The Practical Guide to Drawing Portraits
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About this ebook
Barrington Barber
Born 1934, Barrington was educated at Hampton Grammar School and later Twickenham Art Schoo for which he received a National Diploma of Design. He then practised as an illustrator (Saxon Artist) and Graphic Designer, was Art Director at Ogilvie & Mather and S.H. Bensons, and was a lecturer in Graphic Design at Ealing Art School. Other credits include freelance work, designer, illustrator, animator and painter at Augustine Studios. He was awarded a one man exhibition in 2000 at St. Oswald Studios, and also exhibited in Putney in 2003 and Cork Street in 2004. He was Head of Art at St James's Independent Schools. He now paints, draws, writes about art, and enjoys sports, walking, philosophy and meditation.
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The Practical Guide to Drawing Portraits - Barrington Barber
INTRODUCTION
What is a portrait? It is said that Picasso produced a Cubist portrait of a friend and when this was shown to Matisse he could not identify the person. Picasso then stuck a moustache on to the picture and Matisse could immediately see the likeness. This story exemplifies a fundamental aspect of portraiture: no matter how far from an exact likeness a drawing may be, it must contain some recognizable form of the person. In order to capture this you will need to spend a lot of time in direct observation, noting the particular image of a human being that your subject represents.
How much you should flatter or be brutally honest with your subject when drawing is a perennial question. If they, like Cromwell, want a portrait ‘warts and all’ then the more objective you can be the better. However, very few people are honest enough about their own appearance to be able to live with the consequences of this approach, and so most portrait artists try to give the best possible view of the sitter. This may mean altering the light effects, changing the position of the head slightly, getting the sitter to relax, and employing other small ways of helping to ease tension out of the face and bring some agreeable element into prominence. Fortunately, most people have some good feature that can be the focal point of a portrait, allowing the artist to slightly reduce the importance of a tense mouth, a weak chin or rather protruding ears or nose. The ravages of time have also to be taken into account, although lines, creases or sagging flesh can be slightly softened to give a more acceptable version which is still recognizable.
Throughout this book you will find a range of approaches and valuable lessons to absorb and learn from. There isn’t a portrait in the pages that follow that can’t teach us something about the way to approach depicting the features of your friends, family, acquaintances and even complete strangers. What I hope you will also come to realize is that although the measurable differences between all the faces portrayed are really very minute, the appearances are immensely varied. The human face has an extraordinary ability to show a whole range of expressions and emotions. It is this facility which artists have striven for generations to explore in myriad ways.
What comes out of this exploration does, of course, depend on the skill of the artist. The only way to reach the level of skill required to produce good portraits is to practise drawing. The more you practise, the better you will get. If you can’t regularly practise drawing faces, any type of drawing is a valid way to increase your skills. Change the situation, the lighting and the surroundings and you will have a different portrait. This is why so many artists find portraiture endlessly fascinating. There really is no limit to the possibilities for expression it offers.
Materials
Any medium is valid for drawing portraits. That said, some media are more valid than others in particular circumstances, and in the main their suitability depends on what you are trying to achieve. You don’t need to buy all the items listed below, and it is probably wise to experiment gradually, as you gain in confidence. Start with the range of pencils suggested, and when