Do not draw hair longer than the face. If your child has loose hair, use wide strokes. Draw in the dark areas first, and then add highlights. The back highlights are darker, the closer to the front, the lighter the hair. Do not forget that the tones should flow smoothly into each other. There should be no sharp contrast in them.
Step 4
Drawing the face begins by sketching out the lightest areas. These are the forehead, cheeks, tip of the nose, chin and lower lip. Mark with the softest pencil so you can blend it easily. All light areas should be the same shade.
Step 5
Start drawing the eyes from the pupils. They have bright highlights. Around which shadows lie. The secret to success is to make the highlights larger than they are. This will give you more expressiveness. Then shade the area under the upper and above the lower eyelid, because the shadow from it falls on the eye. Do not leave the whites completely white, shade it slightly with graphite H. Do not darken the eyelashes too much or make them straight. This does not happen. Let them lie down randomly.
Step 6
The biggest problem you have when drawing a child's face is drawing the nose. The nose has no clear line. It consists of shadows, penumbra and highlights. Shade the bridge of the nose with the same graphite H. If there is a highlight on the tip, darken the area around slightly. And again, do not forget about the smooth transitions of tones. The nose should not stick out on the face as a separate piece. Work on blurring the boundaries.
Step 7
Outline the jaw line in the darkest tone. Since children often smile, don't forget about the folds around the mouth, which should be darker. Next, paint in shadows from the nose, depending on how the light falls on the face. Lips begin to draw by painting over the upper lip. The darkest strokes are at the corners of the lips. And the upper lip is necessarily darker than the lower one. Apply a shadow under the lower lip.
Step 8
The final chord of your work is drawing the shadows from the chin on the neck, from the hair on the face, and so on.
